Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a globally prevalent contaminant of concern recognised for its persistence and detrimental effects on both wildlife and humans. While PFOA has been established as a disruptor of thyroid function, limited data exist regarding its impact on thyroid morphology. The kidney of the common carp () harbours numerous thyroid follicles, rendering it a valuable biomarker organ for investigating PFOA-induced thyroid alterations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFish, comprising over 27,000 species, represent the oldest vertebrate group and possess both innate and adaptive immune systems. The susceptibility of most wild fish to parasitic infections and related diseases is well-established. Among all vertebrates, the digestive tract creates a remarkably favorable and nutrient-rich environment, which, in turn, renders it susceptible to microparasites and macroparasites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPer- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants, with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) being a prominent member. PFOA poses a risk to aquatic ecosystems and human health due to its presence in water, environmental persistence, and bioaccumulation. Since rodlet cells (RCs) have emerged as potential biomarkers for chemical stressors, this study aimed to investigate the effects of sub-chronic PFOA exposure on RCs in the renal hematopoietic tissue of common carp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
March 2023
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances can be referred to as the most critical group of contaminants of emerging concern. They can accumulate in high concentration in the kidney and are known to potentially affect its function. Nonetheless, there is a lack of knowledge about their morphopathological effect on the glomerular filtration barrier.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPer- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are resistant to breakdown and are now considered ubiquitous and concerning contaminants. Although scientific and legislative interest in these compounds has greatly increased in recent decades, our knowledge about their environmental fate and their effects on organisms is still incomplete, especially those of the new generation PFAS. In this study, we analysed the level of PFAS contamination in the fish fauna of the Po River, the most important waterway in Italy, to evaluate the influence of different factors (such as fish ecological traits and parasitism) on the accumulation of 17 PFAS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGiven the abundance, heterogeneity and ubiquity of parasitic organisms, understanding how they influence biodiversity, evolution, health and ecosystem functionality is crucial, especially currently when anthropogenic pressures are altering host–parasite balances. This review describes the features, roles and impacts of metazoan parasites of fish occurring in transitional waters (TW). These aquatic ecosystems are highly productive and widespread around the globe and represent most favourable theatres for parasitism given the availability of hosts (invertebrates, fishes and birds) and an increased probability of parasite transmission, especially of those having complex life cycles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
July 2022
Carp kidney is comprised of nephrons, hemopoietic tissue, and also hormonally-active thyroid follicles. Given this anatomical trait, it has been used to assess the thyroid disrupting potential of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a widespread and feared per- poly-fluoroalkyl substance and a persistent organic pollutant capable of interfering with the endocrine system in animals and humans. The occurrence and morphology of thyroid follicles in kidneys of carp experimentally exposed to 200 ng L or 2 mg L waterborne PFOA for 56 days were studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPer- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic contaminants of global concern for environmental and public health. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an important PFAS, and considerable attention has been paid to its hepatotoxicity and reproductive and developmental impact, while potential nephrotoxic effects are largely ignored, especially in fish. This study documents the structural and ultrastructural effects on kidney of common carp Cyprinus carpio exposed to waterborne PFOA at an environmentally relevant concentration of 200 ng L and at 2 mg L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDefence mechanisms of fish can be divided into specific and non-specific that act in concert and are often interdependent. Most fish in both wild and cultured populations are vulnerable to metazoan parasites. Endoparasitic helminths include several species of digeneans, cestodes, nematodes, and acanthocephalans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Toxicol Pharmacol
January 2021
Liver perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) pathophysiology and related morphofunction disturbances were studied in common carp at the cellular and subcellular level and with box-counting fractal analysis of ultrathin sections to assess the effect of PFOA exposure on hepatocyte structure complexity and heterogeneity. Three experimental groups were investigated: unexposed; low exposure (200 ng L PFOA); high exposure (2 mg L PFOA). PFOA-exposed cells showed differences from controls at both tested concentrations, manifested mainly as cloudy swelling and reversible vacuolar degeneration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Parasitol Parasites Wildl
August 2020
