Investigation of tissue enzymes alterations following cyanide poisoning in common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract

    Cyanide is a potent and ubiquitous toxicant. Acute cyanide intoxication could be fatal due to inhibition of respiratory chain. Moreover various health disorders and histopahological lesions have been reported following chronic cyanide poisoning in humans and animals. The aim of the current study was to determine the effects of choronic cyanide exposure on enzyme activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase(ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and rhodanese in some tissues of common carp. In this study 75 healthy common carp, weighing approximately 60 g were divided randomly into three groups of 25 each. These three groups were maintained in similar environmental and nutritional conditions and were exposed to 0.0, 0.2 and 0.4  mg/L potassium cyanide for 14 days, respectively. At the end of each exposure, enzyme activities in prepared tissue homogenates of liver, kidney,gill, and brain were determined using validated spectrophotometric methods. Cyanide exposoure (0.2 mg/L) caused a significant (p<0.05) increase in AST and LDH activities in the liver as compared with the normal control group. Additionally, cyanide exposure (0.4 mg/L) caused a significant increase in AST, LDH and rhodanese activities in the liver, AST activity in the brain and LDH activity in the kidney as compared to control group (p<0.05). The observed alterations in the activity of tissue enzymes reflect the metabolic disturbances due to chronic cyanide intoxication in studied organs.

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