Pacchini Sara, Piva Elisabetta, Schumann Sophia, Irato Paola, Pellegrino Daniela, Santovito Gianfranco
Department of Biology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy.
Antioxidants (Basel). 2023 Feb 2;12(2):352. doi: 10.3390/antiox12020352.
Antarctica is the continent with the lowest local human impact; however, it is susceptible to pollution from external sources. Emerging pollutants such as perfluoroalkyl substances pose an increasing threat to this environment and therefore require more in-depth investigations to understand their environmental fate and biological impacts. The present study focuses on expression analysis at the transcriptional level of genes coding for four antioxidant enzymes (, , , and ) in the liver and kidney of an Antarctic fish species, (, ). mRNA levels were also assessed in fish exposed to 1.5 μg/L of perfluoro-octanoic acid for 10 days. The kidney showed a higher level of expression than the liver in wildlife specimens. In the liver, the treatment induced an increase in gene expression for all the considered enzymes, whereas in the kidney, it induced a general decrease. The obtained results advance the scientific community's understanding of how the potential future presence of anthropogenic contaminants in the Southern Ocean can affect the antioxidant system of Antarctic fishes. The presence of pollutants belonging to the perfluoroalkyl substances in the Southern Ocean needs to be continuously monitored in parallel with this type of research.
南极洲是受人类活动影响最小的大陆；然而，它易受来自外部源的污染。全氟烷基物质等新兴污染物对这一环境构成的威胁日益增加，因此需要进行更深入的调查，以了解它们的环境归宿和生物影响。本研究聚焦于南极鱼类物种南极鱼（Notothenia coriiceps）肝脏和肾脏中编码四种抗氧化酶（超氧化物歧化酶、过氧化氢酶、谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶和谷胱甘肽还原酶）的基因在转录水平的表达分析。还评估了暴露于1.5微克/升全氟辛酸10天的鱼类的mRNA水平。在野生样本中，肾脏的表达水平高于肝脏。在肝脏中，该处理导致所有所考虑酶的基因表达增加，而在肾脏中，它导致普遍下降。所得结果增进了科学界对南大洋未来潜在的人为污染物存在如何影响南极鱼类抗氧化系统的理解。在开展这类研究的同时，需要持续监测南大洋中属于全氟烷基物质的污染物的存在情况。
