Investigation of essential and non-essential elements and mercury speciation in tissues of crabs dietary exposed to mercury species with/without selenium by using liquid chromatographic and mass spectrometry

• Grant number: 13/00403-8
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): September 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry
• Principal researcher: Solange Cadore
• Grantee: Daiane Placido Torres
• Home Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present work aims to evaluate the distribution of essential and non-essential elements as well as mercury speciation and its molecular environment in the tissues of crabs dietary exposed to inorganic mercury or methylmercury with or without co-exposure to selenium. The experiments for the crabs exposures were accomplished during the period of Doctoral Sandwich of Daiane Placido Torres, from October 2011 to September 2012, in TESLA group, at University of Aberdeen (Scotland), supervised by Doctor Eva M. Krupp and Professor Jörg Feldmann. In this period the analyses of all tissues collected from the dissection of the crabs from the exposures were completed, for the determination of total Hg by CV AFS and Se by HR-ICP-MS. Rb, Cd, Ba, Pb, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and As were also measured by HR-ICP-MS. The accumulation of Hg and the Hg-Se interactions in the hepatopancreas, heart and muscle of the crabs were highly significant for the exposures to Hg species without co-exposure to Se. Thus, the dietary exposure to Se played a very important role against the toxicity of the Hg species investigated. In this context, one part of the work will be performed in GEAtom laboratory, Institute of Chemistry, Unicamp, aiming to accomplish the statistical treatment of the data obtained for essential and non-essential elements by HR-ICP-MS. As regards the investigation of Hg biomolecules and species, a second milestone of the proposed research, once the equipments are not available in GEAtom laboratory, the measurements shall be executed in TESLA group, considering that Doctor Krupp and Professor Feldmann laid their laboratory at our disposal. For these investigations, a period of three months in TESLA group will be necessary.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

TORRES, DAIANE PLACIDO; CADORE, SOLANGE; RAAB, ANDREA; FELDMANN, JOERG; KRUPP, EVA M. Evaluation of dietary exposure of crabs to inorganic mercury or methylmercury, with or without co-exposure to selenium. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, v. 29, n. 7, p. 1273-1281, 2014. Web of Science Citations: 6.