A comparative study on hematological, bioenergetics and oxidative stress indices of fresh water male spiny eel fish (Mastacembelus armatus) collected from the Haora and Gomati Rivers of Tripura, Northeast India in relation to heavy metal contamination

A comparative analysis was made on hematological, biochemical and oxidative stress indices in male spiny eel fish (Mastacembelus armatus) collected from two main rivers, the Haora and the Gomati Rivers of Tripura, a State of Northeast India, in relation to certain physiochemical properties of the waterbodies. It was revealed that total count of RBC, hematocrit, Hb, MCV and MCHC were significantly low in the Haora River fish samples. Significant differences in the biochemical variables were noted regarding tissue energy metabolism such as blood glucose level, liver and muscle glycogen contents, pyruvic acid level, free amino acid nitrogen, transaminase enzyme activities, tissue and serum protein contents, liver glucose 6-phosphatase activity and TCA cycle enzyme activities such as MDH, SDH and IDH. The water quality of the rivers was assessed in terms of pH, turbidity, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, total alkalinity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total hardness and heavy metal/metalloid concentration such as lead, cadmium, chromium and arsenic, which revealed that the Haora River was more polluted than the Gomati River. These might be involved in deterioration of body’s antioxidant defense system of the Eel fish of Haora River, as evidenced by depletion of tissue glutathione content, elevation of lipid peroxidation level and decreased antioxidant enzyme activities in the tissue samples of the studied fish. These suggested that poor water quality of the Haora River was supposed to be an important causative factor for more adverse toxicological effect on the spiny eel fish of that river. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.