Cytochemical Measurement of Lysosomal Responses in the Digestive Cells of Wild Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas on the South Coast of Korea

Abstract

: Digestive cells of the bivalves have a highly developed lysosomal system and the system is known to be sensitive to changes in environmental qualities. In this study, we measured lysosomal responses of the digestive cells in wild oyster, Crassostrea gigas using frozen section. Oysters were collected in June 2010 from intertidal areas in the inner and outer bay of Gwangyang off the south coast of Korea. From the tissue sections, we measured the digestive cell lysosomal membrane stability (LMS), level of neutral lipids (NL), lipofuscin (LF) and the digestive gland atrophy (DGA). The DGA and condition index of oysters from the inner bay were significantly lower (P<0.05). The statistical test indicated that LMS levels of oysters in the inner bay and the outer bay were not significantly different since a shorter activity was displayed by oysters from the inner bay than that of oysters in outer bay. The LF deposition level of the oysters in the inner bay displayed significantly higher levels than the outer bay (P<0.05). In contrast, the NL accumulation measured from oysters in outer bay was significantly higher than the level observed in the inner bay (P<0.05). Different levels of DGA and LF that were observed in the inner and outer bays were thought to be associated to different level of environmental contamination and these two assays are considered to be good biomarkers.