It is generally accepted that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) occur primarily in protein-rich tissues such as blood and liver, but few studies have examined the occurrence of legacy and novel PFASs in lipid-rich tissues such as blubber. Here we report the distribution of 24 PFASs, total fluorine, and extractable organic fluorine (EOF) in eight different tissues of a killer whale (Orcinus orca) from East Greenland. The sum of target PFAS concentrations was highest in liver (352 ng/g of wet weight) and decreased in the following order: blood > kidney ≈ lung ≈ ovary > skin ≈ muscle ≈ blubber. Most of the EOF consisted of known PFASs in all tissues except blubber, which displayed the highest concentration of EOF, almost none of which was attributed to targeted PFASs. Suspect screening using high-resolution mass spectrometry revealed the presence of additional PFASs but is unlikely to explain the high concentrations of EOF in blubber. While the identity of this unknown organofluorine and its pervasiveness in marine mammals require further investigation, this work suggests that exposure of killer whales to organofluorine substances may be underestimated by determination of legacy PFASs exclusively in liver or blood.

中文翻译：

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高浓度的格陵兰虎鲸（Orcinus orca）的浮标中观察到的未鉴定的可提取的有机氟。

普遍公认的是，全氟烷基物质和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）主要存在于富含蛋白质的组织（例如血液和肝脏）中，但是很少有研究检查过富含脂类的组织（如润滑脂）中传统和新型PFAS的存在。在这里，我们报告了虎鲸（Orcinus orca）的八个不同组织中24种PFAS，总氟和可萃取有机氟（EOF）的分布）从东格陵兰岛出发。肝脏中PFAS的目标浓度总和最高（湿重352 ng / g），并且按以下顺序降低：血液>肾脏≈肺≈卵巢卵巢>皮肤≈肌肉≈脂肪。除脂肪外，大多数组织中的EOF均由已知的PFAS组成，而脂脂显示EOF的浓度最高，几乎没有归因于目标PFAS。使用高分辨率质谱仪进行的可疑筛查发现存在其他PFAS，但不可能解释润滑脂中EOF的高浓度。尽管这种未知的有机氟的身份及其在海洋哺乳动物中的普遍性尚待进一步研究，但这项工作表明，通过仅在肝脏或血液中测定传统的PFAS，可能低估了虎鲸对有机氟物质的暴露。