Morphometric and Histopathological Parameters of Gonadal Development in Adult Common Carp from Contaminated and Reference Sites in Lake Mead, Nevada

Abstract

This study examined the hypothesis that exposure to sublethal concentrations of contaminants alters the gonadal condition of feral common carp Cyprinus carpio. Adult common carp in Lake Mead, Nevada, were collected from a contaminated site (Las Vegas Bay) that receives municipal and industrial effluent and from a reference site (Overton Arm) with a relatively low level of contamination. Fish were sampled seven times over a 1-year period extending over two separate spawning seasons. Morphometric and histopathological parameters of gonadal and germ

Health status of Largescale Sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus) collected along an organic contaminant gradient in the lower Columbia River, Oregon and Washington, USA

“…The failure to identify site-associated differences among female populations could be due to their low sample size (and lower statistical power) relative to male fish. Conversely, this observation with females is consistent with results of previous studies with teleosts that have reported impairments in males, but not in females, after exposure to certain contaminants either in the laboratory (Lema et al, 2008;Muirhead et al, 2006) or in the field (Patiño et al, 2003). In adult fishes, one reason that females may be less sensitive to contaminant exposures than males may be their ability to eliminate lipophilic contaminants via eggs released during spawning (Gundersen et al, 2000).…”

“…Partial correlation analysis confirmed the negative relationship between GSI and testicular interstitial thickness at the individual fish level in both years. Thus, despite the usefulness of GSI and interstitial thickness as biomarkers of male fish reproductive health in some situations (Blazer, 2002;Patiño et al, 2003Patiño et al, , 2012, they must be interpreted with caution. In females, the pattern of GSI variation among sites was also inconsistent between years; mean values were lowest in Skamania in 2009 and lowest in Longview in 2010.…”

“…Also, previous studies with fishes and amphibians have demonstrated that the sex of individuals can influence their response to contaminant exposures (Lema et al, 2008;Muirhead et al, 2006;Sharma and Patiño, 2010). In fact, some studies with fishes have reported impairments in males, but not in females, after experimental exposure to certain contaminants in the laboratory (Lema et al, 2008;Muirhead et al, 2006) or natural exposures in the field (Patiño et al, 2003). This study therefore places special attention on male fish, although information for females is also presented.…”

Histopathological Effects on Testis of Adult Male Carp, <i>Cyprinus carpio carpio</i>, Following Exposure to Graded Concentrations of Water-Borne Bisphenol A

“…Reduced GSI has been reported in male fish exposed to the natural female steroidal hormones, estradiol [19], biodegradates of detergents like nonylphenol and octylphenol [20] and other alkylphenols like BPA [6]. In polluted river waters the synergestic effect of estrogenic EDCs like estradiol (E2), nonylphenol, oroctylphenol [18,20] showed a decrease in GSI of common carps.…”

Assessing reproductive and endocrine parameters in male largescale suckers (Catostomus macrocheilus) along a contaminant gradient in the lower Columbia River, USA

“…In addition to affecting individuals at any life stage, many environmental EDCs can modify the germ line, resulting in transgenerational impacts to male fertility, as seen with vinclozin, methoxychlor (Anway et al 2005), BDE-99 (Kuriyama et al, 2005), and dioxin (Theobald and Peterson, 1997). Reproductive dysfunction in male fish due to EDC can reduce sperm numbers (Haubruge et al, 2000;Patiño et al, 2003), sperm motility (Jenkins et al, 2009;Lahnsteiner et al, 2006), and fertility (Lahnsteiner et al, 2006). Secondary sex characteristics (Angus et al, 2001;Bayley et al, 2002;Jenkins et al, 2009) and thyroid hormoneresponsive genes (Nourizadeh-Lillabadi et al, 2009) also can be influenced.…”