The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of a cycle of estivation and awakening on free radical metabolism in selected organs of the land snail Helix aspersa. Estivation for 20 days induced a 4.9- and 1.8-fold increase in selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase activity (Se-GPX) and in total glutathione levels (GSH-eq), respectively, in hepatopancreas when compared to activity in activ...

Land snails are highly tolerant to cadmium exposure and are able to accumulate soil cadmium independently of food ingestion. However, little information exists on the kinetics of cadmium retention in terrestrial gastropods exposed to an increase in the soil cadmium content, over time. There is also little knowledge about how exposure to cadmium-polluted soils influences shell growth and archite...

Microcystins (MCs) are a major group of cyanotoxins with side effects in many organisms; thus, compounds in this group are recognized as potent stressors and health hazards in aquatic ecosystems. In order to assess the toxicity of MCs and detoxification mechanism of freshwater shrimp Macrobrachium nipponense, the full-length cDNAs of the glutathione S-transferase (gst) and catalase (cat) genes ...

Content of mercury in hepatopancreas, muscle and exoskeleton of blue crab T. prymna from Musa estuary and their relationship with size of the organism and season were determined. Mean concentration of mercury in hepatopancreas, muscle and exoskeleton were 1.23, 0.61 and 0.41 µg/g dw, respectively. There was significant difference (p<0.05) in mercury levels depending on the sex with greater ...

This study aimed to investigate the interactions of two abiotic factors (temperature and salinity) and deltamethrin (pyrethroid pesticide) exposure on some oxidative stress biomarkers as well as on acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE) in hepatopancreas, gills and muscle of black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon). A combination of three temperatures (24, 29 and 34°C), two salinities (15 and 25 ppt)...

The cadmium-binding proteins were shown to exist in the hepatopancreas of three molluscs, a whelk, Buccinum tenuissimum, a turbo, Batillus cornutus, and a squid, Todarodes pacificus. Cadmium was efficiently accumulated in nature to a mean concentration of 119, 33, and 50 micrograms/g wet tissue in the hepatopancreas of three species of molluscs, and 30%, 11%, and 43% of the element in each tiss...

The thioredoxin (Trx) system consists of thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), Trx, and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). TrxR is an NADPH-dependent oxidoreductase. Trx is a ubiquitous small protein with a redox-active disulfide bridge that plays important regulatory roles in some vital metabolic reactions. In this study, a cDNA sequence (SpTrx1) showing high identity to the first Tr...

Crustacean hyperglycaemic hormone from the pericardial organ (PO-CHH) is a CHH-related neuropeptide but its function and target tissues are not known in crustaceans. To investigate this issue, we employed radiolabelled ligand binding and cGMP assays, using eyestalk-CHH (ES-CHH) as a reference neuropeptide. The membranes were prepared from various tissues of Callinectes sapidus: hepatopancreas, ...

Previously, high concentrations of cadmium have been found in the hepatopancreas of the edible or brown crab (Cancer pagurus) sampled from positions north of about 67° N, compared to regions further south along the Norwegian coast, with no clear understanding why. In order to study a similar organism in the same ecosystem, the present study analyzed 210 shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) from four d...

Selenoprotein W (SelW) is a selenocysteine containing protein with redox activity involved in the antioxidant response. In this study, a selenoprotein W was cloned from pearl mussel Cristaria plicata (designated as CpSelW), and the expression patterns were characterized in tissues after Aeromonas hydrophila challenged. The full-length cDNA of cpSelW was of 858bp, containing a 5' untranslated re...