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dc.contributor.advisorRoutti, Heli
dc.contributor.advisorDalmo, Roy
dc.contributor.advisorBlévin, Pierre
dc.contributor.authorBjørneset, Juni
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-15T06:33:12Z
dc.date.available2024-03-15T06:33:12Z
dc.date.issued2022-03-15en
dc.description.abstractThe cosmopolitan apex predator killer whale (Orcinus orca) is one of the species worldwide with the highest levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in their tissues. The knowledge of how POPs may affect the species is limited, likely due to the ethical, legal, and practical challenges of researching toxicology on free-ranging marine mammals. The use of in vitro models has proved to be a functional tool which may provide information of cellular responses to POPs exposure in marine mammals. Skin biopsies of killer whales were sampled from the Northern Norwegian fjords during aggregation of killer whales for foraging on spring spawning herring. Primary fibroblast-like cells were established from the dermis of 11 out of 13 killer whales sampled. Cytotoxic and gene transcript analysis were conducted on the fibroblast-like cells exposed to ecologically relevant concentrations of POPs, reflecting the 10 most abundant POPs found in Norwegian killer whales. The pollutants were applied at different concentrations to explore dose-dependent responses. Significant downregulation of the target gene CYP1A was observed at medium and highest exposure concentration, as well as non-significant tendencies of another downregulated gene (CD36) and seven upregulated genes (ADIPOQ, CYP4A, ERA, GR, PPARA, PPARG and THRA) at the highest concentration of POPs exposure. This study provides a successful establishment of killer whale fibroblast-like cells, as well as proven gene alterations of the cells exposed to POPs.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/33173
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherUiT Norges arktiske universitetno
dc.publisherUiT The Arctic University of Norwayen
dc.rights.holderCopyright 2022 The Author(s)
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0en_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)en_US
dc.subject.courseIDBIO-3960
dc.subjectMarinbiologien_US
dc.subjectØkotoksikologien_US
dc.subjectCellebiologien_US
dc.titleEstablishment of killer whale cell cultures and their responses to pollutant exposureen_US
dc.typeMaster thesisen
dc.typeMastergradsoppgaveno


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Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)