Marine organisms are continuously exposed to heavy metals in their environment. Bivalve mollusks such as the blue mussel Mytilus edulis accumulate high levels of heavy metals effecting cellular homeostasis and functions. Lead (Pb) exposure (2.5 mg/L of lead (II) nitrate for 10 d) and depuration (10 d in clean seawater) experiments were conducted to study its intracellular fate in the gills and digestive gland of M. edulis. For this purpose, an antibody-based detection method for ultrastructural localization and a subcellular fractionation approach for chemical analysis of Pb were used. In addition, effects of Pb on enzyme activities involved in oxyradical scavenging, such as the conjugative enzyme glutathione-S-transferase and the antioxidative enzyme catalase, were determined. The ultrastructural studies showed that Pb was mainly detected in lysosomes of gill epithelial cells and digestive cells. Lead was also detected in cell nuclei and granular hemocytes. Higher metal concentrations were measured by chemical analysis in subcellular fractions of the gills compared to those of the digestive gland. Increased activities of glutathione-S-transferase were found in gills after exposure and remained elevated during the depuration period, whereas glutathione-S-transferase activity remained unaffected in the digestive gland. Catalase activities showed no changes after Pb exposure, neither in the gills nor in the digestive gland. We conclude that gill cells are major sites of uptake and accumulation for dissolved Pb and are involved in sequestration and detoxification of this metal in M. edulis.
