Vitamin A and E profiles as biomarkers of PCB exposure in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the western Canadian Arctic

Abstract We evaluated the utility of vitamin A and E profiles as biomarkers of contaminant exposure in beluga whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ; n  = 66) harvested by the Inuvialuit in the Beaufort Sea. Blubber was an important repository for these vitamins, accounting for 76.8 ± 2.6% of the total body store of vitamin A, and 98.5 ± 0.4% of total vitamin E. While the free alcohol form of vitamin A (retinol) appeared highly regulated, the vitamin A esters were influenced by several biological factors including age, body condition and length. Vitamin E concentrations in liver and blubber were related to age, condition, length and feeding ecology, as described δ 15 N and δ 13 C. Despite the influence of these factors, collective results from univariate statistics, best fit multiple regressions, and principal component analysis (PCA) identified polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as important determinants of vitamin concentrations and profiles in beluga tissues. Blubber PCB concentrations best explained variation of the first principal component in a PCA of hepatic vitamins ( r 2  = 0.13, p  = 0.014), and regression models found that vitamin A concentrations were negatively correlated with PCB levels in liver (esters: r 2  = 0.19, p  = 0.001), but positively in plasma (retinol: r 2  = 0.20, p  = 0.06) and blubber (retinol: r 2  = 0.22, p  = 0.001, esters: r 2  = 0.43, p