Publications by authors named "Smolarz K"

Carbon capture and storage in sub-seabed geological reservoirs is now officially included in the atmospheric CO emissions reduction policy and meets the agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Over the last few years biological risk assessment studies have delivered substantial empirical data on possible consequences of CO leakages from underwater storage sites on benthic systems. Current knowledge on Carbon Capture and Storage CCS associated risks is limited to marine systems.

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  • The study examines how norfluoxetine (NFLU) affects the gonads of the mussel species Mytilus trossulus, focusing on gender differences in hormonal changes, gene expression, and overall transcriptomic profiling.
  • Key findings reveal that in females, NFLU increases serotonin levels, possibly enhancing oocyte maturation, while in males, it lowers serotonin levels, hindering sperm development and delaying spawning.
  • The research also highlights significant changes in gene expression related to reproduction and detoxification processes, indicating that NFLU can disrupt reproductive success in this mussel species.
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Pharmaceuticals have been deemed as 'contaminants of emerging concern' within the Arctic and are a potentially perennial form of pollution. With recent innovations in detection technology for organic compounds, researchers have been able to find substantial evidence of the presence and accumulation of pharmaceutical pollution within the Arctic marine ecosystem. The pharmaceuticals, which are biologically active substances used in diagnosis, treatment or prevention of diseases, may persist in the Arctic environment and may have an impact on the resident marine biota.

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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of thousands of highly persistent anthropogenic chemicals widely used in many industries. Therefore, they are, ubiquitously present in various types of environments. Despite their omnipresence, ecotoxicological studies of most PFAS are scarce, and those available often assess the effects of long chain PFAS.

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The concentration of pharmaceuticals in coastal waters is tending towards increasing due to a shift of the human population into coastal zones. In parallel, the number of prescriptions of antidepressants, mainly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), is constantly growing. Most of the SSRI is metabolised into active compounds; for instance, norfluoxetine (NFLU) is the main active metabolite of fluoxetine.

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  • - Transmissible cancers like bivalve transmissible neoplasia (BTN) can spread between marine organisms, particularly affecting species like the common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) along the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa.
  • - Researchers examined over 6,800 cockles, diagnosed 390 cases of BTN tumors, and analyzed genomic variation in 61 tumors, confirming the presence of two BTN lineages with links to blood cell origins.
  • - The study found significant genomic instability in the BTN tumors, including whole-genome duplications and mutations, and suggested a long history of clonal evolution in these transmissible cancers.
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Potentially harmful compounds including pharmaceuticals are commonly found in marine waters and sediments. Amongst those, antibiotics and their metabolites are detected worldwide in various abiotic (at concentrations as high as µg/L) and biotic matrices at ng/gram of tissue, posing a risk to non-target species exposed to them such as blue mussels. Amongst those, oxytetracycline (OTC) belongs to the most detected antibiotics in the marine environment.

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Background/aims: Occurring in marine invertebrates infectious haemic neoplasia (bivalves transmissible neoplasia, BTN) arises from genome instabilities leading to multilevel malfunctions and unregulated cell division of presumably haemocyte precursors. As its biochemical characterisation remains unknown, we here present the first data describing selected aspects of the physiology and biochemistry of the disease a in model clam Macoma balthica. We chose free amino acids (FAA) composition, mitochondrial respiration and enzymatic activity, oxidative stress enzymes activities and corticosteroids profile as markers of this contagious cancer.

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Although the presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment is an issue widely addressed in research over the past two decades, still little is known about their transformation products. However, there are indications that some of these chemicals may be equally or even more harmful than parent compounds. Diclofenac (DCF) is among the most commonly detected pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment, but the potential effects of its metabolites on organisms are poorly understood.

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Disseminated neoplasia (DN) is one of the most challenging and unrecognised diseases occurring in aquatic fauna. It has been diagnosed in four bivalve species from the Gulf of Gdańsk (Southern Baltic Sea) with the highest frequency in Macoma balthica (formerly Limecola balthica), reaching up to 94% in some populations. The aetiology of DN in the Baltic Sea has not yet been identified, with earlier studies trying to link its occurrence with environmental pollution.

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Studies in recent years have shown that significant amounts of diclofenac (DCF) and its metabolites are present in marine coastal waters. Their continuous flow into the environment may be associated with numerous negative effects on both fauna and flora. Although more and more is known about the effects of pharmaceuticals on marine ecosystems, there are still many issues that have not received enough attention, but are essential for risk assessment, such as long term stability.

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Article Synopsis
  • An increasing number of studies over the past few decades have focused on the contamination of aquatic ecosystems with pharmaceuticals, highlighting significant variability in research data regarding their distribution.
  • Research using wild organisms has been central since the 1990s, as measuring pharmaceutical levels in these organisms provides a more accurate reflection of their presence in aquatic environments through processes like bioaccumulation.
  • Most studies have concentrated on fish and molluscs, identifying common pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics and antidepressants, while there is a notable lack of data on the presence of anticancer drugs and limited research from regions like Africa and Australia.
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Diclofenac (DIC) is one of the most widely consumed drugs in the world, and its presence in the environment as well as potential effects on organisms are the subject of numerous recent scientific works. However, it is becoming clear that the risk posed by pharmaceuticals in the environment needs to be viewed more broadly and their numerous derivatives should also be considered. In fact, already published results confirm that the transformation products of NSAIDs including DIC may cause a variety of potentially negative effects on marine organisms, sometimes showing increased biological activity.

