Biomarkers in fish as a measure of the state of marine environment of Kuwait

Abstract

The health of a marine ecosystem can effectively be monitored by studying the levels of biomarkers in a representative species. A change in background level of a biomarker indicates exposure to a specific type of pollutants. It also identifies bioavailability and the organism response to the causative agent among the compounds present in the surrounding water body. Yellowfin seabream (Acanthopagrus latus), a local variety of fish, was examined for parent PAHs in the liver, its metabolites in bile by the GC-MS method as exposure biomarkers and cytochrome P4501A1 by assay of ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase (EROD) in the liver as an effect biomarker. A comparison was made between fish collected in 2015 with the fish collected in 2005-2006 and stored at - 80 °C in the fish bank. The objective was to examine the extent of changes in the environmental quality of the Kuwait marine area and the status of fish health concerning oil-related pollutants since Arabian Gulf is surrounded by oil-producing countries. Interestingly, insignificant differences between the liver PAH content and EROD activity were observed in fish over the sampling periods. The fish efficiently metabolized PAHs and excreted hydroxy-metabolites in bile. The study suggested that environmental quality of the Kuwait marine area was not deteriorated to any serious extent in the last decade and biomarkers can be used effectively in assessing the thrust of sub-optimal levels of various contaminants present in the marine area on the resident biota.

Principles to enable comprehensive national marine ecosystem status assessments from disparate data: The state of the marine environment in Kuwait

“…Where detected, hot spots of PAH and PCB contamination were restricted to locations associated with industry, such as the Shuaiba Industrial Area, located south of the city (Gevao et al, 2006a;Gevao et al, 2006b;Gevao et al, 2014;Lyons et al, 2015a). (Al-Zaidan et al, 2015;Beg et al, 2018;Stentiford et al, 2014). However, there are some concerns around higher food chain predators and their potential to bioaccumulate chemical contaminants (Husain et al, 2017a;Laird et al, 2017;Moore et al, 2015) and this requires further investigation to understand the overall impact on this theme.…”

Mutagenic and genotoxic effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on health: Mechanisms and Risk assessment

“…These microorganisms include Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which use PAHs as a carbon source and clean the environment (Akpan, Umana, & Etuk, 2020). Despite these effects, some multicellular animals, including aquatic animals such as Yellowfin seabream (Acanthopagrus latus), can naturally metabolize PAHs and excrete hydroxy metabolites in the bile (Beg et al, 2018). By increasing hydrophilicity, fishes can increase the solubility of PAHs in water and make it easier to eliminate these compounds from the body (Baali & Yahyaoui, 2019).…”

Toxicity of petroleum hydrocarbons to Brachyuran crabs: a review of deleterious effects of oil-related xenobiotics on life stages

“…Samiullah (1985) suggested that organisms that inhabit shallow water environments, and intertidal zones, in addition to those that have to cross the air–water interface are most affected. The uptake of PH by marine organisms has been the subject of many field and laboratory studies covering marine mammals (Fair et al ., 2010; Moon et al ., 2011), seabirds (Lance et al ., 2001; Romero et al ., 2018), reptiles (Ylitalo et al ., 2017; Frasier et al ., 2020), fishes (Afifi et al ., 2017; Beg et al ., 2018) and crustaceans (Knap et al ., 2017; Gospodarek et al ., 2019). Exposure to waters mixed with crude oil can result in many adverse effects on marine biota as oil components such as naphthalenes can be taken up into organisms’ tissues (Varanasi & Malin, 1977).…”