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Study of anticlastogenic effect of spirulina against arsenic using zebra fish by micronucleus method


Sayantani Chanda1 *, T. V. Ramachandra2, Puspal Dey3 , Madhumita Joarder Mukhopadhay4

1,2, Energy & Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences [CES],
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560 012, India,
Web URL: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy; http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/foss,
3,4, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Kolkata, (W.B.) - India
*Corresponding author:E.mail: isayantani.chanda@gmail.com


Introduction

The environment is getting to be more and more contaminated with heavy metals due to interference of human activities like mining’s, from manufacturing companies, waste disposal and fuel combustion etc.Anthropogenic disturbance causes a serious threat to aquatic ecosystem for dissolving with waste materials and ultimately heavy metals. High level of toxicity like chromium, lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium are the heavy metals that are accumulated in water and sediments causes’ pressure to the food chain and also causes acute and chronic diseases in human. Heavy metals change the metabolic process; make DNA damage and may possible to carcinogenesis or apoptosis. Fish is considered to be a good bio-indicator which helps to accessing the potential danger of chemical introducing in aquatic ecosystem. Among the the technique Micronucleus test is more relevant test for fish. This test is applicable for screening the genotoxic compound.

The micronucleus test for fish has proved to be a useful technique for accessing the genotoxic properties of compound present in aquatic environment.(AL-Sabtiand Metcafe1995). The micronuclei [MNS] form by the loss of acentric fragments or whole chromosomes that are not incorporated in the brother nucleus during mitosis, by apoptosis, or phagocytises, among other mechanisms (Heddle JA, Cimino MC, Hayashi M, Romagna F, Shelby MD, Tucker JD, Vanparys P, MacGregor JT 1991).Basu et al. investigate individuals exposed to arsenic through drinking ground water (containing 368.11 mg/l of As) in West Bengal, India, and found a statistically significant increase in micronucleus frequency in oral mucosa cells, urothelial cells and lymphocytes (5.15, 5.74 and 6.39/1000 cells, respectively) when compared with unexposed controls (0.77 , 0.56 and 0.53/1000 cells, respectively). Fish study may provide important scientific data about toxicity on human beings. The study is to observe arsenic on fish and of using Spirulina which can ameliorate the toxic effect of Arsenic by its antagonistic properties in zebra fish. We use zebra fish as a model organism which uses as indicator for aquatic pollution study.