Effects of Lipopolysaccharide and Deoxynivalenol on the Survival, Antioxidant and Immune Response, and Histopathology of Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii)

Zhengrong Wen; Xiaoli Xu; Dan Xiang; Junfeng Xu; Qiufeng Yang; Xiaofu Wang; Jiashou Liu; Mingzhong Luo; Wei Wei

doi:10.3390/toxins15080479

Effects of Lipopolysaccharide and Deoxynivalenol on the Survival, Antioxidant and Immune Response, and Histopathology of Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii)

Toxins (Basel). 2023 Jul 28;15(8):479. doi: 10.3390/toxins15080479.

Authors

Zhengrong Wen^{1

2}, Xiaoli Xu², Dan Xiang^{1

2}, Junfeng Xu², Qiufeng Yang^{1

2}, Xiaofu Wang², Jiashou Liu³, Mingzhong Luo^{1

3}, Wei Wei²

Affiliations

¹ Engineering Research Centre of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Waterlogging Disaster and Agricultural Use of Wetland, College of Animal Science, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China.
² State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Traceability for Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.

Abstract

Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the aquatic environment has been reported to cause diseases in red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii). In addition, deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the primary mycotoxins found in aquaculture. However, the potential synergistic toxic effects of LPS and DON on crayfish are yet to be fully elucidated. In this study, crayfish were exposed to LPS (1 mg kg^-1), DON (3 mg kg^-1), and their combination (1 mg kg^-1 LPS + 3 mg kg^-1 DON, L+D) for a duration of six days. Co-exposure to LPS and DON exhibited the lowest survival rate compared to the control or individual treatments with LPS or DON alone. In the initial stage of the experiment, the combined treatment of LPS and DON showed a more pronounced up-regulation of antioxidant and immune-related enzymes in the sera compared to the other treatment groups, with a fold change ranging from 1.3 to 15. In addition, the (L+D) treatment group showed a down-regulation of immune-related genes, as well as Toll pathway-related genes in the hepatopancreas compared to LPS or DON. Moreover, the (L+D) treatment group demonstrated a 100% incidence of histopathological changes in the hepatopancreas, which were significantly more severe compared to the other three groups. In conclusion, our study provides physiological and histopathological evidence that the co-exposure to LPS and DON exerted synergistic toxic effects on crayfish. The observed effects could potentially hinder the development of the crayfish aquaculture industry in China.

Keywords: antioxidant and immune response; crayfish; deoxynivalenol; histopathological changes; lipopolysaccharide; survival.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Antioxidants*
Astacoidea*
Immunity
Lipopolysaccharides / toxicity

Substances

Antioxidants
deoxynivalenol
Lipopolysaccharides

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Engineering Research Center of Ecologyand Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education (KF202111); State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology (2016FB01); the Key Technology Research and Development Program of Zhejiang (2021C02059, 2023C02033), and the Zhejiang Province Public Welfare Technology Application Research Project (LGN22C140017).