Interactions among contaminants and nutritional lipids during mobilization by digestive fluids of marine...

Coastal sediments contain complex mixtures of hydrophobic compounds including organic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and biogenic compounds such as cholesterol and phospholipids. Within the guts of benthic invertebrates, these mixtures are subjected to digestive, chemical conditions that can be rich in surfactants and proteinaceous material. Using in vitro incubations as proxy for digestive exposure, we studied the solubilization of binary mixtures of nutritional and contaminant lipids into artificial seawater and six marine invertebrate gut fluids (Molpadia intermedia, Cucumaria frondosa, Arenicola marina, Arenicola brasiliensis, Parastichopus californicus, and Nereis virens). For animals with surfactant micelles or high protein concentrations, solubilization interactions were frequent. For example, in Arenicola marina gut fluid, benzo(a)pyrene enhanced the solubilization of hexadecane (491% of the compound alone) and palmitic acid (130%) but hindered cholesterol (83%). Benzo(a)pyrene concentrations increased in gut fluids in the presence of cholesterol (137% of BaP alone), phenanthrene (154%), lecithin (140%), and hexadecanol (232%). In A. marina gut fluid, dilution with seawater indicated that these enhancements occur only when micelles are present. Sediment-water partitioning models, used to predict the bioavailability of hydrophobic organic chemicals, do not account for such interactions between solubilizates (compounds solubilized in micelles). However, for animals exposed via a digestive tract containing micelles or high protein concentrations, digestive bioavailability and perhaps bioaccumulation are likely influenced by these interactions.