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Histological changes in fish hepatopancreas and kidney as indicators of environmental quality in tropical bays

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Abstract

Biomarkers are used to assess health conditions of organisms and consequently to indicate environmental hazard, being important tools to address the effects of pollutants on environmental quality. We analyzed the hepatopancreas and kidney of two sciaenid fishes, the southern kingcroaker Menticirrhus americanus and the whitemouth croaker Micropogonias furnieri in the Paraty Bay (control system) and in the Sepetiba Bay (altered system) in southeast Brazilian coast. The altered bay is heavily affected by human activities, compared to the control bay, where the human interference is much reduced. The tested hypothesis was that these species respond to environmental changes with fishes from the altered bay having more histological changes in the hepatopancreas and kidney compared with those from the control bay. The fish hepatopancreas and kidneys from the altered system had high 50–100% incidence of changes and the histopathological alteration index reached values above 100 in the hepatopancreas and kidney, indicating irreversible damage to the organs. In contrast, in the control system, those values ranged between 20 and 100, indicating moderate and severe organ damages. These findings suggest that these organs and these two fish species can be considered useful biomarkers to assess environmental contamination in tropical bays.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) (Brazil Finance Code 001).

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  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação Em Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal Rural Do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465, Km 7, Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, 23970-030, Brazil

    Thatiana Luiza Assis de Brito Carvalho

  2. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas E da SaúdeÁrea de Histologia E Embriologia, Universidade Federal Rural Do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465, Km 7, Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, 23970-030, Brazil

    Aparecida Alves do Nascimento

  3. Laboratório de Ecologia de Peixes, Universidade Federal Rural Do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465, Km 7, Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, 23970-030, Brazil

    Iracema David Gomes & Francisco Gerson Araújo

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  1. Thatiana Luiza Assis de Brito Carvalho
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Thatiana Luiza Assis de Brito Carvalho: formal analysis, writing—original draft. Aparecida Alves do Nascimento: formal analysis, writing—original draft. Iracema David Gomes: writing—review and editing. Francisco Gerson Araújo: writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Thatiana Luiza Assis de Brito Carvalho.

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Assis de Brito Carvalho, T.L., do Nascimento, A.A., Gomes, I.D. et al. Histological changes in fish hepatopancreas and kidney as indicators of environmental quality in tropical bays. Environ Biol Fish 105, 917–931 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01300-1

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