The uptake from fresh water and subsequent clearance of a vanadium burden by the common eel (Anguilla anguilla)

The uptake of ⁴⁸V vanadium from a solution of 10^?5M⁴⁸V-orthovanadate by freshwater elvers and the subsequent depletion of the vanadium burden was studied. At the end of the 8-week loading period, the levels of ⁴⁸V were still increasing in the liver, kidney, bone and carcase. The uptake rate for the whole fish over the 8-week period was 760 pg atom/h/100 g body wt and the depletion rate over the following 5 weeks in clean water was about one tenth of this. Liver contained the highest amount of ⁴⁸V at the end of the 8-week loading period, calculated as equivalent to 1.1 × 10⁴ g atom V/kg wet wt, and this level was unchanged at the end of the 5-week depletion period. Less than 1% of the carcase ⁴⁸V was present in the fraction of MW under 2000.