بومشناسی آبزیان (Oct 2023)
The effect of iron oxide nanoparticles and Spirulina platensis algae on the gill structure of Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758
Abstract
The widespread use of produced metal oxide nanoparticles has raised major concerns about their impact on human health and aquatic organisms. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (FeO) and microalgae Spirulina platensis on the gills of gray mullet (Mugil cephalus) in four groups, i.e., first or control (without iron oxide nanoparticles and algae extract), second (15 mg/kg iron oxide nanoparticles), third (300 mg/kg algae extract) and fourth (15 mg/kg iron oxide nanoparticles and 300 mg/kg algae extract) during three periods of 3, 14 and 28 days. For this purpose, 72 specimens of gray mullet were acclimated to the experimental condition and exposed to different concentrations of iron oxide nanoparticles and algae extract in the mentioned groups and time periods. Then the gill tissue of each fish was sampled and the slide tissues were prepared. The gill tissue complications were hyperplasia, hyperemia, secondary lamella shortness, secondary lamella fusion, lamella deformity, epithelial detachment, and lamella clubbing. The fourth group showed more complications in all three time periods, and after that, the second and third groups showed more respectively. The more exposure time caused more tissue complications and the highest number of complications was observed on day 28. Also, algae had no effect on reducing tissue complications in fish, while it caused tissue complications but with less intensity. Based on the results, iron oxide nanoparticles can endanger fish health over time. Therefore, further studies are needed to evaluate its potential toxic effects.
