Vanadocytes Vanadophores

The sea squirts or tunicates are fascinating marine creatures, their name being derived from the tunic made of cellulosic material that surrounds the body of the animal. In 1911, Henze discovered vanadium in the blood of Phallusia mammillata C.343 He later found the same with other ascidians (a class of tunicates). In vanadium-accumulating species, most vanadium is located in the vacuoles—vanadophores—of certain types of blood cells—the vanadocytes. The concentration in the vanadophore can be as high as 1M and this value must be compared with concentrations of the order of 2 x 10-8 M for vanadium in sea water.344 Kustin et al. have reviewed the work done to understand the efficient accumulation and the possible biological roles of the metal.345... 

For the vanadophore region, the sulfate concentration has been estimated to be of the order of 1.3 M and pH 2.349 With no evidence for a stable complex within the vanadocyte, Figure 14 depicts an interesting mechanism proposed for vanadium and sulfate accumulation.350 Anionic vanadium(V) (as HVO ") and sulfate ions enter the cell. Provided that within the vanadophore there is a strong reducing agent, vanadium can be reduced to vanadium(IV) and vanadium(III), cationic at the low pH in the vanadophore. If the vanadophore membrane is permeable to anions but not cations, the reduced vanadium remains trapped. 

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