The uptake from fresh water and subsequent clearance of a vanadium burden by the common eel (Anguilla anguilla)

The uptake of 48V vanadium from a solution of 10(-5) M 48V-orthovanadate by fresh-water elvers and the subsequent depletion of the vanadium burden was studied. At the end of the 8-week loading period, the levels of 48V were still increasing in the liver, kidney, bone and carcase. The uptake rate for the whole fish over the 8-week period was 760 pg atom/h/100 g body wt and the depletion rate over the following 5 weeks in clean water was about one tenth of this. Liver contained the highest amount of 48V at the end of the 8-week loading period, calculated as equivalent to 1.1 x 10(-4) g atom V/kg wet wt, and this level was unchanged at the end of the 5-week depletion period. Less than 1% of the carcase 48V was present in the fraction of MW under 2000.