Effect of Tannery Effluents on the Antioxidant Enzymes of a Fresh Water Fish Channa striatus

Tannery effluents add pollutants to the aquatic environment. The characterization of responses to toxic exposure at the molecular level of biological systems is a major challenge in ecotoxicology because it enables the unraveling of mechanisms of toxicity, the discovery of novel biochemical markers, and early diagnoses of exposure and effects. The three major classes of antioxidant enzymes viz. superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (Gpx) were analyzed in the liver, testes, and ovary of Channa striatus to delineate the impact of tannery effluents on these enzymes. The oxidative stress biomarkers showed a significant reduction (p<0.05) in their activities among the control and experimental groups exposed to both 10 and 1 % concentrations of the tannery effluents. The SOD activity was reduced to 96.13 % in the ovary compared to the liver (60.73 %) and testes (47.89 %) after 30 days of exposure to a 10 % concentration of the tannery effluents. However, the activities of catalase and glutathione peroxidase decreased to 58.59 % and 43.64 % in the testes when compared to the liver and ovary.