Enzimas antioxidantes em sangue de peixes expostos à hipoxia e hiperoxia

Abstract

Oxygen is important not only for their role in energy metabolism, but also for its conversion into partially reduced derivatives, the reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS participate in important roles in several metabolic pathways, however, at concentrations lopsidedly high they trigger lipid peroxidation process to form deleterious toxic aldehydes such as 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE). Maintenance of non deleterious concentrations of ROS molecules is performed by components of the antioxidant system. Fish may be exposed to large variations in the concentrations of oxygen, which causes oxidative cycles. Most studies use liver and kidney to assess oxidative stress through antioxidant activities assay, which requires the sacrifice of animals. However, the blood undergoes effects of ROS and evaluations in blood may allow the study of antioxidants in the same animal, without the need of sacrifice. Consequently, our objectives were to establish a catheterization technique in fish gill, standardization of testing and evaluation of components of blood antioxidant system of two species of teleost in various oxygen tensions. Pacus and tilapias were evaluated at 6.0 mg O2.L-1 hypoxia and 0.5 mg O2.L-1 for 42 hours. For assays of hyperoxia animals were evaluated at 6.0 mg O2.L-1, after 6 hours at 9.5 mg O2.L-1 and after 30 hours recovery at 6.0 mg O2.L-1. The use of materials of human catheterization allowed the implantation of a gill access. Unfortunately, there was thrombus formation after 24 hours. Nevertheless, the observation of blood flow within the cannula and survival of the animals tested, confirm the viability of the technique. We found blood in a higher activity of glutathione S-transferase (GST) on the 4-HNE compared to 1-chloro-2-dinitrobenzene (CDNB). This reflects the importance of assessing the activity of enzymes, such as GST with endogenous substrates. The enzymatic responses of tilapia were more sensitive than those of pacus when compared to different oxygen tensions.