Biochemical alterations in caged Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus.

Joinville is an important industrial city in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, and also a risk factor for the Babitonga drainage basin. Oxidative stress-related parameters were evaluated in caged tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) exposed for 7 days (sites S1 and S2) in a Babitonga drainage basin tributary river. Site S1 showed enhanced levels of hepatic CYP1A, CYP2B-like and glutathione S-transferase activity, while site S2 showed decreased levels of glutathione and increased lipoperoxidation indexes, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase activity. Correlation analyses revealed that oxidative stress-related parameters behaved like a group of interrelated variables, while CYPs and glutathione S-transferase seem to be independent. New putative biomarkers were evaluated in the tilapia brain. Caspase-3 activation (both sites), decreased in p38MAPK phosphorylation (site S2) and decreased expression in HSP70 (site S1) were observed. Data indicate that employed variables, when used as a group (oxidative stress-related parameters, CYP1A/2B-like, caspase-3, HSP70 and protein kinases) can be useful as predictors of pollution.

Behavioral and Neurochemical Consequences of Pentylenetetrazol-Induced Kindling in Young and Middle-Aged Rats.

(1) Objectives: Epilepsy disorder is likely to increase with aging, leading to an increased incidence of comorbidities and mortality. In spite of that, there is a lack of information regarding this issue and little knowledge of cognitive and emotional responses in aging subjects following epileptogenesis. We investigated whether and how aging distress epilepsy-related behavioral and biochemical outcomes are associated with cognition and emotion. (2) Methods: Young and middle-aged Wistar rats (3 or 12 months old) were treated with pentylenetetrazol (PTZ, 35 mg/kg) and injected on alternated days for 20 (young rats) and 32 days (middle-aged rats). Kindling was reached after two consecutive stages 4 plus one stage 5 or 6 in Racine scale. Control and kindled rats were evaluated in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) and object-recognition tests and their hippocampus was collected 24 h later for mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) dosage. (3) Results: Middle-aged rats presented a higher resistance to develop kindling, with a decrease in the seizure severity index observed following the 4th and 9th PTZ injections. Middle-aged rats displayed an increased duration of the first myoclonic seizure and an increased latency to the first generalized seizure when compared to younger rats. The induction of kindling did not impair the animals' performance (regardless of age) in the object-recognition task and the EPM test as well as it did not alter the hippocampal levels of MAPKs. (4) Significance: Our findings reveal that, despite age-related differences during epileptogenesis, middle-aged rats evaluated after kindling performed similarly during discriminative learning and emotional tasks in comparison to young animals, with no alteration of hippocampal MAPKs. Additional investigation must be carried out to explore the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying these responses, as well as the long-term effects displayed after kindling.