Abstract
The wide range of applications of rare earth elements (REE) is leading to their occurrence in worldwide aquatic environments. Among the most popular REE is Neodymium (Nd), being widely used in permanent magnets, lasers, and glass additives. Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets is the main application of Nd since they are used in electric motors, hard disk drives, speakers and generators for wind turbines. Recent studies have already evaluated the toxic potential of different REE, but no information is available on the effects of Nd towards marine bivalves. Thus, the present study evaluated the biochemical alterations caused by Nd in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis exposed to this element for 28 days. The results obtained clearly demonstrated that Nd was accumulated by mussels, leading to mussel's metabolic capacity increase and GLY expenditure, in an attempt to fuel up defense mechanisms. Antioxidant and biotransformation defenses were insufficient in the elimination of ROS excess, resulting from the presence of Nd and increased electron transport system activity, which caused cellular damages (measured by lipid peroxidation) and loss of redox balance (assessed by the ratio between reduced and oxidized glutathione). The results obtained clearly highlight the potential toxicity of REEs and, in particular of Nd, with impacts at cellular level, which may have consequences in mussel's survival, growth and reproduction, affecting mussel's population.
Highlights
The extensive use of neodymium (Nd, Z = 60) by the industries has drawn attention from the scientific community in the last years
Aeruginosa was inhibited while increasing the content of malondiadehyde (MDA) and decreased the activity of the enzyme catalase (CAT). It was studied the Nd effects on rat, and the results showed an accumulation in hepatocyte nuclei and mitochondria, a decrease of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and CAT, and an increase of the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and lipid peroxidation levels (Adeel et al, 2019; Rim et al, 2013)
These results clearly demonstrate the stability of Nd during the seven days’ exposure period, the interval used between water renewal along the experimental assay, allowing to perform a twenty-eight days exposure period with water renewal ever week
Summary
The extensive use of neodymium (Nd, Z = 60) by the industries has drawn attention from the scientific community in the last years. The results show that the weight percentage of the PMs varies from 4 to 6% in the speakers, 2.5 to 2.8% in the hard disks, and between 0.8 and 2% in some electric motors from hybrid electric vehicles (Menad and Seron, 2017). Despite these low representative numbers, there were generated, in 2018, 50 million tons of electric and electronic waste (UNEP et al, 2019)
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