Effect of corticosterone on immunological status in Passer domesticus

PADRONES MN; CID F.; CAVIEDES-VIDAL E; CHEDIACK, JG

Mendoza

Congreso; XXXIV Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2016

UNCu

Birds are continuously confronted by a large number of stressors (e.g., predation, climate change, pathogens) that affect homeostasis. In response, allostatic process activate different systems, one of them is the HPA axis increasing secretions of corticosterone (CORT) in blood. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of CORT in some nutritional and immunological parameters in non-migrant birds (house sparrows). To achieve our goal we analyses variation in heterophil to lymphocyte ratio (H/L), hematocrits, serum protein profile and body weigh in Passer domesticus exposed to different CORT concentrations (0, 20, 40 and 80 mg/l) in drinking water for 72hs emulating a long-term stress exposure. The H/L ratio was determined with the microscopic differential count on a blood film. Native PAGE, was performed to obtain the albumin, α, β and γ globulins fractions corresponding to 0 and 72hs for each organism. The relative abundance of each fraction was determined by densitometric analyses (ImageJ software). We analyzed the data using an RM-ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc test (p