Journal of Basic and Applied Zoology最新文献

Background

Use of pesticides in agricultural fields has a series of toxicological and environmental problems. Methyl parathion (MP), an organophosphorus (OP) insecticide is a widely used pesticide and is highly toxic to non-target organisms. Fish has been used as indicator species for monitoring of pollution in the aquatic environment. Catla catla an Indian major carp is an edible fish and is highly sensitive to slight stress. Recently, fish biomarkers are widely used to determine the internal and external health status caused by chemicals.

Results

C. catla were exposed to acute (0.09 ppm) and sublethal (0.009 ppm) concentrations of MP to determine the alterations in antioxidant and metabolic enzyme activities in blood plasma and tissues (gill and liver). Intoxication with MP resulted in induction of oxidative stress which implies that fish utilizes enzymatic mechanisms to tolerate the effects caused by generated ROS due to MP accumulation. Significant alterations in GOT and GPT activity in plasma and tissues during acute as well as sublethal exposure might have resulted from the organal damage. The significant increase of LDH activity indicates severe cellular damage in organ/tissues of MP treated fish.

Conclusion

The results of the present investigation suggest that gill is the most sensitive organ to MP toxicity. The alterations of the enzymatic parameters can be effectively used as potential biomarkers for monitoring of the organophosphorus pesticides in aquatic environment. Further, MP should be used with caution in order to protect natural waters and aquatic organisms.

Copper is a trace element necessary for the normal growth and metabolism of living organisms. If exceeds its limit it becomes pollutant and causes pathological effects. Asian sea bass (Lates calcarifer) was exposed to sublethal concentrations of copper for 28 days and histopathological alterations were noticed in the gill, liver, muscle and intestine. Epithelial necrosis, hypertrophy, rupture of gill epithelium and haemorrhage at primary lamellae were observed after 7 days of exposure. Lifting of epithelium, oedema and fusion of adjacent secondary lamellae were conspicuous at 28 days of exposure. The experimental liver tissue showed reduction in the size of hepatocytes, vacuolisation, and hypertrophy. The intestine displayed fused microvilli, sloughing of mucus membrane and swollen cells. Muscle bundles with severe oedema and their thickening and separation were more pronounced in sublethal treatment of copper in the muscle. Several histopathological changes observed in various fish organs would serve a useful purpose in evaluating the toxic effects of copper. The present study clearly demonstrated that all the treated body organs exhibited significant damage with response; amongst the body organs the liver is an important target organ for copper toxicity in L. calcarifer and this species could be possibly used as a model organism for toxicity studies.

Antioxidant therapy has been thought to be effectual for the prevention and treatment of various diseases including diabetes. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the potency of Paracentrotus lividus extract (PLE) for alleviating the complications that resulted after induction of the diabetic rat models (T1DM and T2DM) using high fat diet (HFD)/streptozotocin (STZ). Thirty six male Wistar albino rats were assigned into normal control, T1DM and T2DM untreated, and PLE treated diabetic rat groups. Induction of T1DM was performed by streptozotocin injection (60 mg/kg of dissolved in sodium citrate buffer, 0.1 mol/L, i.p). T2DM induction through 4 weeks of high fat diet (HFD) intervention was followed by a single low dosage of STZ (30 mg/kg dissolved in 0.1 mol/L citrate buffer at pH 4.5, i.p). Both diabetic rat models showed a significant increase in serum; levels of fasting glucose, total protein, bilirubin, activities of arginase, transaminases (AST and ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), γ glutamyl transferase (GGT), lipid profile parameters, and liver malondialdehyde (MDA). However, T1DM and T2DM rats have decreased levels of serum insulin, and liver glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), glutathione reduced (GSH), nitric oxide (NO), and antioxidant enzymes. Furthermore, the present study showed the hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and antioxidant potency of the PLE as confirmed by its ability for ameliorating most of the alterations caused in the studied parameters of diabetic rats. In conclusion, PLE may be useful as therapy against oxidative stress and liver damage in both types of diabetes mellitus and is therefore recommended for further studies.

