Gill Histopathology as a Biomarker for Discriminating Seasonal Variations in Water Quality
Source abstract
Abstract
Histopathological alterations in various fish organs have a pronounced value in aquatic toxicology and are widely used in environmental monitoring. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether histopathological alterations in fish gills can discriminate seasonal variations in environmental conditions within the same aquatic ecosystem, and if so, which alterations contributed the most to seasonal differentiation. Microscopic examination of common bream Abramis brama gills displayed various alterations in gill structure, including epithelial hypertrophy, hyperplasia, mucous and chloride cell alterations, epithelial lifting, necrosis, hyperemia and aneurism. These alterations were subsequently quantified by a semi-quantitative analysis in order to detect differences in the intensity of the mentioned alterations. Epithelial hypertrophy, hyperplasia, epithelial lifting and necrosis varied significantly between seasons with only necrosis being significantly higher in the first season. Discriminant canonical analysis displayed that epithelial hyperplasia, mucous cell alterations, epithelial lifting and necrosis contributed the most to discrimination between seasons. Overall, this study demonstrates that histopathological biomarkers in fish gills can be used in discriminating seasonal variations in water quality within the same aquatic ecosystem.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology · Aquaculture disease management and microbiota · Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Aquaculture, Institute of Aquaculture and Environmental Safety, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2100 Gödöllő, Hungary
Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Center for Reproductive Genomics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
Funding
Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia · European Union and the city of Pančevo · Ministry of Human Capacities
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