Hydropic vacuolation in the liver of three species of fish from the U.S. West Coast:lesion description and risk assessment associated with contaminant exposure

Abstract

Hydropic vacuolation (HydVac) of biliary epithelial cells and hepatocytes is described for 3 species of U.S. West Coast bottom fishes. Risk assessment analyses are also conducted to determine if the prevalence of this lesion increases in assoclation with contaminant exposure and site of capture. The morphology of HydVac in starry flounder Platichthys stellatus, white croaker Genyonemus lineatus and rock sole Lepidopsetta b~lineata was similar to that described in winter flounder Pleuronectes amencanus from the U.S. Atlantic Coast, especially in that HydVac most commonly affected biliary epithelial cells. Hydropic vacuolation was the most prevalent liver lesion in starry flounder and white croaker captured from contaminated environments. Risk assessment analyses confirmed that the relative risk for HydVac Increased with the presence of aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons in sediment, fish bile, and flsh liver for these species. Hydropic vacuolation also frequently occurred in rock sole, but the lesion showed no clear association with contaminant exposure in this species. The types of liver lesions that were useful biomarkers of contaminant effects in fish depended on the species and this factor must be taken into account when evaluating histopathological biomarkers of response to contaminant exposure.

Liver histopathology in Baltic flounder (Platichthys flesus) as indicator of biological effects of contaminants

“…Because of the growing evidence of a cause-effect relationship between environmental contaminants and the occurrence of toxicopathic liver lesions in fish (Malins et al, 1988;Kö hler, 1990;Kö hler et al, 1992;Stein et al, 1992;Vethaak and Rheinallt, 1992;Moore and Myers, 1994;Myers et al, 1991Myers et al, , 1992Myers et al, , 1994Myers et al, , 1998aStehr et al, 1998;Stentiford et al, 2003;Feist et al, 2004), studies on liver histopathology in fish have increasingly been incorporated in national marine biological effects monitoring programmes (Lang, 2002a;Feist et al, 2004). On an international level, such studies are in the process of being implemented in integrated environmental monitoring and assessment programmes, e.g., as part of the OSPAR Coordinated Environmental Monitoring Programme (CEMP) for the northeast Atlantic (OSPAR, 2004).…”

“…The majority of studies on liver histopathology in flatfish species in relation to contaminants has been carried out in coastal waters of the USA (e.g., Malins et al, 1985aMalins et al, ,b, 1988Myers et al, 1991Myers et al, , 1992Myers et al, , 1994Myers et al, , 1998aStein et al, 1992;Moore et al, 1997;Stehr et al, 1998) and in the North Sea (e.g., Kranz and Dethlefsen, 1990;Bucke and Feist, 1993;Kö hler, 1990;Kö hler et al, 1992;Lang, 2002b;Stentiford et al, 2003). For the Baltic Sea, there is only limited information available, largely resulting from data generated within the 1994 ICES/BMB Workshop on Fish Diseases and Parasites in the Baltic Sea Bogovski et al, 1999) and some national studies (Bogovski, 1994;Lang and Dethlefsen, 1994;Wiklund and Bylund, 1994).…”

Eco-Histopathology of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) from Industrially Contaminated Locations of Ologe Lagoon, South-western, Nigeria

“…These include pigmented macrophage aggregation (Patino et al, 2003;Fournie, 2001). Hepatocytes vacoulation (Stehr et al, 1998), multi foci coagulative necrosis and liver fatty degeneration. These biomarkers have been conclusively linked with certain factors: increase in age (Blazer et al, 2007), stress (Fournie, 2001) and degeneration relative to the level of exposure to PCBs (Stehr et al, 1998).…”

“…Hepatocytes vacoulation (Stehr et al, 1998), multi foci coagulative necrosis and liver fatty degeneration. These biomarkers have been conclusively linked with certain factors: increase in age (Blazer et al, 2007), stress (Fournie, 2001) and degeneration relative to the level of exposure to PCBs (Stehr et al, 1998). The preponderance of these lesions in fish from contaminated waters bordering urban locations similar to our test location with Oreochromis niloticus has been firmly established and described in details for Winter flounder Pleuronectes americanus (Augspurger et al, 1994, Blazer et al, 2007Murchelano et al, 1985) and conclusively establish a direct relationship between pervasiveness and severity of this lesion, hepatic neoplasm and levels of site contamination.…”

Parasites and hystopathology of <i>Mullus barbatus</i> and <i>Citharus linguatula</i> (Pisces) from two sites in the NW Mediterranean with different degrees of pollution

“…Levels of pollutants in sentinel organisms and the responses that these pollutants trigger in individuals have been successfully used as biomarkers of pollution (Broeg et al, 1999;Handy et al, 2002;Williams and Mackenzie, 2003;Au, 2004). Histopathology has been shown to be a useful tool for detecting sublethal and chronic damage of pollution in marine organisms (Stehr et al, 1998;Bernet et al, 1999;Korkea-aho et al, 2006). Since fish parasites can reflect adverse effects of complex and variable environmental stresses (Lafferty, 1997;Landsberg et al, 1998;Lafferty and Kuris, 1999;MacKenzie, 1999;Dzikowski et al, 2003;Williams and Mackenzie, 2003), the study of fish parasite community structure has been proposed as a more sensitive indicator than the study of fishes themselves (Landsberg et al, 1998).…”