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Lysosomal biomarkers including lysosomal membrane stability (lysosomal enzyme
latency in frozen tissue sections and lysosomal dye retention in living cells), lysosomal
swelling, lipid accumulation, and lipofuscin have already been used in many studies
for assessing the health of marine environmental sentinel animals (Moore et al. 2006a;
Moore 2008; Shaw et al. 2011). These methods have been described in detail in meth-
odological manuals produced for International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
(ICES) and the Mediterranean Pollution Programme (UNEP-MEDPOL) and elsewhere
(Moore et al. 2004a, b, 2008). Lysosomal membrane stability is one of the biomarkers that
were intercalibrated in the framework of the ICES (BELQUAM; www.ices.dk/committe/
acom/comwork/report/2010/Special%20Requests/EC%20Northern%20hake%20FMSY
.pdf) and of the UNEP-MAP activities (Viarengo et al. 2000). The aim of this Quality
Assurance procedure was to obtain high-quality data from large biomonitoring studies
that, as in the case of the Mediterranean biomonitoring program, involves the activity
of 17 research institutes in the different countries.
In order to objectively interpret lysosomal and other biomarker data, an expert sys-
tem has been developed (Dagnino et al. 2007). The expert system is able to integrate
biomarker results into a five-level health status index. The expert system is based on
a set of rules derived from data available on responses to natural and contaminant-
induced stress of marine mussels. Parameters are integrated on the basis of their level
of biological organization, biological significance, mutual interrelationship, and quali-
tative trends in a stress gradient. The expert system can therefore rank the biological
effects of different levels of pollution. The system represents a simple tool for the risk
assessment of the harmful impact of contaminants by providing a clear indication of
the degree of stress syndrome induced by pollutants in mussels (Dagnino et al. 2007;
Shaw et al. 2011).
5.2.3 Aim and Objectives
In this chapter, our aim is to explore the utility of lysosomal responses as prognostic bio-
markers for putative pathophysiology that will permit prediction of animal health status,
and the development of a realistic integrated conceptual model for lysosomal reactions in
cell injury and pathology. The following questions will be addressed in respect of achiev-
ing this goal:
1. What is the generic significance of the strong evolutionary conservation of lyso-
somal processes?
2. How can the sensitivity of lysosomal processes be harnessed for evaluation of
environmental impacts?
3. What properties of lysosomes determine their ability to sequester a very broad
spectrum of chemical pollutants?
4. What properties of lysosomes enable their functional perturbation to be mecha-
nistically linked to key processes in cellular physiology?
5. How can lysosomal biomarkers be related to health status?
6. Is there sufficient evidence for a correlation and perhaps functional relationships
with ecological parameters?
These questions are strongly interlinked and consequently will be largely considered
from an essentially systems perspective.
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