Lipofuscin as an indicator of age in crustaceans:analysis of the pigment in the American lobster Homarus americanus

Abstract

Lipofuscln content was determined in the brains of 41 American lobsters Homarus amencanus (Milne-Edwards) aged 4, 13 and 27 mo reared individually at 19 to 20°C. Llpofuscin was quantified by fluorescence microscopy and image analysis. Lipofuscin granules occurred In each age group and in the oldest group appeared as large aggregations collectively averaging 2.1 % of the area of histological sections of the olfactory lobe cell mass. Carapace length-corrected lipofuscin area % gave the highest correlation with age (r = 0.99, p < 0 0001) and a non-linear best fit regression ( y = 0.00264 X ~g e~'~) .The size and number of l~pofuscln granules and carapace length were also significantly related to age. Lipofuscln concentrat~on was not significantly correlated with carapace length wthin any of the 3 age classes (4 mo: r = -0.078, 13 mo: r = -0.20, 27 mo. r = -0.351). These results suggest the possibility that the lipofuscin technique can differentiate cohorts In natural populations. However, environmental temperature and the possibility of other factors affecting metabolic rate may need to be taken into account when attempting to apply the laboratory model to wild populations.

Survivorship of juvenile surf clams Donax serra (Bivalvia, Donacidae) exposed to severe hypoxia and hydrogen sulphide

“…Nelson and Morton, 1979;Moore et al, 1980;Mathew and Damodaran, 1997), crustaceans (e.g. Sheehy, 1989;Wahle et al, 1996;Medina et al, 2000;Bluhm et al, 2001a,b) and vertebrates (Eldred et al, 1982). This supports the view that the connective tissue granules in E. exalbida are lipofuscin.…”

“…There are few studies that deal with independent measurements of age and lipofuscin in situ concentration in invertebrates, and most of them refer to crustaceans (Sheehy, 1990(Sheehy, , 1992Sheehy et al, 1994;O'Donovan and Tully, 1996;Sheehy et al, 1996;Wahle et al, 1996;Belchier et al, 1998;Vila et al, 2000). If seasonal oscillations are not taken into account, the majority of these studies points towards a linear relationship between age and lipofuscin throughout the greater part of the lifespan.…”

“…Hence, the amount of lipofuscin may be proportional to physiological age and can be suitable as a proxy of chronological age, too, as shown in many studies on crustaceans (e.g. Sheehy, 1992;Sheehy et al, 1995Sheehy et al, , 1999O'Donovan and Tully, 1996;Wahle et al, 1996;Belchier et al, 1998;Bluhm and Brey, 2001). Molluscs studies of lipofuscin in situ have focused primarily on the effect of stress such as exposure to heavy metals or anoxic conditions (e.g.…”

Evidence of lipofuscin accumulation in the deep-water red shrimp Aristaeomorpha foliacea (Risso, 1827)

“…Despite the heterogeneous composition and genesis of lipofuscin, its relationship with aging has been demonstrated in many groups of crustaceans such as krill (NICOL et al, 1991), amphipods (BLUHM et al, 2001), clawed (O'DONOVAN & TULLY, 1996SHEEHY et al, 1996;WAHLE et al, 1996;SHEEHY et al, 1999;CASTRO et al, 2002;) and spiny lobsters (SHEEHY et al, 1998), crayfish (SHEEHY, 1990a;SHEEHY et al, 1994;BELCHIER et al, 1998) and shrimps, both caught in the wild or raised in aquaculture (SHEEHY et al, 1995;VILA et al, 2000;MEDINA et al, 2000;SOBRINO et al, 2001;PEIXOTO et al, 2002;VILA GORDILLO, 2005). These studies, based also on animals kept in controlled conditions, allowed the improvement of extraction and methods of analysis, as well as the confirmation that, regardless the sex, lipo- Medit.…”

“…The effect of age on lipofuscin accumulation is commonly evident in the covered surface and in the granule density, but not in the granule size, suggesting that the lipofuscin increase over time is mainly due to the formation of new granules (WAHLE et al, 1996) and not to the size increment of the existing ones (i.e., the process is neoplasic and not hyperplasic).…”