Whales accumulate large burdens of environmental pollutants that threaten their survival and health. Toxicological studies on cetacean species have been extremely challenging because invasive studies are restricted by legal and ethical considerations and sampling of wild cetaceans is highly opportunistic. Although model animal studies can provide data from practical experiments, extrapolating the toxicological effects to cetaceans is limited due to the large interspecies susceptibility to chemical exposure. The types of whale cells that can be cultured are limited, and cell-specific assays for whales have not been developed. A research team of the Center for Marine Environmental Studies (CMES) of Ehime University, Japan succeeded in direct reprogramming the fibroblasts of stranded melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) to neurons, not through the induction of pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), but by using a cocktail of small compounds. Using whale induced neurons, they have investigated the neurotoxicity of an environmental pollutant on cetacean neurons for the first time. Their research was recently published in Environmental Science & Technology.
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Source: Phys.org