Cytotoxic assessment of flying barb fish (Esomus metallicus) from a gold mine area with heavy metal contamination

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate contamination by heavy metals including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and manganese (Mn) and to conduct a cytotoxic assessment of Esomus metallicus from a gold mine area compared with that from the non-affected area. The E. metallicus samples were collected downstream of a gold mine area. The heavy metal concentrations were analysed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The average amounts of As, Cd, Cr, Pb and Mn in water and E. metallicus samples from the gold mine area were 0.368 ± 0.009, 0.008 ± 0.006, 0.009 ± 0.001, 0.006 ± 0.002, 1.438 ± 0.058 mg/L, 0.65 ± 0.25, 0.03 ± 0.03, 2.12 ± 0.05, 0.25 ± 0.07 and 18.28 ± 6.82 mg/kg, respectively. The difference of As, Cr and Mn concentrations in E. metallicus samples between gold mine and non-affected areas was statistically significant (p < 0.05) except for Cd and Pb. The diploid chromosome number of E. metallicus from both areas was 2n = 50. There are six types of chromosomal aberrations including centric fragmentation (CF), centric gap (CG), single chromatid gap (SCG), fragmentation (F), deletion (D) and polyploidy (P). The most common chromosomal aberration type in the samples from the gold mine area was CG, and the difference in chromosomal aberration and the number of cells with chromosomal aberrations in E. metallicus between the study areas was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The percentages of chromosomal aberrations in the E. metallicus samples from gold mine and non-affected areas were 14.66 and 3.00, respectively.