Histological and Hematological Responses of an Estuarine Teleost to Cadmium

Abstract

Pathological changes attributable to cadmium poisoning were observed in the intestinal tract, the kidney, and the gills of Fundulus heteroclitus after exposure to 50 ppm of the metal. Microscopic examination revealed pathological changes of the intestinal tract as early as 1 hr after exposure, in the kidney after 12 hr, and in the gill filaments and respiratory lamellae after 20 hr. These manifestations of cadmium poisoning bear resemblance to the pathological changes that have been demonstrated clinically and experimentally in mammals.The examination of circulating blood elements revealed rapid and striking changes among cells of the eosinophil lineage. The abundance of eosinophils increased steadily to a level approximately 45% above the usual amount. Indications of the cellular increase occurred as an early rise 4 hr after exposure.A reduction in the relative numbers of mature eosinophils was evident in imprints of head kidney tissue. Nuclear anomalies were associated with the thrombocytes of specimens after 8 hr exposure; however, these changes were not noticeable at either earlier or later time periods.

Effects of acclimation on the haematological indices of different groups of fresh water teleosts

“…The reduction observed in these parameters is an indication of acclimation to the laboratory conditions. This response could be as a result of disruption in erythrocyte production (Wintrobe, 1978;Omoregie, 1995), haemodilution (Sampath et al, 1993) and destruction of intestinal cells involved in the production of vitamin B 12 used in the production of the hemoglobin portion of the red cells (Gardner and Yevich, 1970). Similar results were recorded by Gabriel et al (2007a) in Sarotherodon melanotheron subjected to acclimation for seven days.…”

Impact of Certain Heavy Metals on the Gill and Liver of the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus)

“…They added that the liver, showed fatty change, characterized by increasing lipid deposits and a consequently loss of sinusoid space, Handy (2003) suggested that Increased lipid content of the liver could be explained by either increased deposition of lipid in excess of nutritional requirements or a failure to mobilize lipid stores during dietary Cu toxicity. Crandall & Goodnight (1963) and Gardner & Yevich, (1970) reported that Zn induced severe fatty degenerative changes in the liver.…”

Effect of ambient and dietary cadmium on pavement cells, chloride cells, and Na+/K+-ATPase activity in the gills of the freshwater teleost Oreochromis mossambicus at normal and high calcium levels in the ambient water

“…Gill damage and structural changes caused by water-borne cadmium have been reported for several fish species (Bilinski and Jones, 1973;Eisler and Gardner, 1973;Gardner and Yevich, 1970;Voyer et al, 1975;Karlsson-Norrgren et al, 1985). Simi lar alterations of the gills have been observed in fish exposed to other toxic metals such as mercury (Lock et al, 1981;Naidu et al, 1983), copper (Gupta and Rajbanshi, 1981), zinc (Crespo et al, 1981), chromium (Van de Putte et al, 1982), tributyltin (Pinkey et al, 1989) and, in acidic waters, aluminium (Youson and Neville, 1987).…”