Journal
COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY B-BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Volume 137, Issue 2, Pages 225-234Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpc.2003.11.004
Keywords
copper; copper accumulation; liver; metallothionein; low temperature; neotropical fish; Prochilodus scrofa; water pH
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Copper accumulation and induction of metallothionein (MT) were investigated in the liver of juvenile Prochilodus scrofa exposed to copper (96 h-LC50) at pH 4.5 (LC50 = 98 +/- 0.8 mug Cu l(-1)) and pH 8.0 (LC50 = 16 +/- 0.5 mug Cu l(-1)) at 20 degreesC. No significant difference was found in copper accumulated in the liver at either pH. The ratio between copper accumulation in the liver after 96 h exposure and the copper in the water at pH 4.5 and 8.0 was 5.1 and 34.4, respectively. MT in the liver of fish exposed to copper was isolated by DEAE-Sepharose chromatography and identified by SIDS-PAGE. No MT was identified in the controls. MT concentration was 126.8 +/- 21.5 and 167.4 +/- 25.6 mug g(-1) wet mass in fish exposed to copper at pH 4.5 and pH 8.0 (P>0.05), respectively. The results indicate that the pH of the water is a determining factor in copper toxicity, and the increased concentration of MT in the liver of R scrofa exposed to copper suggests the possibility of using MT as a biomarker to evaluate the biological response of this species to copper contamination in aquatic environments. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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