The resilience of biological communities is of central importance in ecology, but is difficult to investigate in nature. Parasite communities in individual hosts provide good model systems, as they allow a level of replication usually not possible with free-living communities. Here, using temporal data (2005-2017) on the communities of endohelminth parasites in European eels, , from brackish-water lagoons in Italy, we test the resilience of interspecific associations to changes in the abundance of some parasite species and the disappearance of others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) poses particular concern as an emerging pollutant in both surface and ground waters. Fish, as a natural inhabitant of these waters and being highly representative of vertebrates, represents an ideal animal model to assess the toxic effects of PFOA. Hereby, liver microscopic texture was comparatively evaluated in individuals of common carp subchronically exposed to PFOA using grayscale differential box counting, a fractal analysis method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe evaluated the histology of the spiral intestine of the blackmouth catshark (Galeus melastomus), a small shark distributed in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea basin. Entire digestive tracts of 10 G. melastomus were studied using histochemical, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Northern pike, Esox lucius, is a large, long-lived, top-predator fish species and occupies a broad range of aquatic environments. This species is on its way to becoming an important model organism and has the potential to contribute new knowledge and a better understanding of ecology and evolutionary biology. Very few studies have been done on the intestinal pathology of pike infected with helminths.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis investigation aims to fill gaps in our understanding of the intestinal immune cells of elasmobranchs. Whole digestive tracts of fifteen thornback ray Raja clavata were provided by a trawl fleet from the Gulf of Asinara (Sardinia, western Mediterranean Sea). Histochemical, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural observations were conducted on the spiral intestine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ultrastructure and morphometrics of pigmented macrophages (PMs) were assessed in the spleen of European sea bass experimentally dosed with Cd and Hg. PMs occurred either as solitary cells or as variably structured aggregations, defined as macrophage aggregates (MAs). Light microscopy revealed a high degree of morphological heterogeneity amongst MAs of all experimental groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRodlet cells (RC) are characterized by a distinctive cell cortex and conspicuous inclusions named "rodlets." These cells are particularly abundant and large in size in intestine of eels. Histochemical, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural investigations were carried out on European eel Anguilla anguilla and Common carp Cyprinus carpio from Northern Italy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aimed to evaluate the effects of environmental doses of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) on bioconcentration and gene expression in common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Adult male and female carp were exposed to environmental (200 ng/L) and experimental (2 mg/L) doses of PFOA for 56 d. Carp exposed to 200 ng/L had levels of PFOA below the level of detection in all tissue samples analyzed, whereas variable concentrations were measurable in various tissues from carp exposed to 2 mg/L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe histopathology and ultrastructure of the intestine of mullets, Liza ramada and Liza saliens, from Comacchio lagoons (northern Italy) naturally infected with myxozoans and helminths were investigated and described. Sixty-two (80.5%) of 77 mullets harboured one or more of the following parasites species: Myxobolus mugchelo (Myxozoa), Neoechinorhynchus agilis (Acanthocephala), Haplosplanchnus pachysomus and Dicrogaster contractus (Digenea).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistopathological lesions due to third-larval stage of nematode Brevimulticaecum sp. within the liver of a subpopulation of 31 Gymnotus inaequilabiatus from the Pantanal Region (Brazil) were studied with histochemical and immunohistochemical methods. In 93.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper provides histological and ultrastructural data on Myxobolus mugchelo (Myxozoa), a parasite of the intestinal wall of thinlip mullet Liza ramada from the Comacchio lagoons (Northern Adriatic Sea, Italy). About 80% of the examined mullets were infected with this myxozoan. In histological sections, the plasmodia appeared rounded to ovoid and spindle shaped, measured 181.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmunohistochemical, immunofluorescence and ultrastructural studies were conducted on a sub-population of 20 wels catfish Silurus glanis from a tributary of the River Po (Northern Italy). Fish were examined for the presence of ecto- and endo-parasites; in the intestine of 5 fish, 11 specimens of cestode Glanitaenia osculata were noted and was the only helminth species encountered. The architecture of intestine and its cellular features were nearly identical in either the uninfected S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistopathological, immunofluorescence and ultrastructural studies were conducted on the intestines of four fish species infected with different taxa of enteric helminths. Brown trout (Salmo trutta trutta), eel (Anguilla anguilla) and tench (Tinca tinca) obtained from Lake Piediluco (central Italy) were examined. Brown trout and eel were infected with two species of acanthocephalans, and tench was parasitized with a tapeworm species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A survey on endoparasitic helminths from freshwater fishes in the Pantanal Region (Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil) revealed the occurrence of third-larval stage of the nematode Brevimulticaecum sp. (Heterocheilidae) in most organs of Gymnotus inaequilabiatus (Gymnotidae) also known by the local name tuvira. The aim of the present study was to examine Brevimulticaecum sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Pollut Res Int
August 2016
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an important and diffuse perfluorinated alkylated substance, but knowledge of the toxicological effects of this endocrine disrupter in fish is limited. Adult common carp Cyprinus carpio, L. were exposed to 200 ng/l (a concentration reported in impacted aquatic ecosystems) and 2 mg/l PFOA solutions in a flow-through system for 56 days to determine tissue accumulation and histological alterations of the primary target organs.
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