Effect of acute and chronic toxicity of Cu nanoparticles on survival and histopathology of hepatopancreas and gills in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

Subject Areas : Journal of Comparative Pathobiology

N. Khosravizadeh, ¹ , I. Sourinejad, ² , S.A. Johari, ³ , Z. Ghasemi L.V.S., ⁴

1 - گروه شیلات، دانشکده علوم و فنون دریایی و جو ی، دانشگاه هرمزگان،
2 -
3 - روه شیلات، دانشکده منابع طبیعی، دانشگاه کردستان، ایران
4 - گروه محیط زیست، دانشکده منابع طبیعی، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران

Received: 2015-02-07 Accepted : 2015-05-13 Published : 2015-07-23

Keywords: Nanotoxicology, Cu nanoparticles, Histopathology, Pacific white shrimp,

Abstract :

Identification of toxicity effects of nanomaterials in the field of aquatic nanotoxicology is ofgreat significance. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of acute and chronic toxicityof copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) on survival rate and histopathology of hepatopancreas and gillsin PL5 of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). Acute toxicology test was doneaccording to OECD no. 203 during 96 h and mortalities were recorded every 24 h after exposureof shrimps to concentrations of 0.1‚ 0.32, 1, 3.2, 10, 32 and 100 mg/lit of CuNPs with averagesize of 40 nm. Data of mortalities were analyzed by probit software. Median lethal concentration(LC50) was not determined because there was no special order in acute toxicity data. In fact, nondose-dependent mortalities of this species exposed to CuNPs inhibited the calculation of LC50.In chronic toxicity test, shrimps were exposed to concentrations of 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/lit ofCuNPs for 21 days. Gill histology revealed many damages such as severe necrosis, shorteningof the length of the secondary gill lamellae, severe increase of hemocytes and decrease of pillarcells compared to control. Histopathological effects in hepatopancreas of CuNPs exposedshrimps were enlargement of the cell nucleus, necrosis of some cells, as well as reduction of thenumber of functional cells and destruction of the tubules wall in compare to the control. Inconclusion, exposure to CuNPs causes histopathological effects on hepatopancreas and gills ofPacific white shrimp which could finally result in the shrimp mortalities.