Sea urchin cells and embryos as tools for bio-monitoring studies.

TOXICITY INDUCED BY GADOLINIUM IONS ON DEVELOPING SEA URCHIN EMBRYOS

Pharmaceuticals are a class of emerging environmental contaminants. Gadolinium (Gd) is a metal of the lanthanide series of the elements whose chelates are commonly employed as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging, and subsequently released into the aquatic environment. We investigated the effects of exposure to sublethal Gd concentrations on the development of four phylogenetically and geographically distant species: two Mediterranean species, Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula, and two species living in the East coast of Australia, Heliocidaris tuberculata and Centrostephanus rodgersii. Measures of the Gd and Ca content inside embryos by ICPMS showed a time- and dose-depend…