Journal of Environmental Biology

Morphological and functional characterization of hepatic

cells in Indian major carp, Cirrhinus mrigala against

Aeromonas hydrophila infection

Sriparna Datta Ray^{1, 2} and Sumit Homechaudhuri^1*

¹Aquatic Bioresource Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata - 700 019, India

²Department of Zoology, Sreegopal Banerjee College, University of Burdwan, Hooghly - 712 148, India

*Corresponding Author E-mail: sumithomec@yahoo.com

Publication Data

Paper received:

25 May 2012

Revised received:

08 November 2012

Accepted:

24 December 2012

Abstract

Indian major carp, mrigala (Cirrhinus mrigala) was exposed to sub-lethal doses of Aeromonas hydrophila to study the innate immune responses. Hepatic morphology characterized by light microscopy and flow cytometry revealed production of oxygen radicals, hepatic catalase and significant (p<0.05) increase of super oxide dismutase activity in liver of treated fish. Condition factor and hepatosomatic index were calculated as indices of energy status. Results showed significant (p<0.05) increase in hepatosomatic index while condition factor significantly (p<0.05) decreased in the treated fishes. Histopathological studies revealed changes including focal necrosis, haemorrhage, hyperplasia and early stages of granulomatous formation in hepatocytes of infected fishes. Cytolysis due to bacterial toxin was also observed. Flow cytometric study confirmed the presence of apoptotic cells among treated fish. Thus distinctive immune responses were recorded in mrigala due to bacterial infection. This work presents an insight into the innate immune response in conjunction with the identification of potential fish biomarkers which can be screened for timely application of proper preventive measures.

 Key words

Aeromonas hydrophila, Antioxidant enzymes, Cirrhinus mrigala, Flow cytometry, Immune response,?? Reactive oxygen species

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