DISTRIBUTION AND METABOLISM OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS (PAHS) INJECTED INTO EGGS OF CHICKEN (GALLUS-DOMESTICUS) AND COMMON EIDER DUCK (SOMATERIA-MOLLISSIMA)

The present study focuses on the uptake, distribution, and metabolism of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) injected into eggs of chicken (Gallus domesticus) and common eider (Somateria mollissima). Of the total dose of 0.2 ppm, injected on day 4 of incubation, 94% was metabolized within the chicken egg by day 18. The gallbladder showed the highest PAH concentrations of the analyzed organs/structures (gallbladder, liver, kidney, adipose tissue) of the chick and eider embryos. The proportion of the total PAH content present in these organs/structures was higher in the eider embryo (40%) than in the chick embryo (16%). Chick embryos, eider embryos, and wild juvenile eiders had similar PAH concentrations and PAH profiles. The characteristics of this "PAH pool" seemed to be largely unrelated to the relative concentrations of the PAHs to which the birds were exposed, the age of the organisms, and the routes of exposure. The largest studied PAH molecule, coronene, was not taken up from the yolk by the embryo as efficiently as the other PAHs, but once taken up it was metabolized as readily as the others. Basal aryl hydrocarbon (benzo[a]pyrene) hydroxylase (AHH) activities of chick and eider embryos were of similar magnitude.