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Assessment of whole body ALA-D concentrations in juvenile rainbow trout: Methods development

Conference ·
OSTI ID:218431
;  [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin, La Crosse, WI (United States)
  2. National Biological Service, La Crosse, WI (United States)
Activity of delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALA-D) is an important biomarker of environmental lead contamination of fish. ALA-D may predict lead exposure more accurately than analysis of lead concentrations in water because current methods cannot differentiate between total and biologically-available lead. Measurements of fish ALA-D activity have typically been made on blood but decreased ALA-D activity also occurs in the liver, kidney, and spleen. Juvenile fish are typically more sensitive to lead than adult fish, but ALA-D analysis of blood and individual organs is difficult due to their small size. The authors developed a method to measure ALA-D activity on the supernatant of a tissue homogenate from whole fish (rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss). ALA-D activity was standardized to protein concentration of the supernatant from the homogenate. Protein concentration was determined by a spectrophotometric dye-binding procedure with bovine serum albumin as a standard.
OSTI ID:
218431
Report Number(s):
CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English