Original Articles: 2014 Vol: 6 Issue: 7
Effect of heavy metals and organic pollutants on antioxidant enzyme activities in Zebrafish by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
Abstract
The potential utility of antioxidant enzyme activity was evaluated as indicators of exposure to heavy metals and organic pollutants in aquatic organisms. The effect of heavy metals and organic pollutants on antioxidant enzyme activity of zebrafish was studied. The trends of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catafase (CAT) activity in zebrafish under after exposure to heavy metals and organic pollutants for different time were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) technique. The brightness of bands in the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is almost consistent with the trends of antioxidant enzymes (SOD and CAT) activity in zebrafish, namely, the greater brightness of the bands was, the stronger activity of SOD and CAT was, indicating PAGE is an effective technique to evaluate the antioxidant enzyme activity. Moreover, the results showed that the exposure time and concentrations of pollutants have a great effect on the SOD and CAT activity in zebrafish, and the dose-response relationship between SOD/CAT activity and heavy metals or organic pollutants was established.