Erythrocyte morphometry in teleost fish—Species‐specific, inter‐individual and environmental‐related differences

Abstract

The present study investigated erythrocyte morphometry of 10 teleost species, Clarias gariepinus, Coregonus marena, Cyprinus carpio, Onchorynchus mykiss, Perca fluviatilis, Thymallus thymallus, Tinca tinca, Salmo trutta f. lacustris, Salvelinus fontinalis and Salvelinus umbla. Significant inter‐individual differences in erythrocyte morphometric parameters were found in all investigated species. Also significant species‐specific differences were observed, which were not related to their systematic position. The genetically fixed temperature optimum of the species correlated significantly and negatively with erythrocyte cell volume, cytoplasm volume, and cell surface and positively with erythrocyte surface to volume ratio indicating that erythrocyte morphometry is influenced by environmental parameters. In all investigated species, erythrocyte morphometry changed with the age of the fish as their size (cell volume and surface, cytoplasm volume) increased significantly in older ones. Changes in the surface to volume ratios were less evident as a significant decrease was only found in S. umbla and T. tinca.

The haematology of clinically healthy, farmed juvenile Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer Bloch)—reference intervals, and indicators of subclinical disease

“…The mean MCV (46.6 ± 1.8 fL), MCH (11.0 ± 0.4 pg) and MCHC (251.7 ± 2.7 g/L) in this study are also consistent with the findings from other studies on L. calcarifer (Table 7). Natural variations in the size of erythrocytes exist between fish species and tend to be smaller in more active swimming fish (Hrubec & Smith, 2010; Lahnsteiner, 2021).…”

“…Out of these 72 fish, 45 (63%) fish have at least one blood value outside the 90% percentile RIs, while the rest had more than one blood value outside the 90% percentile RIs. In this study, the presence or absence of severe chronic enteritis is as described in previous studies, or in brief, multifocal to coalescing, chronic granulomatous enteritis (Gibson-Kueh et al, 2004, 2021. Researchers may refer to Domingos et al's (2021) for images of how livers with good lipid and glycogen reserves or depleted fat stores look like histologically.…”

“…Moreover, 11.1% (n = 8/72) of examined fish suffered from both severe, chronic granulomatous enteritis and depleted lipid and glycogen stores in the liver. Some fish with chronic enteritis displayed the occasional intralesional, scattered clusters of large coccobacilli, resembling 'big belly' disease (Gibson-Kueh et al, 2004, 2021 (Figure 2).…”

Ecological and life‐history correlates of erythrocyte size and shape in Lepidosauria

“…Erythrocyte size can also change throughout an organism's life. In some species, erythrocytes can increase in size throughout ontogeny, as seen in monitor lizards (Frýdlová et al, 2013), 10 species of teleost (Lahnsteiner, 2021) and three of five species of eyelid geckos (Starostová et al, 2013). In contrast, erythrocyte size did not change in mole salamanders (Davies, 2008) or two of five species of eyelid geckos (Starostová et al, 2013).…”

Energetic Lifestyle Drives Size and Shape of Avian Erythrocytes

“…Similarly, within-taxa differences in erythrocyte size scale with body mass in amphibians and birds ( Kozłowski et al 2010 ) and squamates (Penman et al, submitted for publication). In many species, there are ontogenetic changes in erythrocyte size (reptile: Starostová et al 2013 ; fish: Lahnsteiner 2020 ) that may stem from changes in mass-specific metabolic rate ( Pis 2008 ).…”