Does starvation influence the antioxidant status of the digestive gland of Nacella concinna in experimental conditions?

ANSALDO, MARTÍN; SACRISTÁN, HERNÁN; WIDER, EVA

COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY. TOXICOLOGY & PHARMACOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC

Año: 2006 vol. 146 p. 118 - 123

1532-0456

In a previous study we analysed the effect of diesel seawater contamination in the digestive gland of the Antarctic limpet Nacella concinna. Weobserved that antioxidant enzyme activities decreased after one-week starvation prior to the experiment, and this was considered in the analysis ofthe obtained results. To know whether the digestive gland oxidant?antioxidant status may be altered by starvation and experimental conditions, weevaluated the food deprivation effect in limpets from the nearshore shallow waters of Potter Cove, Antarctica. Organisms were acclimated tolaboratory conditions and were divided in fed and starved groups, and maintained in these conditions during one month. Every week 20 limpetswere sampled from each group. Digestive glands were dissected and kept frozen until they were processed. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase(CAT) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities, as well as lipid peroxidation (LPO) measured as thiobarbituric reactive substances(TBARS), protein oxidation (PO) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured. For both groups of limpets, SOD increased its activity in thefirst week of the exposure period, with a maximum in the second week. CAT activity increased significantly in the second week, only for thestarved group. Similarly, GST activity also increased for starved group in the second week; but maintained this tendency for both groups until thefourth week. In fed and starved limpets, TBARS values increased significantly, during the first week and then returned to normal values. The POlevels in the starved group increased only during the first week. The GSH content, for the fed group, increased significantly after the third week.The obtained results indicate that biochemical or physiological studies conducted with N. concinna should consider the effects of food deprivationand time spent under experimental conditions.