Publications by authors named "Bozidar Raskovic"

This study aimed to determine concentrations of 29 elements in the gills and liver as well as biomarker response in gills, liver, and blood of European chub from Pek River (exposed to long-term mining activities), and to compare these findings with individuals from Ibar River (influenced by emission of treated municipal wastewater) and Kruščica reservoir (source of drinking water) using inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The metal pollution index (MPI) was also calculated. Supporting analyses for the detection of the municipal wastewater presence at investigated localities included analyses of microbiological indicators (total coliforms and Escherichia coli) of faecal pollution.

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Ichthyophonosis is a disease caused by the mesomycetozoean parasite Ichthyophonus hoferi that affects a variety of fish species, including rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum. This disease is characterized by granulomatous lesions and necrosis in various organs, which can have severe impacts on the health and welfare of the fish. Ichthyophonosis has been found in several parts of the world, including Europe, and is a significant concern in the aquaculture industry and for populations of wild marine fishes.

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In this study a battery of bioassays, both in vivo (metals and metalloids concentrations, erythrocyte morphometry, comet assay, micronucleus assay, and histopathological analyses) on vimba bream Vimba vimba (L., 1758) and white bream Blicca bjoerkna (L., 1758), and in vitro (treatment of HepG2 cells with native water samples) was applied to assess the harmful potential of untreated wastewater.

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Atmospheric pollution remains one of the growing concerns in the twenty-first century, with particular focus on metal trace elements (MTE) from anthropogenic sources, due to their adverse effects on biota. The concentration and type of MTE in the atmosphere and in the soil are diverse, depending on the origin of pollutants, which can cause diverse detrimental effects on organisms living in the nearby environment. Three sites in Central Serbia with different origins of MTE pollution (urban contamination, smelting, and fly ash area) were assessed, using terrestrial Roman snails (Helix pomatia) as biomarker organisms.

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Five reservoirs (Vlasina, Medjuvršje, Zaovine, Perućac, and Garaši) in Serbia were chosen as study sites, which differ by their position, purpose, stages of eutrophication, management policies, and levels of anthropogenic pressure. The objectives of this research were to: determine the concentrations of 26 elements in muscle, gills, and liver of the European chub by inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES); determine the concentrations of 17 organochlorine pesticides in fish muscle by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC-MS); compare these findings with condition factor (CF) and histopathological (HP) biomarkers; and assess the potential human health risks due to consumption of chub muscle tissue. The highest elemental accumulation was found in the gills.

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This study was conducted on the Danube River locality Višnjica, exposed to the discharge of the largest wastewater collector in Serbia's capital, Belgrade. Concentrations of metals and metalloids (Al, Fe, Cr, As, Sr, Mn, Cd, Zn, Mo, Cu, Li, Ni, B, Co, Pb, and Ba) and histopathological alterations were investigated in different tissues of common bream during one representative month of each season in 2014. This is the first study in which these two biomarkers were assessed parallelly in common bream.

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Accumulation of 26 elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Se, Si, Sr, and Zn) was analyzed in the gills, liver, and muscle of pikeperch males and females from Garaši reservoir using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Histopathological (HP) changes in the gills and liver, and human health risk were also analyzed. The gills were most affected by metal pollution in both sexes.

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Species persistence in a changing world will depend on how they cope with co-occurring stressors. Stressors can interact in unanticipated ways, where exposure to one stressor may heighten or reduce resilience to another stressor. We examined how a leading threat to aquatic species, nitrate pollution, affects susceptibility to hypoxia and heat stress in a salmonid, the European grayling (Thymallus thymallus).

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The individual toxicity and bioaccumulation of cadmium, copper and zinc for common carp juveniles was evaluated in a direct comparison in two experimental setups. First, fish were exposed for 10 days to different metal concentrations in order to link metal bioaccumulation to LC50 values (concentration lethal to 50% of the animals) and incipient lethal levels (ILL, concentration where 50% survives indefinitely). Accumulated metals showed a positive dose dependent uptake for cadmium and copper, but not for zinc.

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This study was conducted on individuals of European perch from six reservoirs in Serbia with different properties, used for different purposes, and situated at different altitudes. Samples of muscle, gills, and liver, as well as water samples, were used for analysis of elemental accumulation. Histopathological (HP) analysis of gills and liver, and Fulton's condition factor (CF) were used as biomarkers.

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Aim: To characterize stem cells originating from different dental tissues (apical papilla [SCAP], dental follicle [DFSC], and pulp [DPSC]) and test the capacity of Raman microspectroscopy to distinguish between the three dental stem cell types.

Methods: SCAP, DFSC, and DPSC cultures were generated from three immature wisdom teeth originating from three patients. Cell stemness was confirmed by inducing neuro-, osteo-, chondro-, and adipo-differentiaton and by mesenchymal marker expression analysis by flow-cytometry and real-time polymerase chain reaction.

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Assessing fish liver status is common in aquaculture nutrition assays. This often implies determining hepatocytes profile areas in routine thin (5-7 μm) histological sections. However, there are theoretical problems using planar morphometry in thin sections: inherent sampling cells biases, too small numbers of sampled cells, under/overestimation of size, measuring size as areas when cells are three-dimensional (3D) entities.

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It has been suggested that induced swimming has the potential to improve the growth performance of fish. We tested this hypothesis by measuring growth, metabolic efficiency and physiological capacity of common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Fish were swum at different exercise regimes: 0.

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Chub (Squalius cephalus) specimens were collected in Korenita River seven months after spillover from the waste water of antimony mine tailing pond and compared with chub living in Kruščica reservoir (intended for water supply) and Međuvršje reservoir (influenced by intense emission of industrial, urban and rural wastewater). Concentrations of 15 elements (Al, As, B, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Si, Sr, Zn) were determined in muscle, liver and gills of chub by inductively coupled plasma optical spectrometry (ICP-OES) and histopathological alterations in liver and gills were assessed. Chub specimens from Korenita River had higher concentrations of As, Ba and Pb in all three investigated tissues as well as higher total histopathological index values than chub from reservoirs.

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Biomarkers attract increasing attention in environmental studies, as a tool for detection of exposure and effects of pollution, from both natural and anthropogenic sources. This study aims to assess the impact of multiple stressors during distinctive seasons, covering also extreme hydrological events (extensive flooding in the mid May 2014), on different levels of biological organization in the liver and gills of three closely related freshwater breams. Our previous study on DNA damage in blood cells of these specimens showed increased DNA damage in June 2014, one month after the flooding event.

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The antibacterial activity of methanol extract obtained from fruiting body of industrially grown basidiomycete Coriolus versicolor was examined. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values against various bacteria ranged from 0.625 to 20 mg mL(-1).

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Subacute and subchronic toxicity of the herbicide Avalon(®), a mixture of bentazone and dicamba, were tested on rats. Avalon(®) was administered at dose levels of 250, 500 and 1000mg/kg body weight/day for 28 and 90 days. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities were monitored together with biochemistry parameters.

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The bottom feeding fish species have a good potential to be used for assessments of pollution, as they are under pressure from pollutants from both water and sediments. In this study, the level of similarity of histopathological responses to pollution in gills and liver between barbel (Barbus barbus) and sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) from the Danube River was assessed, and compared with elemental concentrations in their gills, liver, and muscle. Results indicate that the detected metal concentrations were likely cause of different tissue responses in gills and liver of the two investigated fish species.

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The sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus L.) is a bottom-feeding fish species with a direct exposure to contaminants from water and sediments. Although heavy metal pollution is believed to be one of the main threats to the sterlet population in the Danube River basin, there is a lack of knowledge of the exact impact of heavy metals on their survival.

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