Effects of exposure to cadmium in sperm cells of zebrafish, Danio rerio

Abstract

Cadmium is a natural element found in the earth’s crust; it is usually associated with other metals, but due to the impacts caused by human activity, its concentration has increased in the aquatic environment. This metal may damage aquatic animal reproduction, decreasing the rate of fertilization of organisms such as fish. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the in vitro toxicity of different concentrations of cadmium (0 (control), 0.5, 5, and 10 μg/L) using sperm cells of model organism zebrafish, Danio rerio. Structural parameters, including integrity and fluidity of the plasma membrane, concentration of oxygen species, mitochondrial function and DNA fragmentation were measured by flow cytometry. The following sperm movement parameters were also measured using the computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) system: motility, time of motility, curvilinear velocity, average path velocity and straight line velocity in μm/s. Significant effects were observed on path speed, straight speed, curvilinear velocity, motility time, progressive and total motility, and plasma and DNA integrity. The results showed that cadmium can negatively affect some reproductive parameters in D. rerio, which may reduce the fertility rate of these animals.

First report on distribution of heavy metals and proximate analysis in marine edible puffer fishes collected from Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve, South India

“…The considerable variations in cadmium bioaccumulation may be the due to the difference in their feeding habits. Even cadmium concentrations of 5 and 10 g/L have harmful effects on reproduction, fertilization in aquatic animals [60] , [29] . Nurjanah et al [44] reported that the banana puffer fish from West Java having higher concentration of Cd in internal organs than skin and muscle.…”

Exposure of the endangered Milky stork population to cadmium and lead via food and water intake in Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary, Perak, Malaysia

“…Furthermore, these metals are not only damaging to the adults but also highly nephrotoxic to newly born chicks [8] , affecting embryonic development [9] and causing renal and hematological toxicity [10] . In addition, these metals particularly Cd has been found to negatively affect the reproductive parameters of fish, reducing their fertility rate [11] . Therefore, there is a need to assess the level of these metals in the diet or preys consumed by the Milky stork as it has never been reported before.…”

The relationship between semen seminal plasma ions and sperm cell velocities of wild-caught longspine scraper, <i>Capoeta trutta</i>

“…A similar status was confirmed for Zn in human semen (Bassey et al, 2013), while this was not the case for Zn in common carp semen (Kovacik et al, 2018) and human semen (Vickram et al, 2013), and for Zn and Cu in bovine semen (Tvrdá et al, 2013). These differences are probably due to the individual characteristics of the species (Verma et al, 2009), the activity of male reproductive accessory organs (Alavi et al, 2004), and the metal pollution of water (Acosta et al, 2016). Finally, our results have shown that seminal plasma ions such as Na + , K + , Mg, and Ca 2+ were correlated with sperm cell velocities, while there is only the partially strong relationship between the VCL value and K + ion of sperm seminal plasma.…”