The effect of seasonality on oxidative metabolism in the sea urchin Loxechinus albus
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ORIGINAL PAPER
The effect of seasonality on oxidative metabolism in the sea urchin Loxechinus albus Gabriela Malanga Æ Analı´a Perez Æ Jorge Calvo Æ Susana Puntarulo
Received: 9 June 2008 / Accepted: 4 January 2009 / Published online: 31 January 2009 Springer-Verlag 2009
Abstract The objective of the present study was to investigate seasonal variations in the oxidative metabolism of the sea urchin Loxechinus albus gonads. The reported spawning period for this species is from September to November. Lipid radical content showed non-significant changes upon the seasons. Ascorbyl radical content and the content of a-tocopherol were lower in samples collected in spring and summer as compared to the values in wintercollected animals. Ascorbate content decreased in samples collected in fall as compared to those collected in winter. For the lipophilic compartment, the lipid radical content/ a-tocopherol content ratio is an indicator of oxidative stress. This index increased significantly in tissues during spawning as compared to the values in samples collected during winter. The ascorbyl content/ascorbate content ratio is an indicator of oxidative stress for the hydrophilic milieu. A significant decrease by 66% was determined in tissues from gonads of animals collected in summer as compared to values in animals collected in winter. The data reported here suggest a different profile of response against
Communicated by H.O. Po¨rtner. G. Malanga A. Perez J. Calvo Centro Austral de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas (CADIC-CONICET), Bernardo Houssay 200, 9410 Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina S. Puntarulo Physical Chemistry-PRALIB, School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina S. Puntarulo (&) Fisicoquı´mica, Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquı´mica, Junı´n 956, 1113 Buenos Aires, Argentina e-mail: [email protected]
oxidative stress at the lipophilic and hydrophilic milieus in L. albus gonads.
Introduction Many benthic marine invertebrates show seasonal variation in feeding, growth, and oxygen consumption (Siikavuopio et al. 2007). In ectothermal animals from temperate areas, annual fluctuations in metabolic rates, locomotory activity, and growth rates are induced by environmental parameters such as photoperiod, temperature, and feed availability. In addition to fluctuations mediated by external factors, physiological events such as reproduction may influence feeding and growth cycles (Scho¨ttler 1989; Heilmayer et al. 2005). The seasonal variations in metabolic rate are assumed to entail corresponding alterations in reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation (Abele and Puntarulo 2004). The generation of ROS, such as superoxide anion (O2-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and hydroxyl radical (•OH), takes place continuously in living cells, mainly as by-products of respiration. Indeed, seasonal changes in free radical metabolism have frequently been reported in marine ectotherms, including cichlid fish (Wilhelm Filho et al. 2001a), estuarine polychaetes (Abele-Oeschger et al. 1994; Geracita
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