Organohalogen concentrations and a gross and histologic ...

Macroscopic examination of reproductive organs
In the field, the hunter made a superficial macroscopic examination before
fixing the bear´s external genitalia in formalin. In the laboratory the genitalia
were examined visually and then dissected and inspected macroscopically.
The various organs were measured to the nearest mm, and the ovaries and
uterine horns were cut open for examination of follicles, corpora lutea
and/or albicantia, unimplanted blastocysts and placental scars (Rosing-
Asvid et al., 2002).
Histology
All tissue samples were trimmed, processed conventionally, embedded in
paraffin, sectioned at about 4 µm and routinely stained with haematoxylineosin
(HE) (Lyon et al., 1991). All slides were examinated on a Leica DMLB
microscope with 50, 100, 200, 400, 630 and 1000 x magnification and pictures
were digitised using a Nikon Coolpix 5000 camera.
X-ray (osteodensitometry)
The X-ray osteodensitometry was applied to detect osteopenia (osteoporosis)
by use of a Norland XR 26 X-ray bone densitometer determining the
bone mineral density (calcium-phosphate/cm 2
) through a dual X-ray absorptiometry
(DXA), where a high stable X-ray tube generates a broad spectrum
of photons k-edge filtrated into two distinct peaks (The Norland Corporation
1993). The skulls were scanned in “Research” (speed: 60mmx60mm;
resolution: 3.0x3.0; width: 24,9cm) and analysed in XR software revision 2.4 ®
,
which generated a picture of the bone segment and calculated the bone mineral
density (BMD; gram/cm 2
) (Ibid.).
To ensure that the BMD in skull represents the mineral status of the body
skeletal system in general, a pilot study was conducted where the BMD of
skull, femur and three lumbale vertebrae was compared in a total of 13 polar
bears from Copenhagen Zoo and East Greenland. The analysis showed a
highly significant correlation between BMD in skull and femur (r = 0.99;
p