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Understanding of biological responses of marine fauna to seawater acidification due to potential CO leakage from sub-seabed storage sites has improved recently, providing support to CCS environmental risk assessment. Physiological responses of benthic organisms to ambient hypercapnia have been previously investigated but rarely at the cellular level, particularly in areas of less common geochemical and ecological conditions such as brackish water and/or reduced oxygen levels. In this study, CO-related responses of oxygen-dependent, antioxidant and detoxification systems as well as markers of neurotoxicity and acid-base balance in the Baltic clam Limecola balthica from the Baltic Sea were quantified in 50-day experiments.

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  • This study examined how mature clams (Rangia cuneata) from the Vistula Lagoon absorb phenolic endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) like BPA, focusing on the roles of sex and shell length.
  • Over 70% of the BPA and 4-NP found in the clams was stored in their shells, suggesting that clams can eliminate some EDCs through this method.
  • The findings indicate larger and female clams are more affected by these pollutants, which could impact clam populations and the broader ecosystem, thus highlighting the need for careful monitoring and analysis in environmental studies.
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The presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment, both in marine and freshwater reservoirs, is a major concern of global environmental protection. Among the drugs that are most commonly used, NSAIDs tend to dominate. Currently, being aware of the problem caused by drug contamination, it is extremely important to evaluate the scale and the full spectrum of its consequences, from short-term to long-term effects.

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The presence of pharmaceuticals in the marine environment is a growing problem of global importance. Although awareness of the significance of this issue is increasing, many questions related to the ecotoxicology of pharmaceuticals remain unclear. Diclofenac is one of the drugs most commonly detected in the marine environment and its potential toxicity has been previously highlighted, thus its impact on organisms deserves a special attention.

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Growing production and consumption of pharmaceuticals is a global problem. Due to insufficient data on the concentration and distribution of pharmaceuticals in the marine environment, there are no appropriate legal regulations concerning their emission. In order to understand all aspects of the fate of pharmaceuticals in the marine environment and their effect on marine biota, it is necessary to find the most appropriate model organism for this purpose.

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In this study, we demonstrated the presence of the enzymatic complex able to perform aromatization (estrogen synthesis) in both, the microsomal and mitochondrial fractions of gills and gonads from . Based on in vitro experiments, we highlighted the importance of temperature as the limiting factor of aromatisation efficiency (AE) in mussels. After testing range of temperatures (4-23 °C), the highest AE was found during incubation at 8 °C and pH 7.

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Anthropogenic pollution including metals, petroleum, toxins, nutrients and many others is a growing problem in the marine environment. These are important factors altering the environment and by that the fate of many local populations of marine organisms. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of selected point pollution sources on resident populations of the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis trossulus) in the Baltic Sea using multiple biomarker approach.

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This paper describes changes in the content of free steroid hormones e.g. testosterone (T), estradiol-17β (E2), estrone (E1) and estriol (E3) of Mytilus trossulus from the southern Baltic Sea as a function of season, stage of gametogenesis, sex, tissue (gonadal and somatic) and depth.

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In the present work we compared the type and frequency of gonadal abnormalities among Mytilus trossulus populations from the Gulf of Gdańsk, Baltic Sea. Observed histopathologies were grouped as regressive changes (RC, gonadal atresia (GA) and regression (GR)), progressive changes (PC, gonadal tumors) and intersex. Sex-based and spatial differences in frequency of RC were found, with the highest frequency of RC and PC found in mussels from polluted station B followed by mussels from station A located near a purification plant outlet.

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Human-derived environmental pollutants and nutrients that reach the aquatic environment through sewage effluents, agricultural and industrial processes are constantly contributing to environmental changes that serve as drivers for adaptive responses and evolutionary changes in many taxa. In this study, we examined how two types of point sources of aquatic environmental pollution, harbors and sewage treatment plants, affect gene diversity and genetic differentiation in the blue mussel in the Baltic Sea area and off the Swedish west coast (Skagerrak). Reference sites (REF) were geographically paired with sites from sewage treatments plant (STP) and harbors (HAR) with a nested sampling scheme, and genetic differentiation was evaluated using a high-resolution marker amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP).

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Purpose To evaluate the normal biodistribution and kinetics of (S)-4-(3-[18F]fluoropropyl)-l-glutamic acid ((18)F FSPG) in healthy volunteers and to compare (18)F FSPG mean and maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmean and SUVmax, respectively) with those of (18)F fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) across a variety of organs. Materials and Methods This protocol was reviewed and approved by all appropriate regulatory authorities. An 8-mCi (±10%) dose of (18)F FSPG was given to five subjects (three women, two men), and seven whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) scans were performed 5, 10, 20, 30, 45, 150, and 240 minutes after injection.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated natural steroid hormones and xenoestrogen levels in Mytilus trossulus mussels from the Gulf of Gdańsk using advanced LC-MS techniques.
  • Notable differences in hormone concentrations were observed, with higher levels of testosterone and natural estrogens found at a reference location compared to those near a sewage treatment plant, where 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) was more prevalent.
  • Although there were no significant changes in steroid concentrations between tissues, there was a tendency for higher levels in the gills compared to the gonads.
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