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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.44, 1-14
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
1
Research Article Open Access
Comparative Studies of Hepatic and Blood Biomarkers in Three Species of Black
Sea Elasmobranchs
I.I. Rudneva , I.I. Dorokhova, E.N. Skuratovskaya, N.S. Kuz’minova
Ichthyology Department, Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas National Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimov av. 2, Sevastopol, C rimea,
99011, Ukraine
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol.4, No.44 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0044
Received: 25 Feb., 2014
Accepted: 30 Mar., 2014
Published: 08 Aug., 2014
Copyright
©
2014 Rudneva et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Rudneva et al., 2014, Comparative Studies of Hepatic and Blood Biomarkers in Three Species of Black Sea Elasmobranchs, International Journal of Marine
Science, Vol.4, No.44 1-14 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0044)
Abstract
Basic health and physiological research on elasmobranch species is very important for improving understanding of
evolutionary processes and mechanisms of their adaptation in a changing climate. To date, little is known about the physiology,
baseline health, or adaptability of elasmobranchs. Yet anthropogenic factors such as global environmental pollution and fishing
pressures are affecting elasmobranch population size and structure. How these species will respond and adapt to such pressures
remains unknown. To begin to understand health and physiology of three elasmobranch species Atlantic spiny dogfish
Squalus
acanthias,
buckler skate
Raja clavata
and stringray
Dasyatis pastinaca
in the Black Sea we collected blood and liver and measured
baseline parameters including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (PER) and glutathione reductase (GR),
alaninaminotransferase (ALT) and aspartataminotransferase (AST), oligopeptides, albumin and hemoglobin
.
Results indicate
interspecific differences in enzymatic activities that correlate with differences in fish biology and ecology. Hepatic aminotransferases
and serum oligopeptides concentrations were significantly greater in benthic/pelagic shark (
S. acanthias
) than in benthic sluggish
rays (
R. clavata
and
D. pastinaca
). Hepatic antioxidant activities were greater in benthic skates than in benthic/pelagic shark. These
differences may due to an increased risk of exposure to pollution combined with hypoxic conditions in the benthic habitat of skates in
the Black Sea. These results demonstrate the potential to use baseline health parameters in wild elasmobranchs to understand how
their life history and interactions with their environment affects their physiological responses. This in turn can be used to indicate the
main strategy of biochemical adaptations of fish evolutionary processes and the possible mechanisms of fish adaptations and
responses to survive in an environment heavily impacted by anthropogenic pollution.
Keywords
Elasmobranchs; Aminotransferases; Antioxidant enzymes; Oligopeptides; Liver; Blood; Black Sea
1 Introduction
There are more 500 species of elasmobranches (sharks,
skates and rays) belonging to different ecological
groups. These groups are characterized by a specific
life cycle, foraging behavior, swimming activity and
reproduction (Harms et al., 2002). Elasmobranchs, an
ancient taxa with diverse evolutionary history, are
interesting organisms for studying comparative
physiology and biochemistry. Marine species have
high concentrations of plasma urea and trimethylamin
oxide (TMO), both of which are essential to maintain
plasma osmolality within physiological ranges. A
majority of elasmobranchs are predatory carnivorous
species at the top of the marine food web. Therefore,
they serve as important species to monitor
environmental toxicology and contamination of
marine ecosystems, not only for the health of marine
wildlife, but also human health (Gelsteichter et al.,
1998; Sole et al., 2007; 2008; 2009; Haman et al.,
2012).
Both sharks and rays have been extensively fished for
human consumption (Mathews and Fisher, 2009). The
flesh of elasmobranchs often contain significant
concentrations of fat-soluble vitamins (D, E and A),
essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, and antioxidants
(Rudneva, 1997; 1998; 2012), all significant
nutritional components of the human diet.
Furthermore, the adipose tissue of many
elasmobranchs is used in pharmacology like the
source of fat-soluble vitamins and the manufacture of
feedstuffs for human consumption (Mathews and
Fisher, 2009). This fishing pressure on elasmobranchs