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Seasonal and spatial comparison of metallothioneins in frog Rana ridibunda from feral populations

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to elucidate the seasonal and spatial regularity of the properties of metallothioneins (MTs) from the liver and kidney of the frog Rana ridibunda in rural (R) and urban (U) sites in Western Ukraine. This allowed examination of their possibility use in biomonitoring of environmental quality. The positive correlation for Zn and negative correlation for Cu were reflected between their content in the liver and MTs. The content of MTs was higher in summer compared to other seasons and also at the U site compare to the R site. MTs had been comprised of two chromatographic forms (MT-1 and MT-2/MT-2a), with lesser and variable MT-2/2a in frogs from the U site, particularly in the kidney. MTs accumulated about 75% of Cd in the liver. In summary, the ability MTs to elevate content as a stress response, together with the sensitivity of MT-2, may be explored to understand the health status of the frog in each season, reflecting the higher overall anthropogenic impact at the U site.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been granted by Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (Ukrainian-Greece scientific and technical cooperation joint Project #M-65/2006) and partly supported by West-Ukrainian BioMedical Research Center. The authors wish to thank Dr N. S. Loumbourdis for commenting and Dr P. Spearpoint for the linguistic and phraseological improvement of manuscript. The authors are grateful to Post graduated students O. G. Bazan, M. M. Guzik for animal collection.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Ternopil National Pedagogical University, M. Kryvonosa Str. 2, Ternopil, 46027, Ukraine

    Halina I. Falfushynska, Liliya D. Romanchuk & Oksana B. Stolyar

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  1. Halina I. Falfushynska
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  2. Liliya D. Romanchuk
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  3. Oksana B. Stolyar
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Correspondence to Oksana B. Stolyar.

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Falfushynska, H.I., Romanchuk, L.D. & Stolyar, O.B. Seasonal and spatial comparison of metallothioneins in frog Rana ridibunda from feral populations. Ecotoxicology 17, 781–788 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-008-0229-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-008-0229-6

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