It has been demonstrated that intensive fishing, i.e., removing more than 25% of the fish biomass, can reduce mercury levels in predator fish in a lake. We test here the hypothesis that, by removing an important part of the fish biomass from a lake, a significant amount of methylmercury can be eliminated, therefore reducing the mercury available to the remaining biota, at least in the short ter...

In China, total Hg (HgT) and methylmercury (MeHg) were quantified in rice grain grown in three sites using water-saving rice cultivation methods, and in one Hg-contaminated site, where rice was grown under flooded conditions. Polished white rice concentrations of HgT (water-saving: 3.3±1.6 ng/g; flooded: 110±9.2 ng/g) and MeHg (water-saving 1.3±0.56 ng/g; flooded: 12±2.4 ng/g) were positively c...

Mercury (Hg) is a contaminant of global concern in marine ecosystems, notably due to its ability accumulate and concentrate food webs. Concentrations total mercury (THg), methylmercury (MeHg) inorganic (IHg) were assessed compared different tissues (liver, muscle, gonads) three common fish species (hake Merluccius merluccius, red mullet Mullus surmuletus, sole Solea solea) from the continental ...

Methylmercury (MeHg) is an environmental electrophile that covalently modifies cellular proteins with reactive thiols, resulting in the formation of protein adducts. While such protein modifications, referred to as S-mercuration, are thought to be associated with the enzyme dysfunction and cellular damage caused by MeHg exposure, the current consensus is that (1) there is a cellular response to...

Methylmercury (MeHg) is the most important and abundant organic Hg pollutant in aquatic ecosystem that can affect human health through biomagnification. It toxic form, which occurs naturally by human-induced contamination water further biomagnified food web. MeHg only form accumulates living organisms able to cross blood–brain barrier, presenting an enormous risk. Anthropogenic activity increas...

A simple and ultrasensitive method, which was based on cold vapor generation (CVG) coupled to atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS), was proposed for speciation analysis of inorganic mercury (Hg2+) and methylmercury (MeHg) in water samples. In the presence of UV irradiation, all the mercury (MeHg+Hg2+) in a sample solution can be reduced to Hg0 by SnCl2; without UV irradiation, only Hg2+ speci...

Mercury (Hg) contamination in piscivorous birds, especially methylmercury (MeHg), has been drawing much attention worldwide in regard to its bioaccumulation and biomagnification in food chains. In this study on Hg in the soft tissues of white-tailed eagles (n = 22) and ospreys (n = 2) from Poland, total Hg (THg) range was 0.15-47.6 while MeHg range was 0.11-8.05 mg kg⁻¹ dry weight. In both spec...

Methylmercury (MeHg) has been implicated to induce massive neurodegeneration by disruption of neuron-glia interactions besides a direct potent neurotoxicity. In the present study, we examined potential cytotoxic effects of MeHg on primary cultured rat microglia. Following treatment with a relatively low concentration (0.5 microM) of MeHg, microglia had induced cell death accompanied by DNA frag...

Excessive free radical formation has been implicated as one of the causative factors in neurotoxic damage associated with variety of metals, including methylmercury (MeHg). Although the mechanism(s) associated with MeHg-dependent neurotoxicity remains far from clear, overwhelming data give credence to a mediatory role for astrocytes, a major cell type that preferentially accumulates MeHg. To ex...

The cycle of waterborne methylmercury (meHg) in Little Rock Lake is characterized by a period of accumulation during summertime (when the lake is warm and open to the atmosphere) and a period of decline during winter (when the lake is sealed by ice). We followed this cycle for 16 yr, during which time the lake was acidified with H2SO4 and then allowed to recover naturally as part of a long-term...