Impact of Mercury on Liver and Ovary of Yellowfin Sea bream (Acanthopagrus latus) in the Persian Gulf

This study reports the incidence of histological alterations in the morphometric changes in liver and ovary of the Acanthopagrus latus collected from an urban stream impaired by anthropogenic activities and from a clean site (reference). Mercury concentration was determined using a standard cold vapor atomic absorption. The results showed that mercury concentration at the creek waters and specially sediments along Mahshahr coast, was higher than the other marine environment and in Zangi was lower than other sites of sampling. Several liver lesions were identified, including enlarged and lateral nuclei, nuclear degeneration and vacuolation, oncotic, apoptic, focal, massive, centrilobular and periportal necrosis, atrophy, lipidosis, hydropic and cloudy swelling, oval cell proliferation, cirrhosis, hemorrhage, macrophage aggregates, bile stagnation, dilation of sinusoid, intracellular edema and dark granules. Ovary histology revealing some changes in higher concentrations such as increase numbers of pre-vitellogenic oocytes, oocyte atresia and adhesion in the ovaries of females that sampled from sites with high concentration of mercury. In this study, existence of mercury in Mahshahr coast demonstrated and high incidence of histological alterations in the liver and ovary of A. latus is an evidence of the poor environmental quality of creek waters. Hence, histopathological changes that induced by the mercury, adversely affected the proper functioning of these organs in these fish.