EFFECT OF HIGH CONCENTRATIONS OF «SARMA» DETERGENT ON IN VITRO ACTIVITY OF RESPIRATORY CILIATORY EPITHELIUM OF SINANODONTA WOODIANA (LEA, 1834)

Abstract

Nowadays the anthropogenic pollution of natural water bodies has become significant. In Ukraine, the pollutants, which are highly hazardous for aquatic organisms, include detergents entering water bodies as part of municipal fecal sewage. One of the pollutants is the synthetic detergent «Sarma», which is currently in high demand. This is a multi-component detergent containing 5–15% anionic and <5% nonionic surfactants, that in all gill-breathing animals target the ciliated epithelium of their gill apparatus. The degree of damage is determined by the concentration of this toxicant in the aquatic environment, and the resistance of aquatic organisms to its effects.
The purpose of the study was to determine the effects the frontal ciliated epithelium has on the activity of the frontal ciliary epithelium in the gill apparatus of the Chinese pond mussel Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea, 1834) at high concentrations. Pollution of natural water bodies has now reached the level of 40-200 mg/dm3 in a number of regions of Ukraine. This is despite the fact that the currently valid TLV standards are 0.5 mg/dm3 for anionic surfactants, and 0.1 mg/dm3 for nonionic surfactants in Ukraine. It should be mentioned that the object of our study is an invading mollusk species, which at the beginning of the current century used the Danube River as an invasive corridor to enter the Kiliysky Danube Delta and form thriving populations with high densities. A toxicologic experiment was used to study the effect of 5 concentrations of the «Sarma» detergent (3, 6, 12, 24, and 48 mg/dm3) on the duration and frequency of beating of cilia of the frontal epithelium on gills of male, female, and hermaphroditic specimens of S. woodiana. Exposition time was 2 days. At 3 mg/dm3 of toxicant in the medium, the values of both discussed parameters had a tendency towards increasing. At 6 mg/dm3 of toxicant, that trend was replaced by shifts of the same direction with a high degree of reliability (p ˂ 0.01). Within the concentration range of 12 to 48 mg/dm3, the inhibitory effect of the toxicant is observed to increase for both studied parameters. The above-mentioned changes in the activity of the respiratory epithelium of S. woodiana occur against the background of a developing stage-by-stage pathological process of poisoning. At 6 mg/dm3 of the toxicant, the stage of stimulation is observed; at 12 mg/dm3, an «early» depression; at 24 mg/dm3, a “late” depression; at 48 mg/dm3, sublethal and lethal stages. Each of the poisoning stages corresponds to a complex of various symptoms, represented by a set of certain qualitative and quantitative rapid physiological and behavioral reactions, both pathological and protective, due to the toxicant influence. The populations of the invading species S. woodiana are not able to survive if the level of surfactant pollution reaches 40 mg/dm3 in the northern Black Sea water system.