The present study is designed to determine the protective effect of turmeric (TMR) against neural oxidative damage caused by deltamethrin (DLM). Here we have employed mainly Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy to understand this event, in addition to biochemical analysis. For this purpose, rats were randomly divided into four groups (n = 6); control, TMR (1% turmeric-diet), DLM-treated (41 ppm) and TMR co-administrated with DLM for 48 days. The FT-IR spectra of brain tissues reflect the significant changes in the area values of macromolecules including proteins, lipids and nucleic acids in DLM-treated rats compared to control. In addition, DLM caused increase in the malondialdehyde (MDA) level accompanied by decrease in antioxidant enzymes activity such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR). However, the TMR co-administered with DLM group, exhibits appreciable restoration in area values and peaks of IR spectra and also the restoration of the mentioned antioxidant enzyme activities. The group merely fed with TMR showed insignificant changes in all investigated parameters. Therefore, the results reveal that, 1% of turmeric has a protective effect against deltamethrin caused neural oxidative damage.

Chronic inflammatory liver diseases can be induced by viral infections, toxic-metabolic factors and/or autoimmune mechanisms. Inflammation or viral infection results in hepatocyte damage or cell lyses which cause DNA or other cell nuclear materials to be released by hepatocytes to serve as auto-antigens that participate in auto-immune hepatitis. Those released cellular materials will be exposed to the immune system before phagocytosis by Kupffer cells. In this study, injecting rats with extracted DNA combined with CFA resulted in hepatitis cellular symptoms. Plasma globulin was increased and liver function enzymes were higher in plasma and lower in liver tissues compared to CFA and control groups. The inflammation was indicated histologically by the presence of active Kupffer cells, it led to irregularly shaped hepatic lobule, pyknotic cells, vacuolated nucleus and infiltration of liver parenchyma with lymphocytes. Vacuolation of the cells with fatty degeneration and necrotic hepatocytes also, was recorded. It is clear that using cell nuclear materials can induce inflammation that has some hepatitis identity.

In this study, we planned to test toxic effects of cadmium, aluminum either alone or combined with each other on sensitive organs as kidney and liver. The cadmium alone decreased the animal’s body weight. Meanwhile, aluminum did not affect the changes in body weight of cadmium treated animals; adding the zinc significantly reduced the loss of body weight. Serum creatinine and urea were significantly lower in treated group than in control group. Cadmium aluminum or combination of them resulted in a significant increase in serum GPT and GOT activity. Zinc did not prevent the changes caused by aluminum, however, the changes resulted by cadmium intoxication were almost healed or ameliorated by zinc. Treating with Zn alone resulted in drastic effects on kidney tissues more than either cadmium or aluminum. Treating with cadmium or aluminum resulted in infiltration of the liver parenchyma with lymphocytes, fibrosis, micro vesicular steatosis of the hepatocytes for both and appearance of many phagocytic cells, pyknotic cells and vacuolation for cadmium. Combined cadmium and aluminum treatment resulted in less damage than cadmium alone with exception of fatty degeneration. Unexpectedly, zinc induced acute cell vacuolation and steatosis. Cadmium and aluminum combined together did not worsen the situation as expected but was less damaging than cadmium alone, which suggests a possible synergistic effect of combination. Meanwhile, zinc failed to protect kidney from aluminum intoxication, which strengthens the suggestion of two different pathways of cadmium and aluminum intoxication. This finding meant that cadmium is more hepatotoxic than aluminum.

The effect of CoO nanoparticles (NPs) on the brain of mice administered through gastrointestinal tract for a period of 30 days was studied. AAS analysis revealed that NPs administered orally were retained by cerebellum, cerebral cortex, medulla oblongata and olfactory bulb. This retention of nanoparticles by the brain promoted a significant increase in glucose, pyruvate, lactate and glycogen levels along with the concomitant increase in hexokinase, glucose 6 phosphatase, and lactate dehydrogense activities. However, a decrease in glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase activity was observed in the brain regions indicating a deterioration of the pentose phosphate pathway. Thus, the present study suggests that the CoO NPs affect the carbohydrate metabolism of the brain.

