Congener-specific tissue distribution and hepatic sequestration of PCDD/Fs in wild herring gulls from Bohai Bay, North China: Comparison to coplanar PCBs

摘要

Tissue distribution is an important property of pharmacokinetic behaviors of dioxins to provide information for risk assessment to wild avian species. In this study, concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (coplanar PCBs) were determined in muscle, liver, spleen, kidney, brain, and adipose of wild herring gulls collected from Bohai Bay, North China. Tissue distribution results showed preferential accumulation of PCDD/Fs in liver and of co-PCBs in adipose. The congener patterns of coplanar PCBs were constant in different tissues, but the congener patterns for PCDD/F were tissue specific. The liver/adipose concentration ratios for PCDD/Fs were found to increase statistically significantly with log K-ow, providing the quantitative relationship of structure-activity for hepatic sequestration of PCDD/Fs for the first time. Furthermore, this relationship was compared with those developed on the basis of previous results reported in the literature showing that the wild herring gulls in Bohai Bay are still in the exposure period.