History of Biomarkers - Ecological Biomarkers: Indicators of Ecotoxicological Effects - page 15

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History of Biomarkers
Michèle Roméo and Laure Giambérini
CONTENTS
2.1 Context................................................................................................................................... 15
2.2 Definition .............................................................................................................................. 16
2.3 Defense Biomarkers ............................................................................................................. 17
2.3.1 Ethoxyresorufin O -Deethylase .............................................................................. 17
2.3.2 Fluorescent Aromatic Compounds in Fish Bile ................................................... 20
2.3.3 Phase II Enzymes ..................................................................................................... 20
2.3.4 Phase III Enzymes ................................................................................................... 21
2.3.5 Metallothioneins ...................................................................................................... 22
2.3.6 Enzymatic and Nonenzymatic Antioxidant Defenses ....................................... 23
2.3.7 Heat Shock Proteins................................................................................................. 25
2.4 Damage Biomarkers ............................................................................................................ 25
2.4.1 AChE Activity .......................................................................................................... 25
2.4.2 Vitellogenin ............................................................................................................... 26
2.4.3 Lysosomal Membrane Stability ............................................................................. 27
2.4.4 Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances ............................................................. 28
2.4.5 DNA Damage ........................................................................................................... 29
2.5 Multibiomarker Approach .................................................................................................. 30
2.6 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 33
References ....................................................................................................................................... 35
2.1 Context
Although knowledge of the existence of a link between biological dysfunction and the
environment is very old, as testified by writings dating from more than 2000 years ago
(Hippocrates, translated by Littré 1861), serious consideration of pollution by both society
and scientists is a more recent phenomenon. Rachel Carson, fighting against the unreason-
able use of organochlorine pesticides and their effects on living organisms, in her topic
Silent Spring (Carson 1962), can be considered a pioneer for ecotoxicological studies. After
a period when the effects of the dispersion of chemical compounds into the environment
tended to be evaluated a posteriori and possibly corrected, a will to carry out evaluations a
priori was essential in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Until the end of the 1980s,
monitoring of the environment was based on conventional chemical methods of variable
significance (chromatography, spectrophotometry, electrochemistry, radiochemistry, etc.),
generally leading to the measurement of concentrations of chemical substances considered
to be dangerous, in water, sediments, and organisms living in coastal ecosystems.
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