Extensive researches are in progress to explore the deep sea resources in our planet to conquer the dilemma and diminish the size of malnourished community. Nowadays the limelight has been broadened toward the deeper ocean. In the present study the nutrient profiling of two deep sea fish species (Neoepinnula orientalis and Chlorophthalmus corniger) was compared with a well-known edible brackish water fish (Scatophagus argus). The deep sea fish of interest (N. orientalis and C. corniger) were observed to possess relatively similar quantities of crude protein (18.6 ± 0.9 and 19.4 ± 0.9% respectively) as that of S. argus (20.4 ± 0.8%). The fat content of N. orientalis is commensurate with that of spotted scat, whereas C. corniger was found to contain very high fat content (14.6 ± 0.7%). Though their amino acid composition display slight variation with that of the brackish water fish, the deep sea fish were analyzed to contain significant amount of the essential amino acids viz. lysine, phenyl alanine, histidine, as well as the non essential amino acids aspartate, arginine, serine, glutamate, proline, glycine, alanine. The studies have also conceded that the fish from deep waters are the comparable sources of minerals, with those of the brackish water fish. Among the three fish of interest N. orientalis was noticed to be the richest source of sodium (5746 ± 27 mg kg⁻¹), potassium (3438 ± 19 mg kg⁻¹), calcium (4247 ± 16 mg kg⁻¹) and magnesium (2253 ± 21 mg kg⁻¹). Meanwhile, C. corniger is having highest levels of iron (120 ± 1.5 mg kg⁻¹) and zinc (135 ± 2.8 mg kg⁻¹), whereas S. argus was found to have the highest levels of manganese (35.8 ± 2.8 mg kg⁻¹) and nickel (10.1 ± 0.8 mg kg⁻¹). The level of cadmium in N. orientalis (0.75 ± 0.01 mg kg⁻¹) was demonstrated to be slightly higher than the prescribed limit. The present study has revealed that both deep sea fish of interest exhibit an analogous nutritive value with that of the common edible brackish water fish, S. argus.

This study evaluated the effect of vitamins C and E as antioxidants on the physiological and histopathological changes induced by abamectin pesticide in liver, kidney and testis of male albino rats. Thirty male albino rats were divided into five groups of 6 rats each. First group served as control, while the second group received 10 mg/kg b.wt of abamectin orally, the third group received abamectin daily and 160 mg/kg b.wt of vitamin C two times per week. The fourth group received abamectin daily plus 50 mg/kg b.wt of vitamin E two times per week, while the fifth group received abamectin daily plus vitamins C and E two times per week. The experiment was conducted for six weeks. Abamectin was found to induce, hepato renal and testicular toxicity in rats, since the biochemical parameter of liver function (i.e. alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartame amino transferase (AST), acid phosphatase (AP), glucose, total protein, albumin) and kidney function (i.e. creatinine, urea, uric acid, cholesterol and triglycerides) were highly affected. These effects were demonstrated by histopathological examination of liver, kidney and testis tissues. These observations were much reduced in the vitamin-treated groups.

In conclusion, it appears that vitamins C and E, or in combination (as antioxidants) ameliorate the hepato-renal and testicular toxicity of abamectin, but are not completely protective, especially in liver tissue.

Ameliorative effects of Musa sapientum peel extract (MSPE) were studied on Acetic Acid (AA)-induced colitis in rats. From a dose response study, the effective and yet, safe for the treatment of AA-induced colitis in rats was determined, and also, a further study was carried out to determine the effective fraction(s) of MSPE that will be useful in the treatment of AA induced colitis in rats. Colitis was induced with 0.2 ml of 6% acetic acid through a lower abdominal laparotomy. Treatment with graded doses of methanolic extract of dried peel of Musa sapientum (MS) (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) for 7 days in AA induced colitis in rats showed 50 mg/kg as an optimal effective dose for the healing of AA induced colitis in rats. This dose (50 mg/kg) was further studied with fractions of MSPE in comparison to a standard drug (sulfasalazine) of the same dose (50 mg/kg) on AA induced colitis in rats for 18 days. Colitis was assessed using stool consistency, macroscopic gross score and histological studies. Normal stool consistency was seen early in treated animals as compared with control; MS peel (crude extracts and fractions) significantly reduced macroscopic and histologic colon tissue damage in a manner similar to that of sulfasalazine. The results from these findings suggests that MSPE fractions of ethyl acetate and methanol may be effective in reducing both macroscopic and histological damage in a manner similar to sulfasalazine, and that it may be helpful in the treatment of colitis.