Arti Kumari Ram¹, Sruti Banerjee¹, Saurabh Chakraborti¹, Sarmistha Banik², Ranajit Karmakar^1,

A single exposure to a less explored antifouling paint caused noticeable and detectable hepatopathologic and genotoxic effects in three species of catfish. Among the three catfish, one is exotic, Clarias gariepinus, and the other two are Indian species, Clarias batrachus and Heteropneustes fossilis. Antifouling paint (Power Excel Hi-Gloss Synthetic Enamel Paint, trade name Black Japan)-induced pathological changes were recorded in hepatic histology and histochemistry along with micronucleus tests in erythrocytes following 96 hours of a single exposure of 0.1% concentration. The detrimental changes included infiltrations of inflammatory cells, increased pyknotic nuclei, cytoplasmic vacuolation, dilation of blood vessels, melanomacrophage aggregation, hepatic necrosis, apoptotic cell, rupture of the cell wall of the central vein, haemorrhages, etc. in the hepatic tissue. A significant depletion in the hepatic PAS-positive components and DNA content in the treated groups was also noted. The adverse effects involved erythrocytic cellular and nuclear abnormalities. Results of the haematological assays indicated a significantly higher (P<0.001) level of micronucleus frequency in H. fossilis compared to its control counterpart, and also compared to the other two experimental catfish species. From our study, it could be commented that an almost unexplored antifouling paint contained potentially toxic components that caused a hazardous effect on the Indian catfish, especially on H. fossilis because the particular fish species found to be highly sensitive to our antifouling paint concerning the haematological and histopathological observations. In this context, we can state that H. fossilis could be used as a tool for screening the histopathological and genotoxic effects of antifouling paint.

Antifouling paint, Clarias gariepinus, Clarias batrachus, Heteropneutes fossilis, Hepatotoxicity, Micronucleus, PAS reaction, DNA content