Chapter 4 Interactions between lipids and persistent organic pollutants in fish

Abstract

This chapter highlights the importance of tissue-lipid composition, the disposition of persistent organic pollutants, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) effects in fish. The chapter describes the factors governing the bioavailability of POPs and the role of physiology in POP tissue distribution. Several properties govern the bioavailability of a hydrophobic compound, including the compound's physicochemical properties, route of exposure to the organism, and physical transport across the cell membrane. Physiologically based toxicokinetic models (PB-TK) models present evidence that incorporating lipid composition can greatly improve predictions of tissue POP levels relative to the use of total lipid content alone. The role of physiology in POP tissue distribution explores several aspects of lipid biochemistry and POP accumulation, including the concept that tissue differences in POP distributions often closely reflect differences in the lipid composition of tissues, rather than total lipids. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the issues involved with linking POP exposure to effects, the factors that make this complicated, and suggestions on the ways to incorporate analyses of lipid composition into experimental designs to better understand and predict POP effects in fish.