Acute Intoxication of Metals in Cirrhinus mrigala with Special Reference to the Physiological, Biochemical and Molecular Effects

Abstract

An experiment to assess the changes in hematology, serum biochemistry and DNA integrity in Cirrhinus mrigala exposed to metals was conducted. Results showed that the copper exposure to the fish had more pronounced effects as it resulted in significantly lower RBCs, Hb, Hct and higher WBCs, while Zn exposure showed least toxic effect towards hematological parameters as compared to other metals. Among all the exposure durations of metals, the 96-hr exposure caused maximum negative effects on fish. Lower level of serum Na, Cl, Alb and TP were observed in fish under the exposure of Cu as compared to other metals while K, AST and ALT levels were higher. However, least toxic effect on all above-mentioned parameters were noticed in Zn exposed fish. It is also observed that the highest DNA damage in terms of percent genomic DNA template stability (%GTS) was observed in Cu exposed fish while the Zn exposure to fish resulted in lowest DNA damage. The results revealed maximum squared Euclidean distance between Cu treated fish and the control. This study proposed that the occurrence of toxic metals in aquatic environment has strong impact on hematology, serum biochemistry and DNA integrity of fish.