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GH, IGF-I and GH receptors mRNA expression in response to growth impairment following a food deprivation period in individually housed cichlid fish Cichlasoma dimerus

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Abstract

Cichlasoma dimerus is a social cichlid fish capable of growing at high rates under laboratory conditions, but knowledge on somatic growth regulation is still unclear. Growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) axis is the key regulator of somatic growth in vertebrates. Two types of growth hormone receptors have been described in teleost fish, named GH receptor type 1 (GHR1) and type 2 (GHR2). In addition, isoforms of these receptors lacking part of the intracellular region have been described. The aim of this study was to evaluate the somatic growth, liver histology and changes in the GH/IGF-I axis after 4 weeks of food deprivation in C. dimerus. Four-week fasted fish showed reductions in specific growth rates in body weight (p < 0.001) and standard length (p < 0.001). Additionally, the hepatosomatic index (p < 0.001) and hepatocyte area (p < 0.001) decreased in fasted fish, while no changes in glucose levels were detected in plasma. The starvation protocol failed to induce changes in GH mRNA levels in the pituitary and IGF-I mRNA levels in liver. In contrast, IGF-I mRNA levels in muscle decreased in fasted fish (p = 0.002). On the other hand, GHR2 (detected with primer sets designed over the extracellular and intracellular region) was upregulated by starvation both in liver and muscle (p < 0.05), while GHR1 remained unchanged. These results show that a fasting period reduced somatic growth both in length and body weight concomitantly with alterations on liver and muscle GHR2 and muscle IGF-I mRNA expression.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Pablo Botta and Ignacio Simo for their assistance and Dr. Maximiliano Cánepa for his constructive comments. This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (Grant Number: PICT 2005 P.V.), CONICET (Grant Number: PIP: 0276 P.V.) and Universidad de Buenos Aires (Grant Number: 20020120100280 P.V.).

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Neuroendocrinología del Crecimiento y la Reproducción, DBBE, FCEN-UBA, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EGA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Tomás Horacio Delgadin, Daniela Irina Pérez Sirkin, María Paula Di Yorio & Paula Gabriela Vissio

  2. IBBEA-CONICET-UBA, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EGA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Tomás Horacio Delgadin, Daniela Irina Pérez Sirkin, María Paula Di Yorio & Paula Gabriela Vissio

  3. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario (IBR-CONICET)–Área Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, CONICET and Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Ocampo y Esmeralda s/n, Rosario (2000), Provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina

    Silvia Eda Arranz

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  1. Tomás Horacio Delgadin
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  2. Daniela Irina Pérez Sirkin
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  3. María Paula Di Yorio
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  5. Paula Gabriela Vissio
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Correspondence to Paula Gabriela Vissio.

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Delgadin, T.H., Pérez Sirkin, D.I., Di Yorio, M.P. et al. GH, IGF-I and GH receptors mRNA expression in response to growth impairment following a food deprivation period in individually housed cichlid fish Cichlasoma dimerus . Fish Physiol Biochem 41, 51–60 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-014-0005-x

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