Biomagnification of Copper Along the Aquatic Food Chain (Artemia franciscana, Danio rerio, and Astronotus ocellatus).

Abstract

Nowadays, pollution of aquatic ecosystems with heavy metals is one of the most important environmental challenges due to toxicity, stability, and bioaccumulation in the environment. Heavy metals accumulate in aquatics and plant tissues and can eventually threaten human health by transmission into the food chain. For this reason, in the present study, the effect of copper sulfate (CuSO4) and its transmission in the food chain of Artemia franciscana, Danio rerio (Zebra), and Astronotus ocellatus (Oscar) were investigated. Initially, lethal concentration of Cu on Artemia was obtained in 24h. In the first step, Zebra fishes fed with Artemia (under copper sulfate exposure (LC50)) and water (clean and 10% of CuSO4) treatments. In the second step, Oscar fishes fed with Zebra (under copper sulfate exposure (LC50)) and water (clean and 10% of CuSO4) treatments. In the last step, the concentration of Cu was measured in liver tissues of Zebra and Oscar fishes. Also, the variation of glucose and enzymes including Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and Autologous Conditioned Plasma (ACP) was measured. The results of this study showed that Cu causes histopathological changes liver tissues including hyperemia, necrosis, hepatic portal vein, hepatocyte destruction, nucleolysis, bile stasis, and biliary edema. Also, a strong positive and significant correlation was observed between Cu and increasing glucose and ALT, AST, and ACP.