The influence of heavy metal content on superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activity in the fish meat originated from different areas of Danube river

Abstract

Heavy  metals  (Pb,  Cu,  Cd,  Zn,  Hg)    and  their  compounds  are  considered  cancerous  for humans and animals. This is why the quantitative determination of such substances in food products and mainly in fish is  a  problem  of great importance. For this  reason, the  present  paper intends to biochemically  investigate  5  sweet  water  fish  species  (bream,  mackerel,  carassius,  tench,  perch  ) , originated from the  area  of  Sulina  Arm  and  auxiliary canals, form  a  heavy  metal  content  point  of view, using atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and from the point of view of the enzymatic activity of  superoxide  dismutase  (SOD)  and  of  glutation  peroxidase  (GPx),  using  photocolorimetry.  The results  of  the  investigation  proved  that  under  the  point  of  view  of  the  copper,  zinc  and  mercury content, all values are between normal values stated in the Sanitary Veterinary Norms for all the fish species investigated, with the  note that the mercury level is close to the  upper  bound  of this  scale. Cadmium and mercury  have  not  been  put into evidence. The  SOD and GPx activity is  significantly low for the samples of fishes in which the mercury content was at the higher bounds (bream), being known the fact that heavy metal  inactivate this enzyme.