Multi-year longitudinal profiles of cortisol and corticosterone recovered from baleen of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis)
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2017-09Author
Hunt, Kathleen E.
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Lysiak, Nadine S. J.
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Moore, Michael J.
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Rolland, Rosalind M.
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9382As published
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2017.09.009Keyword
Marine mammals; Cetacea; Baleen hormones; Cortisol; Corticosterone; StressAbstract
Research into stress physiology of mysticete whales has been hampered by difficulty in
obtaining repeated physiological samples from individuals over time. We investigated whether
multi-year longitudinal records of glucocorticoids can be reconstructed from serial sampling
along full-length baleen plates (representing ~10 years of baleen growth), using baleen recovered
from two female North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) of known reproductive
history. Cortisol and corticosterone were quantified with immunoassay of subsamples taken
every 4 cm (representing ~60 d time intervals) along a full-length baleen plate from each female.
In both whales, corticosterone was significantly elevated during known pregnancies (inferred
from calf sightings and necropsy data) as compared to intercalving intervals; cortisol was
significantly elevated during pregnancies in one female but not the other. Within intercalving
intervals, corticosterone was significantly elevated during the first year (lactation year) and/or
the second year (post-lactation year) as compared to later years of the intercalving interval, while
cortisol showed more variable patterns. Cortisol occasionally showed brief high elevations
(“spikes”) not paralleled by corticosterone, suggesting that the two glucocorticoids might be
differentially responsive to certain stressors. Generally, immunoreactive corticosterone was
present in higher concentration in baleen than immunoreactive cortisol; corticosterone:cortisol
ratio was usually >4 and was highly variable in both individuals. Further investigation of baleen
cortisol and corticosterone profiles could prove fruitful for elucidating long-term, multi-year
patterns in stress physiology of large whales, determined retrospectively from stranded or
archived specimens.
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© The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in General and Comparative Endocrinology 254 (2017): 50-59, doi:10.1016/j.ygcen.2017.09.009.
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Preprint: Hunt, Kathleen E., Lysiak, Nadine S. J., Moore, Michael J., Rolland, Rosalind M., "Multi-year longitudinal profiles of cortisol and corticosterone recovered from baleen of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis)", 2017-09, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2017.09.009, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9382Related items
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