@article {275,
	title = {Emerging investigator series: nontargeted screening of aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonists in endangered beluga whales from the St. Lawrence Estuary: beyond legacy contaminants.},
	journal = {Environ Sci Process Impacts},
	volume = {26},
	year = {2024},
	month = {2024 Sep 18},
	pages = {1451-1464},
	abstract = {<p>The elevated concentrations of organohalogen contaminants in the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) belugas have prompted the hypothesis that aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activity may be a contributor towards their potential adverse effects. While indirect associations between AhR and contaminant levels have been reported in SLE beluga tissues, AhR activity was never directly measured. Using bioassays and nontargeted analysis, this study contrasted AhR activity and agonist profiles between pooled tissue extracts of endangered SLE and non-threatened Arctic belugas. Tissue extracts of SLE belugas exhibited significantly higher overall AhR activity than that of Arctic belugas, with a 2000s SLE beluga liver extract exerting significantly higher activity than blubber extracts of SLE and Arctic belugas from the same time period. Contrary to our expectations, well-known AhR agonists detected by nontargeted analysis, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), were only minor contributors to the observed AhR activity. Instead, Tox21 suspect screening identified more polar chemicals, such as dyes and natural indoles, as potential contributors. Notably, the natural product bromoindole was selectively detected in SLE beluga liver at high abundance and was further confirmed as an AhR agonist. These findings highlighted the significance of the AhR-mediated toxicity pathway in belugas and underscored the importance of novel AhR agonists, particularly polar compounds, in its induction.</p>},
	keywords = {Animals, Beluga Whale, Endangered Species, Environmental Monitoring, Estuaries, Liver, Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon, Water Pollutants, Chemical},
	issn = {2050-7895},
	doi = {10.1039/d4em00243a},
	author = {Barrett, Holly and Sun, Jianxian and Chen, Yuhao and Yang, Diwen and Verreault, Jonathan and Houde, Magali and Wania, Frank and Peng, Hui}
}
@article {109,
	title = {Temporal trends of polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and perfluorinated compounds in Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) eggs (1984-2008).},
	journal = {Environ Sci Technol},
	volume = {49},
	year = {2015},
	month = {2015 Feb 03},
	pages = {1621-30},
	abstract = {<p>Because investigation on the temporal trends of persistent halogenated compounds (PHCs) is necessary to predict their future impacts on the environment and human health and evaluate the effectiveness of regulations on their production and usage, it is of concern to investigate annual temporal trends of PHCs in biota samples. This study examined the temporal trends of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) eggs over a period of 25 years (1984-2008), and 62 PCBs (19.2-1030 ng/g dw for total PCBs), 16 PBDEs (4.7-572 ng/g dw for total PBDEs), and 14 PFCs (26-46 ng/g dw for total PFCs) were detected. Although a decreasing temporal trend was observed for total PCBs with annual reduction rate of 3.4\% (ρ = 0.005), a clear break point was observed around 1991, indicating their continuing emission in the 1980s in China. All major PBDEs showed increasing temporal trends, with annual change rates at 3.5-10.2\% over the 25 years, but a sharp decreasing trend was observed after 2006, indicating a rapid response to the banning of PBDE usage in China in 2004. The greatest annual rate of increase was observed for BDE-28 (10.2\%) followed by BDE-100 (7.7\%), which would be due to metabolism input from higher brominated PBDEs. Significantly increasing temporal trends were observed for all PFCs, and the annual rates of increase were 7.9\% and 5.9\% for total perfluorinated carboxylic acids and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), respectively. A peak concentration for PFOS was observed in 1989, which may be related to the import history of PFCs in China. The present study is the first report of systematic temporal trends of PHCs in biota samples from China and shows that regulatory policy is needed to reduce their potential health and ecological risk in China considering the increasing temporal trends of PBDEs and PFCs.</p>},
	keywords = {Animals, China, Environmental Monitoring, Fishes, Fluorocarbons, Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Ovum, Polybrominated Biphenyls, Polychlorinated Biphenyls},
	issn = {1520-5851},
	doi = {10.1021/es505378b},
	author = {Jianxian, Sun and Hui, Peng and Jianying, Hu}
}
