Fish bile as a biomarker for metal exposure

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Ecotoxicology

Background:

• Metals accumulate in fish tissues, but biliary excretion is a recognized elimination pathway.
• Metal contamination alters bile composition, suggesting its potential for biomonitoring.
• Bile offers advantages as a sample matrix due to ease of collection and simpler chemical pre-treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the utility of fish bile as a biomonitoring tool for trace element contamination.
• To determine and correlate trace element concentrations in fish liver and bile.
• To assess if Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) can substitute liver analysis with bile analysis for trace element quantification.

Main Methods:

• Determination of trace element concentrations in fish liver and bile samples.
• Correlation analysis between trace element levels in liver and bile.
• Application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to evaluate substitution potential of bile analysis for liver analysis.

Main Results:

• Significant correlations were found between trace element concentrations in fish bile and liver.
• The ANN model validated the hypothesis that bile analysis can substitute liver analysis for certain trace elements.
• Bile emerges as a promising alternative matrix for assessing metal contamination in fish.

Conclusions:

• Fish bile is a viable and potentially more accessible biomarker for assessing trace element contamination.
• Further research is recommended to fully validate biliary trace element analysis as a standard biomonitoring technique.
• This study supports the use of bile for environmental monitoring of metal pollution in aquatic ecosystems.