Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, C.P. 6001, 86051-990 Londrina, Paraná, Brazil.
Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 2007 Mar;23(2):185-92. doi: 10.1016/j.etap.2006.08.009. Epub 2006 Sep 8.
This study reports the incidence of histological alterations in the posterior kidney and morphometric changes in the interrenal tissue of the Neotropical fish Astyanax altiparanae collected from an urban stream impaired by anthropogenic activities and from a clean site (reference). The histological alterations observed in fish kidney from the disturbed stream were in complete contrast to those from the reference site, in respect of the type, severity and number of lesions observed. Tissue lesions found in fish from the urban stream were more severe and in some cases irreparable. The morphometric analysis of interrenal cells showed that fish from the urban stream exhibited increased cellular and nuclear areas and nuclear diameter, indicating hyperactivity of the interrenal cells, which is a sign of long-term stimulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal axis. The high incidence of histological alterations in the kidney of A. altiparanae is an evidence of the poor environmental quality of this urban stream, while interrenal cells hypertrophy indicates that these fish are chronically exposed to stressors in their environment. Although the specific causative factors for the observed alterations are unknown this study demonstrates the application of kidney histopathology as a general quality indicator of the aquatic environment.
本研究报告了受人为活动影响的城市溪流和清洁对照点采集的新热带鱼类雅罗鱼（Astyanax altiparanae）后肾组织学变化和肾上腺组织形态计量学变化。与对照点相比，受干扰溪流中鱼类的肾脏组织学变化在病变类型、严重程度和数量上完全不同。在城市溪流中发现的鱼类组织损伤更严重，在某些情况下是不可逆转的。肾上腺细胞的形态计量学分析表明，来自城市溪流的鱼类表现出细胞和核面积以及核直径的增加，表明肾上腺细胞的活性增加，这是下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴长期受到刺激的标志。雅罗鱼肾脏组织学变化的高发生率证明了这条城市溪流的环境质量较差，而肾上腺细胞肥大表明这些鱼类长期处于环境胁迫之下。尽管尚不清楚观察到的变化的具体原因，但本研究证明了肾脏组织病理学作为水生环境综合质量指标的应用。
