Studies on the Liver and Muscle Glycogen content in
selected Air –Breathing and Non Air – Breathing
Indian Teleosts.
AHSAN JAWAID, SHAGUFTA SAIF, BIBHA KUMARI
P.G. Department of Zoology, A.N. College, Patna-800013.
(BIHAR/INDIA)
Published in : Int. J. Mendel , Vol. 23 (3-4), 133-134, 2006.
ABSTRACT
Quantitative estimation of liver and muscle glycogen content in selected air and
non air-breathing Indian teleosts revealed that air –breathing fishes contains more
amount of glycogen as compared to non air- breathing fishes and female fishes have
relatively higher deposition of glycogen than male during pre breeding season.
Key word: - Glycogen, glycogenesis, Air- breathing fishes, Indian teleosts
INTRODUCTION
Carbohydrate serves as an important food constituent of all vertebrates.Like
all other forms of fishes too,it remain stored as glycogen,a polysaccharide, built of
glucose units of liver,skeletal muscle,myocardia and brain (Leibson and
Pleisetskaia,1968;Ahsan,1984).Quantitative estimation of glucose content in liver and
muscles of Indian teleosts have made by few workers,like Khanna and Rekhari
(1972) in Heteropneustes fossilis, Narasimhan and Sundararaj (1971) in Notopterus
notopterus and Colisa fasciata, Bhatt and Khanna (1976) and Saif and Ahsan (2000)
in Clarias batrachus and few others.In view of the disagreements among previous
workers and paucity of comprehensive data correlating liver & muscle glycogen with
sex season in Indian teleosts, the present observation have been made to assess these
parameters in both air- breathing and non air-breathing fishes collected from the same
locality
.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Apparently healthy looking adult specimens of both sexes of Anabas
testudineus, Heteropneustes fossilis ,Colisa fasciata , Ophiocephalus punctatus,
macrognathus aculeatus, Mystus tangra, Catla catla ,and Labeo bata were
obtained freshly from ponds around Patna during non breeding season i.e., MarchMay .The fishes were kept in 50 liters glass aquaria in standard aquarial conditions
and were fed ad libitum with their choiced food.Before autopsy,the fishes were
allowed to recover from asphaxia suffered during transport and to acclimate to
laboratory conditions.Twenty fishes of each species consisting of males and females
in equal number were sacrifised to estimate the quantitative value of glycogen of liver
& muscle. Quantitative estimation of liver and muscle glycogen content was done
according to Kemp and Andrienne (1954) as modified by Ahsan and Ahsan (1985).
Collections of tissues were made at particular hour of the day so as to avoid any error
due to possible diurnal variation.
RESULT
Liver glycogen – Among air-breathing fishes considered in the present study,
the lowest liver glycogen level was recorded in Anabas testudineus, were as the
highest level was observed in Macrognathus aculeatus .Distinct sexual dimorphic
pattern was seen with females of A. testudineus, H. fossilis,O. punctatus and C.
fasciata recording significantly higher level (P<0.001) of liver glycogen over their
male counterparts.Though the level was significantly higher in females of M.
aculeatus, it was of lower magnitude (P<0.001).
In air –breathing fishes highest liver glycogen level was recorded
in M. tangra, and lowest in L. bata. Females always appeared to have significantly
higher glycogen than males, the difference being more pronounced in L. bata.
(p<0.001). Comparing the liver glycogen content between the two groups of fishes,
air-breathing fishes always appeared to have higher glycogen deposit than non airbreathing fishes
Muscle glycogen - Among air-breathing fishes lowest muscle glycogen level was
noticed in H. fossilis and O. punctatus, followed by A. testudineus and C. fasciata.
The highest level was in M. aculeatus, Female always had higher level of glycogen
but the difference was significant (P<0.01) only in case of O. punctatus and C.
fasciata.
In non air-breathing fishes, lowest level of muscle glycogen was recorded in
C.catla and L. bata, followed by M. tangra. Female always appeared to have
insignificantly higher (P>0.5) muscle glycogen deposit than males. Comparison
between the two groups revealed that air-breathing fishes possess higher muscle
glycogen content than non air-breathing fishes.
DISCUSSION
Wide range of glycogen deposition in liver and muscle among the
member of different species of fishes and even the different individuals of the same
species recorded in the present study ,is in conformity with the earlierworks of
Narasimhan and Sundararaj (1971),Bhatt and Khanna (1976) & Khanna and Rekhri
(1972). Narsimhan and Sundararaj (1971) recorded a liver glycogen deposit in Colisa
fasciata ranging between 48.7mg/g to112.8mg/g.They did not consider sex and
season .Working on the same species, in the present study during pre –breeding
season, this range was recorded fluctuating between 94.2mg/g to 181.5 mg/g. It
appears that of all the energy reserves the carbohydrate are the most readily utilized
and the first to be affected by depletion under various conditions including season
and environmental stress which may vary from place to place.
In the present study, it was noted that female fishes always have
higher glycogen deposition in liver and muscle, irrespective of air-breathing and non
air –breathing nature, as compared to their male counterparts. Since, the study was
conducted in pre breeding season, the higher rate of glycogenesis in females my be
attributed as a device to conserve more glycogen by females to meet the greater
demand of energy for egg production in subsequent breeding season.
