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Seasonality of nuclear abnormalities in gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata (L.) erythrocytes

Fish Physiology and Biochemistry volume 35, pages 287–291 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The frequencies of erythrocyte nuclear abnormalities, such as irregularly shaped (ISN), vacuolated nuclei (VN), binucleated cells (BN), including micronuclei (MN), were monitored in the peripheral blood of cultured gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata L.) from the southern Adriatic Sea (Croatia) and assessed for a relation to seasonality. Fish were sampled in February, April, June, and September. The lowest frequencies of ISN and MN were measured in April, and the lowest frequencies of VN and BN were found in February. The highest values of ISN and BN were detected in September. The highest values of MN and the most frequent occurrence of VN occurred in June and April, respectively. The Spearman rank order correlation test revealed a significant positive correlation between the frequencies of ISN, BN and MN; VN did not correlate with any of the measured parameters. The ISN had significantly higher nuclear surface area values than normal nuclei (P < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that the measured parameters displayed a distinct seasonality. Consequently, we conclude that seasonal variations should be taken into account when nuclear abnormalities are used as biomarkers. This variation should be well understood in order to successfully separate true contamination effects from seasonal factors that have the potential to affect the frequency and occurrence of nuclear abnormalities.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Abbreviations

BN:

Binuclei

ISN:

Irregularly shaped nuclei

MN:

Micronuclei

VN:

Vacuolated nuclei

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Mr. Miodrag Paponja, DVM for his assistance in sample collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Materials Chemistry, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia

    Ivancica Strunjak-Perovic, Rozelindra Coz-Rakovac, Natalija Topic Popovic & Margita Jadan

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  1. Ivancica Strunjak-Perovic
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  2. Rozelindra Coz-Rakovac
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  3. Natalija Topic Popovic
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  4. Margita Jadan
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Correspondence to Ivancica Strunjak-Perovic.

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Strunjak-Perovic, I., Coz-Rakovac, R., Topic Popovic, N. et al. Seasonality of nuclear abnormalities in gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata (L.) erythrocytes. Fish Physiol Biochem 35, 287–291 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-008-9208-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-008-9208-3

Keywords

  • Dissolved oxygen
  • Micronucleus
  • Nuclear alteration
  • Salinity
  • Water temperature

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