The impact of multiple stressors on the biomarkers response in gills and liver of freshwater breams during different seasons

Abstract

Biomarkers attract increasing attention in environmental studies, as a tool for detection of exposure and effects of pollution, from both natural and anthropogenic sources. This study aims to assess the impact of multiple stressors during distinctive seasons, covering also extreme hydrological events (extensive flooding in the mid May 2014), on different levels of biological organization in the liver and gills of three closely related freshwater breams. Our previous study on DNA damage in blood cells of these specimens showed increased DNA damage in June 2014, one month after the flooding event. As a continuation of that research, the present study was conducted. As a biomarker of exposure DNA damage was measured by applying the alkaline comet assay, while histopathological alterations were monitored as a biomarker of effect. Additionally, concentrations of metals and metalloids in gills, liver and muscle were assessed. Sampling of fish tissues was performed in 2014, during winter (January and February), spring (March and early June) and summer (late June, July and August). Significant seasonal difference in DNA damage was observed for both tissues. During spring and summer the level of DNA damage in gills was significantly higher when compared to the liver. Histopathological analyses showed higher frequency of alterations in gills during spring, and in liver during summer, but without a significant seasonal difference. Gills had the highest concentration of metals and metalloids during the spring and summer, and liver during winter. Muscle was the least affected tissue during all three seasons. This study highlighted the importance of the multiple biomarker approach and the use of different fish tissues in assessment of surface water pollution.

A histopathological study on the Caucasian dwarf goby from an anthropogenically loaded site in Hungary using multiple tissues analyses

“…Our results are also in line with Ráskovic et al (), who consider that circulatory disturbances are in general frequently observed lesions in fish exposed to organic contaminants. Within inflammatory alterations, similarly to the studies of Paolini, Berti, D'Angelo, and Giansante () and Kostić et al (), we also found infiltration and activation of RES. We agree with Secombes and Chappell () and Reite () that fish leucocytes are part of its non‐specific cellular defence, performing functions, such as phagocytosis and phagocyte killing, and the presence of leucocytes clearly indicates an inflammatory reaction and reflects an immunological response to environmental stressors.…”

“…In addition, they are among the most delicate structures of the teleost body (Saraiva et al, ). According to Jiang et al (), the histopathological alterations in fish gills related to the presence of toxicants have been widely reported as environmental biomarkers, although we agree with Kostić et al () that fish gills respond non‐specifically to pollutants, and various contaminants may cause similar reactions of the gill tissue. In our study, the gills were the second most affected organ after the liver (I GILLS = 18) and we observed circulatory, regressive and progressive lesions.…”

Dose and Time-Related Pathological and Genotoxic Studies on Thiamethoxam in Fresh Water Fish (Labeo rohita) in Pakistan

“…Monitoring and determination of different adverse effects particularly genotoxicity of pesticides in exposed and non-target species is sensitive and reliable end point (Khan et al, 2015;Ghaffar et al, 2016). Different important biomarkers attract huge attention in screenings of various compounds in environmental studies as a sensitive tool for evaluation and detection of effects of pollutants from natural and anthropogenic sources (Kostić et al, 2017). Therefore, this study aimed at to investigate the effects of thiamethoxam considering DNA damage and histopathological examination of gills as sensitive biomarkers in fresh-water fish.…”

Toxicity and bioaccumulation of Cadmium, Copper and Zinc in a direct comparison at equitoxic concentrations in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) juveniles

“…Such a methodology is used in a vast number of studies of metals on gill histology, i.e. laboratory exposures [33,34,35]; semi-field set-ups [36,37]; and field studies [38,39,40]. A specific pollutant will not necessarily induce pollutant-specific histopathological alterations in gill tissue, but a quantification of the extent and intensity of overall changes enables a comparison between experimental groups in various trials [41,42,43].…”