Air-breathing fishes contains fairly higher amount of glycogen as compared
to non air-breathing fishes, as have been recorded in the present study. References
concerning glycogen deposition in Indian non air-breathing fishes is not available,
however earlier studies on air-breathing fishes in Clarias batrachus (Ahsan 1984)
and Heteropneustis fossilis (Khanna & Rekhari, 1972) also show a higher glycogen
value than non air-breathing fishes studied in the present work. Higher amount of
glycogen deposition in air-breathing fishes may probably be due to their relatively
sedentary mode of life and comparatively slower growth rate requiring less energy
as compared to non air-breathing fishes. It may also be an adaptation to cope with
drought period and scarcity of water as the water of the natural habitat of airbreathing fishes in liable to dry during the summer days.
.
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Liver Glycogen. Male
M
.t
an
gr
a
at
la
.c
C
L.
ba
ta
.f
as
ci
at
a
H
.f
os
os
si
l is
M
.a
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at
us
C
ta
tu
s
.p
un
c
O
A.
t
es
tu
di
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Liver Glycogen. Female
Fig: - Graphical representation of liver glycogen in Air & Non- Air
Breathing Indian Teleosts
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Muscle Glycogen Male
M
.t
an
gr
a
at
la
.c
C
L.
ba
ta
.f
as
ci
at
a
H
.f
os
os
si
l is
M
.a
cu
le
at
us
C
ta
tu
s
.p
un
c
O
A.
t
es
tu
di
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Muscle Glycogen Female
Fig: - Graphical representation of Muscle glycogen in Air & Non- Air
Breathing Indian Teleosts
TABLE. 1-
Quantitative value of liver and muscle glycogen content (mg/g) in
selected air-breathing and non Air–breathing fishes (mean Value with SD). Range
of glycogen value mentioned in parenthesis.
Name of the
fish.
Liver glycogen
Male
Muscle glycogen
Female
Male
Female
A.testudineus
68.66+17.52 (54.0—88.0)
82.3 + 14.76 (66.4 - 95.9)
4.88 + 1.766 (3.4--6.84)
5.90 + 1.367 (4.42 -7.12)
O. punctatus
72.75 + 7.463
94.7+ 21.919 (69.4 – 102.5)
4.12 + 0.986 (3.5 – 5.3 )
6.4 + 1.473 (4.4 -6.9)
(66.0 -79.5)
C. fasciata
119.5 + 12.59 (94.2 -137.0)
168.0+ 23.14 (113.0-81.5)
5.8 + 0.794 (4.1 -6.7)
7.68 + 1.036 (5.3 -8.0)
H. fossilis
131.0 + 43.907 (56.0 -142.0)
156.0+37.924 (92.0- 170.5)
4.06 + 2.045 (3.9 - 6.1)
4.8 + 1.910 (4.6 – 6.7)
M. aculeatus
400.0 + 34.977 (341.5 - 416.0)
412.5+34.742 (330.0 –25.0)
7.45 + 0.609 (6.2 -8.76)
8.1 + 1.288 (6.45 -8.76)
L. bata
20.0 + 4.841 (341.5 - 416.0)
28.5 + 5.152 (21.5 – 37.0 )
2.5 + 0.611 (2.1 -5.0 )
3.2 + 0.473 (2.3 - 3.8)
C,catla
33.5 + 4.804 (30.5 - 43.0 )
38.0 + 4.266 (31.56 - 47.0)
2.5 + 0.988 (2.1 - 5.0 )
2.8 + 0.540 (2.4 -5.1)
M. tangra
54.9 + 2.652 (51.8 - 58.0)
57.9 + 7.913 (51.0 – 58.0)
3.0 + 0.080 (2.8 – 4.04)
3.35 + 0.110 (3.0 - 4.12)
REFERENCES:
Ahsan, J. 1984. Mobilisation of carbohydrate store consequent to multiple
Thyroxin (T4) injection therapy in Indian teleost, Clarias batrachus
(Linn.) J. Curr. Biosci. 1 (2): 93-97.
Ahsan , J.& Ahsan, S.N. 1985. A modified technique for the quantitative
estimation of tissue glycogen .Mendel, 1&2:56-57
Bhatt, S.S. & Khanna, S.S.1976. Histology of the endocrine pancreas of a fresh
water fish, Clarias batrachus L. Acta .Biol.Acad. Sci. Hung. 27: 25-35
Kemp, A. & Andrienne,J.M.K.V.H. 1954. A Colorimetric micro method for the
determination of glycogen in tissue .Biochem. j. 56:646-648.
Khanna, S.S. & Rekhari K. 1972 a. Effect of glucose loading on the blood and the
histology of the pancreatic islets in a fresh water teleost,
Heteropneustis fossilis Acta. anat.82: 126-137.
Leibson, L.G. & Plisetskaia, E.M. 1968. Effect of insulin on blood sugar level and
glycogen content in organs of some cyclostomes and fish. Gen. Comp.
Endocrinol, 11:381-392
Narasimhan, P.V. & Sundararaj, B.I. 1971. Circadian variations in carbohydrate
parameters in two teleost, Notopterus notopterus (Pallas) and Colisa
fasciata (Bloch) & Schneider). Comp. Biochem. Phsiol. 39 B: 89-99.
Saif, S. & Ahsan, J. 2000. Mobilisation of blood glucose and liver glycogen
consequent to multiple cortisone injection in an Indian teleost, Clarias
batrachus (Linn.)Int. J. Mendel .17 (3-4):113-114.