Susceptibilidade de pacus, Piaractus mesopotamicus (Holmberg, 1887), sob hipoxia aos agrotóxicos organofosforados

Abstract

The inhibitory action of organophosphates on cholinesterases is a specific phenomenon, and it is used as a biomarker of exposure to organophosphate in live animals. Inhibition of cholinesterases results in the accumulation of acetylcholine in the synaptic clefts of cholinergic synapses, which can lead to death. Another enzyme which is affected by organophosphates is the carboxylesterase (CarbE). CarbE are involved in phase I of xenobiotic biotransformation and can act as a "scavenger" of organophosphates. The CarbE studied to the present date can bond to organophosphate with greater speed than other cholinesterases. Therefore, CarbE might decrease by stoichiometric uptake the binding of organophosphate at the acetylcholinesterase at cholinergic synapses and motor end plates of muscles. Experiments conducted in our laboratory showed that the CarbE activity is about 50% lower in serum and liver of pacu subjected to hypoxia. Due to the detoxifying role of CarbE we verified whether pacu, under conditions of oxidative stress, would be more sensitive to organophosphate pesticides. Nine pacus were divided into two tanks. In the first tank the animals underwent 24 hours of hypoxia followed by a further 4 hours of exposure to methylparathion in two different concentrations (0,02 or 0,01 mg/L). Thus, in the second tank the animals remained in normoxia for 24 hours and were subsequently exposed to methylparathion for 4 hours. The activities of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and CarbE were tested in serum, liver, brain, muscle and heart. We found a decrease of approximately 35% of CarbE activity in serum of the animals subjected to 24 hours of hypoxia. A fall of 85% in CarbE activity was detected in the serum of animals that suffered hypoxia and subsequent exposure to 0,02 mg/L, yet in animals exposed to 0,01 mg/L there is a decrease of 48,2%. In muscle the activities of AChE and BChE declined by half in animals submitted to hypoxia compared with animals in normoxia when exposed to 0,02 mg/L. In the tissues of pacus exposed to 0,01 mg/L of methylparathion we did not observe significant differences in the activities of AChE, BChE or CarbE. We concluded that doubling the concentration of methylparathion from 0,01 to 0,02 mg/L causes CarbE activity in the serum to decrease from 51,8% to 15%. The absence of changes in activities in the tissues of animals exposed to 0,01 mg/L between the groups hypoxia and normoxia may have occurred because the concentration of methylparathion was not sufficient to break the first enzymes barrier of protection in serum. In the experiment with 0,02 mg/L of methylparathion the activities of AChE and BChE in the muscle were most inhibited in the hypoxia group than the normoxia group. This phenomenon can be explained by the decrease in the CarbE activity in the serum of animals under hypoxia.