Acute Effects of Tetracycline Exposure in the Freshwater Fish Gambusia holbrooki: Antioxidant Effects, Neurotoxicity and Histological Alterations

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2015

Authors

Nunes, B (Author) Other; Antunes, SC (Author) FCUP; Gomes, R (Author) Other; Campos, JC (Author) Other; Braga, MR (Author) Other; Ramos, AS (Author) Other; Correia, AT (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology

Vol. 68

Pages: 371-381

ISSN: 0090-4341

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 77 Citations

Scopus - 96 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Medical and Health sciences > Basic medicine

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00A-5HQ

DOI: 10.1007/s00244-014-0101-z

Abstract (EN): A large body of evidence was compiled in the recent decades showing a noteworthy increase in the detection of pharmaceutical drugs in aquatic ecosystems. Due to its ubiquitous presence, chemical nature, and practical purpose, this type of contaminant can exert toxic effects in nontarget organisms. Exposure to pharmaceutical drugs can result in adaptive alterations, such as changes in tissues, or in key homeostatic mechanisms, such as antioxidant mechanisms, biochemical/physiological pathways, and cellular damage. These alterations can be monitored to determine the impact of these compounds on exposed aquatic organisms. Among pharmaceutical drugs in the environment, antibiotics are particularly important because they include a variety of substances widely used in medical and veterinary practice, livestock production, and aquaculture. This wide use constitutes a decisive factor contributing for their frequent detection in the aquatic environment. Tetracyclines are the individual antibiotic subclass with the second highest frequency of detection in environmental matrices. The characterization of the potential ecotoxicological effects of tetracycline is a much-required task; to attain this objective, the present study assessed the acute toxic effects of tetracycline in the freshwater fish species Gambusia holbrooki by the determination of histological changes in the gills and liver, changes in antioxidant defense [glutathione S-transferase (GST), catalase (CAT), and lipoperoxidative damage] as well as potential neurotoxicity (acetylcholinesterase activity). The obtained results suggest the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship between the exposure to tetracycline and histological alterations (more specifically in gills) and enzymatic activity (particularly the enzyme CAT in liver and GST in gills) indicating that this compound can exert a pro-oxidative activity.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 11