Trace element speciation in largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides) from a fly ash settling basin by liquid...

Analytical techniques used to examine the chemical speciation of multiple trace elements are important for the investigation of biological systems. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled to ICP-MS was used to investigate the speciation of Se, As, Cu, Cd and Zn in tissue extracts from a largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) collected from a coal fly ash basin and results were compared to a largemouth bass collected at a reference site. Using a Biosil SEC column, with an effective separation range of 100-7 KDa, Cu, Zn and Cd were shown to be bound to metallothionein (MT) in the liver, gill and, to a lesser extent, gonad tissue extract. In liver, muscle and gill of the ash basin bass, Se was predominantly present as low molecular weight species. Only in the gonad extract was the major fraction of Se associated with high molecular weight species. For the liver and gill extracts, further SEC-ICP-MS on a column with an effective separation range of 7000-500 Da was performed, but Se species still eluted near the total volume of the column suggesting a low molecular weight organic or inorganic species. Ion chromatography (IC)-ICP-MS using an AS7 column and HNO(3) gradient elution indicated that the Se and As species in the liver and gill extracts had similar retention times but these retention times did not correspond to retention times for As(III), As(V), dimethylarsenate, arsenobetaine, Se(IV), Se(VI), seleno-methionine, or seleno-cystine.