Studies on the alterations in haematological indices, micronuclei induction and pathological marker enzyme activities in Channa punctatus (spotted snakehead) perciformes, channidae exposed to thermal power plant effluent.

Mehjbeen Javed,Masood Ahmad,Nazura Usmani,Ajaz Ahmad,Irshad Ahmad

doi:10.1186/s40064-016-2478-9

Abstract

The present study was conducted to assess the toxicity of thermal power plant effluent containing heavy metals (Fe > Cu > Zn > Mn > Ni > Co > Cr) on haematological indices, micronuclei, lobed nuclei and activity of pathological marker enzymes [alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate transferase (AST), alanine transferase (ALT) and creatine kinase (CK)] in Channa punctatus. Total erythrocyte count (−54.52 %), hemoglobin (−36.98 %), packed cell volume (−36.25 %), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (−1.41 %) and oxygen (O2) carrying capacity (−37.04 %) declined significantly over reference fish, however total leukocyte count (+25.43 %), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (+33.52 %) and mean corpuscular volume (+35.49 %) showed elevation. High frequency of micronuclei (1133.3 %) and lobed nuclei (150 %) were observed in exposed fish which may indicate mutagenesis. Activities of pathological marker enzymes ALP, AST, ALT and CK increased significantly in serum of exposed fish. The ratio of ALT: AST in exposed fish was beyond 1 which indicates manifestation of pathological processes. These biomarkers show that fish have macrocytic hypochromic anemia. Leukocytosis showed general defence response against heavy metal toxicity and marker enzymes showed tissue degeneration. In conclusion, thermal power plant effluent has strong potential to induce micronuclei, tissue pathology, making the fish anemic, weak, stressed and vulnerable to diseases.

Highlights

Industrial activities results into the production of huge waste which is usually discharged into the nearby water bodies leading to the pollution of aquatic ecosystems
Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) and Mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) are the part of full blood count and they are called as red cell indices
Other workers have reported similar observation in C. punctatus exposed to Pb (Hymavathi and Rao 2000), Clarias batrachus exposed to HgCl2 (Joshi et al 2002), C. carpio exposed to Cr(VI) (Shaheen and Akhtar 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Industrial activities results into the production of huge waste which is usually discharged into the nearby water bodies leading to the pollution of aquatic ecosystems. Uptake of heavy metals occurs through the fish gills from water and gut via food they pass to the blood stream and settled to different organs (Javed and Usmani 2012). Frequency of micronuclei induction has been useful to assess the mutagenic potential of the wastewaters. Micronucleus test detects both clastogenic and aneugenic effects of the toxicants it is widely used to detect the genotoxicity of pollutants (Heddle et al 1991). In mammals blood parameters are widely used to assess the alteration in physiology In fishes they serve as useful biomarkers to assess the in vivo environmental exposures (Zutshi et al 2010; Hanan et al 2013; Javed and Usmani 2012). The aim of the present study is the evaluation of haematoxic and genotoxic potential of heavy metal loaded thermal power plant effluent in fish Channa punctatus

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Conclusion