Biomakers of Oxidative Stress and Genotoxicity in Livers of Field-Collected Brown Bullhead

摘要

This technical note describes the application of a suite of biomarker assays to samples of brown bullhead liver tissues taken from two locations in Ohio. One was a river reach that had historically been severely impacted by the effluents of a coking plant; the other is regarded as relatively pristine, and is a freshwater estuarine research preserve. The objective of the study was to investigate whether differences in biomarker responses in the fish livers could be detected and related to the pollution histories of the two locations, and to the condition of the fish found in them. Many of the major contaminants of sediments found in industrialized waterways are tumorigenic in laboratory studies and some of these are classified as carcinogens in animals or humans. For that reason, research was undertaken at the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in 1990 to identify and develop methods that can be used to assess the genotoxic and carcinogenic potential of dredged sediments.