Ultimobranchial gland of a freshwater teleost, Heteropneustes fossilis, in response to cadmium treatment

Abstract

Heteropneustes fossilis were subjected to 288 mg/L (0.8 of 96 h LC(50)) and 72 mg/L (0.2 of 96 h LC(50)) of cadmium chloride for short-term and long-term experiments, respectively. After sacrificing the fish, the blood was collected on 24, 48, 72, and 96 h in short-term and after 7, 14, 21, and 28 days in long-term experiment and analyzed for plasma calcium levels. Also, ultimobranchial glands were fixed on these intervals. The plasma calcium levels of short-term cadmium-exposed fish remain unchanged after 24 h. The levels exhibit a progressive decrease from 48 h onwards. The fish exposed to cadmium for 7 days exhibit a decrease in the plasma calcium level. Thereafter, the levels progressively decrease till the end of the experiment (28 days). Up to 72 h exposure of the fish to cadmium, the ultimobranchial gland exhibits no histological change. After 96 h, a decrease in the staining response of the cytoplasm of ultimobranchial cells has been noticed. The nuclear volume of these cells records a slight decrease. Up to 14 days of cadmium exposure, there is no change in the histological structure of ultimobranchial gland. After 21 days following the exposure, the ultimobranchial cells exhibit a slight decrease in the staining response of the cytoplasm and the nuclear volume of these cells records a decrease. Following 28 days cadmium exposure the nuclear volume exhibits a further decrease, and degeneration and vacuolization sets in.

Alterations in blood electrolytes of a freshwater catfish Heteropneustes fossilis in response to treatment with a botanical pesticide, Nerium indicum leaf extract

“…Effects of botanical pesticides (except synthetic pyrethroids) have not been reported earlier on the blood calcium content of fish; hence, this study is the first report. This is in conformity with the reports of earlier investigators who have also noticed decreased blood calcium content after exposing the fish to various toxicantscypermethrin (Mishra et al 2001;Mishra et al 2010a, b;Pandey et al 2009), aldrin (Singh et al 1996), malachite green (Srivastava et al 1995), cadmium (Pratap et al 1989;Rai et al 2009), propoxur (Singh et al 1997), formithion (Singh et al 1997), lead (Rai et al 2010), and deltamethrin (Srivastav et al 1997;. However, no effect has been observed in blood calcium content of DDT-treated flounders Platichthys flesus (Haux 1979), methoxychlor-treated northern puffer Sphaeroides maculatus (Eisler 1967), cadmium-exposed Oncorhynchus niloticus (Oner et al 2008) and bifenthrin-treated rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Velisek et al 2009).…”

“…In vertebrates, calcium plays a vital role in a variety of biological processes. Although there exist several reports regarding the impact of toxicants on electrolyte composition of the blood (Suzuki et al 2006;Rai et al 2009;Velisek et al 2009;Srivastav et al 2010;Mishra et al 2010a, b), there exist no information regarding the impact of green pesticides on blood electrolytes of fish. Hence, it was aimed in the present investigation to study the toxic effect of a green pesticide Nerium indicum leaf extract on the freshwater teleost Heteropneustes fossilis in terms of serum calcium and phosphate levels.…”

Effects of Euphorbia tirucalli latex on blood calcium and phosphate of the freshwater air-breathing catfish Heteropneustes fossilis

“…To the best of our knowledge, the effect of botanical pesticides (except synthetic pyrethroids) on the blood calcium content of fish has not been reported earlier, hence this study provides the first report on this aspect. This observation regarding the decrease of blood calcium content after E. tirucalli latex exposure to fish derive support from the earlier investigators who have also reported hypocalcemia in the fish treated with various toxicants -cypermethrin (Pandey, Malviya, and Das 2009;Mishra et al 2010aMishra et al , 2010b, deltamethrin , aldrin (Singh, Das, and Singh 1996), cadmium (Pratap et al 1989;Rai et al 2009), propoxur and formothion (Singh, Das, and Srivastava 1997). On the other hand, elevated calcium levels of fish have been noticed after exposure to pesticides (Dalela et al 1981;Sharma et al 1982;Suzuki et al 2006).…”

“…Similarly, phosphorus is required for intermediary metabolism (phosphorylated intermediates), genetic information (DNA and RNA), phospholipids, enzyme/protein components (phosphohistidine, phosphoserine), and membrane structure (Norman and Litwack 1987). Although there exists several reports regarding the impact of several pollutants on electrolyte composition of the fish blood (Suzuki et al 2006;Rai et al 2009;Velisek, Svobodova, and Piackova 2009;Mishra et al 2010aMishra et al , 2010bSrivastav et al 2010) but there exist no information regarding the impact of botanical pesticides on blood electrolytes of fish. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effects of a botanical pesticide, E. tirucalli latex on blood electrolytes of a freshwater catfish Heteropneustes fossilis.…”

Influence of a botanical pesticide, azadirachtin, on ultimobranchial gland of the freshwater catfishHeteropneustes fossilis

“…There existed no report regarding the effects of azadirachtin on the activity of fish UBG. In past, few investigators had noticed hypocalcemia and inactivity of UBG in fish after exposure to different toxicants -deltamethrin , metacid (Mishra, Srivastav, and Srivastav 2004), cypermethrin (Mishra, Srivastav, and Srivastav 2005), and cadmium (Rai et al 2009). The present study also derives support from the earlier reports in which hypoactivity/inactivity of the UBG had …”