title: Laboratory simulation of a mining accident: acute toxicity, hsc/hsp70 response, and recovery from stress in Gammarus fossarum (Crustacea, Amphipoda) exposed to a pulse of cadmium.
abstract: The rate of survival and stress protein (hsc/hsp70) response were investigated in the freshwater amphipod, Gammarus fossarum Koch, 1835, during a 20-day stress and recovery experiment. Adult females and males, were separately exposed to 9 different cadmium concentrations for 5 days to simulate a short-term pulse of xenobiotics in an aquatic environment, followed by a recovery period of 15 days. In terms of mortality, females were much more sensitive to cadmium than males; 4.28 +/- 2.45 microg Cd2+/l resulted in strong effects on the rate of survival of females but not males. In both sexes, mortality occurred predominantly within the first 5 days of the recovery period. At the cellular level, cadmium induced an hsc/hsp70 response. The lower Cd2+ concentrations we used led to an induction of stress proteins while higher Cd2+ concentrations resulted in a proportionately reduced hsc/hsp70 response, most likely due to pathological damage. Surviving individuals retained their capacity to induce stress protein production in the recovery period, even if the stress protein response system was overwhelmed by cadmium during the exposure period.
authors.affiliation: Animal Physiological Ecology, Zoological Institute, University of Tübingen, Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 20, 72072 Tübingen, Germany. ralph.schill@uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Ralph O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Schill
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Görlitz
authors.forename: Heinz-R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Köhler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019256:Cadmium Chloride / Q000633:toxicity*; D003445:Crustacea / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D005618:Fresh Water; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D023382:Toxicity Tests, Acute / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D019256:Cadmium Chloride