Toxicity of gamma aluminium oxide nanoparticles in the Mediterranean mussel (): histopathological alterations and antioxidant responses in the gill and digestive gland.

PURPOSE

Accumulation of Gamma aluminium oxide nanoparticles γ-AlO NPs significant impact on aquatic ecosystems. However, the toxicity of γ-AlO NPs in aquatic organisms has been limited investigated. This study investigated histopathological changes and antioxidant responses induced by different concentrations of γ-AlO NPs in .

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In this study, mussels were exposed to different concentrations of 5 nm γ-AlO NPs (0, 5, 20 and 40 mg/L) for 96 h under controlled laboratory conditions. Gill and digestive gland from mussels were assessed to histopathological (light microscopy, histopathological condition indices, digestive gland tubule types), SOD, CAT, GPx activities.

RESULTS

Histopathological indices calculated higher, and significantly different in all exposure groups compared to the control group in gill and digestive gland ( < 0.05). Atrophic phase tubules proportion very high in 20 and 40 mg/L γ-AlO NPs exposure groups. No significant changes in CAT activities in the gill and digestive gland ( > 0.05). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities significantly different ( ≤ 0.05) in the digestive gland from 20 mg/L γ-AlO NPs exposures, and GPx activities significantly different ( < 0.05) in gill from 40 mg/L γ-AlO NPs exposures.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that contamination of γ-AlO NPs negatively affects the aquatic organism.