Abstract
Author(s): S. Umamaheswari1* and S. Senthilnathan2
Persistence of Diethyl phthalate (DEP) in the waterways could cause metabolic changes in the fishes. The present investigation was undertaken to elucidate the changes induced by DEP in fish antioxidant system. Thus, in this study Oreochromis mossambicus was chronically exposed to DEP for a period of 60 days. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase(CAT), Glutathione Stransferase (GST) and Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity of gill, liver and muscle was assayed in DEP exposed Tilapia. Statistical analysis of the results reveal that DEP significantly declined (P<0.001), the enzyme activities in all the organs except, SOD activity of muscle which exhibited significant decline at 15ppm but not at 5ppm when compared to the control. Thus, the results of the present study permits us to conclude that DEP has caused significant disturbance in the antioxidant enzyme system in Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus).