Occurrence of microcystin-containing toxic water blooms in Central India

Three out of fourteen Microcystis-dominant cyanobacterial blooms in Central India were found to be toxic to mice (LD50 ranging from 35-450 mg bloom dry mass/kg body weight). The liver architecture of the treated mice showed characteristic symptoms of hepatotoxicity relative to the untreated controls, with increased enzyme activities of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT). RP-HPLC revealed the presence of microcystin-LR, microcystin-RR, and desmethyl microcystin-RR in the given region to maximum amounts of 390, 1,030, and 860 mu g/g bloom dry weight, respectively, corresponding to a maximum of 2.8 mg/l microcystin-LR in the lake water. Further confirmation of the microcystin variants was conducted using a MALDI-TOF MS analysis.