Biomarkers from Sardina pilchardus: effects of chemical pollutants on key enzymes

Abstract

Sardines (Sardina pilchardus) captured in the Northeastern Atlantic are a common food resource in Portugal. However, the effects of potentially contaminated waters by anthropogenic compoundsonthisspecieshaveneverbeenassessed.Thisisimportant not only in purely biological terms, but considering the importance of sardine for human consumption it is of great importance to characterize physiological responses of sardines to contamination. Being extensively captured along the Portuguese coast, it is also relevant to know in detail the patterns of response of sardine to chemical contamination and how abiotic factors can affect the levels of response. The present work intended to follow Sardina pilchardus from 3 areas of the North Atlantic in the vicinity of three Portuguese commercial harbors (Matosinhos, Aveiro, and Peniche), during a six months period (May–October), using a biomarker approach: catalase, CAT; glutathione-S-transferases, GSTs;lactatedehydrogenase,LDH;acetylcholinesterase,AChE.Our resultspointtoagreatvariationamongnotonlydistinctgeographicalareasbutespeciallyfordifferentperiodsofcapture.LDHlevels significantlyincreasedfromMaytoOctober,foralllocations;AChE activities were consistently lower for the months of July, August, September and October, for all sampling sites; generically, CAT and GSTs activities in September and October were significantly depressed.