Responses of antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation, and Na ⁺/K ⁺-ATPase in liver of the fish Goodea atripinnis exposed to Lake Yuriria water

Lake Yuriria, located in the heavily populated and polluted Mexican Central Plateau, receives domestic sewage, industrial effluents, and municipal wastewaters that are still directly discharged without treatment into the tributaries and the lake. Pollutants in water and sediments include heavy metals, aromatic hydrocarbons, and organochlorine pesticides. Activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), as well as Na ⁺/K ⁺-adenosine triphosphatase (Na ⁺/K ⁺-ATPase) activity, and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were evaluated in the livers of the fish Goodea atripinnis after 96 h of exposure to water collected in March and June 2005 from three sites: Y (limnetic zone), L (Lerma tributary), and C (la Cinta tributary). Physical and chemical parameters of the lake water were also analyzed. Increases in CAT activity and LPO levels at all three sites were detected compared with control fish (P < 0.05), while GPx and SOD activities decreased significantly (P < 0.05). Na ⁺/K ⁺-ATPase activities were similar to the control in fish exposed to limnetic water from both March and June but were higher than control at the two tributary sites in March (P < 0.05); fish exposed to water from the Lerma tributary in June exhibited lower Na ⁺/K ⁺-ATPase than the control (P < 0.05). During March, CAT and Na ⁺/K ⁺-ATPase activities were increasing more than in June in Y and L, respectively, while in June, SOD and GPx were depleted more than March in L and Y and L, respectively. Despite the antioxidant defenses of the fish liver, exposure to all water samples from Lake Yuriria exerted alterations in hepatic LPO levels, antioxidant enzymes, and Na ⁺/K ⁺-ATPase activities that could substantially impair the mechanisms of fish defenses against oxidative stress.