Tissue levels of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and catalase in fish Astyanax bimaculatus from the Una River Basin

Gannabathula Sree Vani,Maria Tereza Oliveira Batista,Mariana Feijó-Oliveira,Cecilia Nahomi Kawagoe Suda,Anne Caroline Ribeiro,Edson Rodrigues Junior,Edson Rodrigues

doi:10.4136/ambi-agua.1473

Gannabathula Sree Vani, Maria Tereza Oliveira Batista + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4136/ambi-agua.1473

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Abstract

This paper seeks to identify the biomarker response to oxidative stress in Astyanax bimaculatus, a freshwater fish, collected from the Una River and its associated water bodies. The fish were collected using fishing nets at three different points on the river basin, namely Fazenda Piloto (FP), Ipiranga (IP) and Remedios (RM), during the period from December 2013 to March 2014. Physical and chemical analyses of the water at the sample locations indicate that IP and RM possibly have larger concentration of either natural or anthropic pollutants as compared to FP. FP can therefore be considered as the point less impacted by pollutants than other points. Hepatic activity of antioxidant stress enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), were measured in the specimens. The levels of SOD were reduced at RM while they were elevated in fish collected at IP. The CAT levels for the fish at RM and IP were about 148.9% and 202.4% above the values at FP, respectively. These results suggest that antioxidant enzymes could be used as biomarkers to measure oxidative stress caused by pollutants in the Una River Basin.

Highlights

River ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to alterations in the environment due either to natural changes or to anthropic activities
The runoff water from agriculture containing fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, discharge of untreated sewage from urban areas, and heavy metals present in the effluents discharged from industries as well as mining along the river banks are the principal causes of river water pollution
Since RM is near an agricultural zone, probable runoff from fertilizers and pesticides depressed the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and enhanced CAT

Summary

Introduction

River ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to alterations in the environment due either to natural changes or to anthropic activities. Biomonitoring, which uses organisms to indicate the health of the environment, is well suited to this purpose as the existing organisms are adapted to the specific ecosystem and any alterations in the environment are reflected in the composition and structure of the biological communities (Alba-Tercedor, 1996; Fonseca et al, 2014). Both invertebrates and vertebrates have been used for bio-monitoring a river. Fishes of the genus Astyanax have been used to study the genotoxicity of the aquatic environments (Moreira et al, 2010), and their feasibility as biomarkers of pollution has been investigated (Trujillo-Jiménez et al, 2011)

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