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Silver nanoparticles induce histopathological alterations in juvenile Penaeus vannamei

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the histopathological alterations in juvenile Penaeus vannamei caused by silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for two types of experiments: at sublethal concentrations of 3.6 to 7.1 μg/μL of metallic silver (Ag) for a short period up to 72 h and for 2.6 to 7.9 μg of Ag/μL for the long period up to 264 h. The severity degree of the changes was evaluated and the histopathological index (Hi) was determined in both experiments using the necrosis (cellular dead) as an indicator. The pathological changes in the striated muscle, gills, antennal gland, circulatory system, heart, lymphoid organ, and connective tissue are described. The histopathological effects were similar for the two experiments without a direct relationship with the concentrations. In the short-term experiment, the values of Hi were higher (2.34 ± 0.41 at 48 hpi and 1.91 ± 0.39 at 72 hpi) compared with the long-term experiment (values between 0.57 ± 0.36 to 1.74 ± 0.57 at 264 hpi). The observed pathologies are similar to those caused by other metals, with the exception of the agglomerations of black particles in the gills, lymphoid organ, and muscle, which has not been previously reported. This work shows that silver nanoparticles cause damage to shrimp in sublethal concentrations.

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The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank CONACyT for the support granted to the Basic Science Project number 258607 and Russian grand N18-29-24037. We also thank Tomsk Polytechnic University Competitiveness Enhancement Program, Project VIU-RS. Also, important recognition is given to the technicians Victor Joaquín Álvarez López and José Antonio Velázquez Garay, for their support during the experiments.

Funding

All sources of funding for the research were declared. The National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) granted MCCHS (CONACyT grant number 258607), while the Russian project N18-29-24037 supplied the silver nanoparticles of the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mazatlan Unit of the Research Center for Food and Development, Unidad Mazatlán del CIAD, A.C. Av. Sábalo-Cerritos s/n, 82112, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico

    María-Cristina Chávez-Sánchez, Selene Abad-Rosales, Rodolfo Lozano-Olvera & Leobardo Montoya-Rodríguez

  2. Technological Institute of Mazatlán, Calle Corsario 1 No. 203 Col. Urías, A.P 757, 82070, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico

    Miguel Ángel Franco-Nava

  3. The Northwestern Center of Biological Research, National Polytechnic Institute, s/n Playa Palo de Santa Rita, 23096, La Paz, Baja California, Mexico

    Claudio Humberto Mejía-Ruíz

  4. Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia

    Alexey Pestryakov

  5. Center of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology, National Autonomous University of México, Km 107 Carretera Tijuana-Ensenada, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

    Nina Bogdanchikova

Authors
  1. María-Cristina Chávez-Sánchez
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  2. Selene Abad-Rosales
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Contributions

MCCHS: leadership responsible for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team. Management and coordination responsibility for research activity planning. Planning with the group the experimental design and methodology. Responsible together with the histology group for the histopathology results. Preparation and translation of the work to be published together with the histopathology group

SAR: from the histopathology group. Responsible for the histology processing as well as for the analysis and description of the histopathology observed in the treated shrimps. Responsible for the analysis of the data and application of statistics. Preparation of the work to be published in conjunction with the leader and RLO

RLO: histopathology group. Responsible for the histology processing as well as for the analysis and description of the histopathology observed in the treated shrimps, together SAR and MCCHS. Analysis of the data and application of statistics. Preparation of the work to be published together with the leader and SAR

LMR: participate actively in the design of the experiments and in the execution of the tests. Contributes in obtaining the best shrimp juveniles and its better management during the experiments, provision of study materials, reagents, materials, and instrumentation

MAFN: participate actively in the design of the experiments and in the execution of the tests. Verification, as a part of the activity of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments. Analysis of the data and application of statistics. Specially, critical review, commentary, and revision

CHRM: participate actively in the design of the experiments and in the execution of the tests. Critical review, commentary, or revision of the paper

AP: donation of the silver nanoparticles

NB: critical review, commentary, and revision of the paper

Cristina Chávez led the project, got the financial, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing original draft, and visualization, and changes was realized by all the authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to María-Cristina Chávez-Sánchez.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures were performed according to Mexican guidelines and policies stated in the NOM-062-ZOO-1999 (these guidelines apply mostly to mammalian species but we applied the same principles regarding animal welfare and care) and British guidelines for fish welfare reported by Ashley (2007).

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Highlights

• Sublethal concentrations of silver nanoparticles caused 23% mortality to shrimp

• Silver nanoparticles at sublethal levels cause pathological damage to shrimp

• Silver nanoparticles produce necrosis to different tissues and organs

• The treated shrimp could mitigate through their immune system the effects of AgNps

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Chávez-Sánchez, MC., Abad-Rosales, S., Lozano-Olvera, R. et al. Silver nanoparticles induce histopathological alterations in juvenile Penaeus vannamei. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 8224–8234 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11175-3

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