Dietary methylmercury and fatty acids affect the lipid metabolism of adipose tissue and liver in rainbow trout

[en] Methylmercury (MeHg) is a pervasive environmental contaminant in aquatic ecosystems that can reach elevated concentrations in fish of high trophic levels, such as salmonids. The present study aims at investigating the individual and combined impacts of dietary MeHg and fatty acids on lipid metabolism in juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with a focus on two key organs, adipose tissue and liver. MeHg and fatty acids are both known to act on energy homeostasis although little is known about their interplay on lipid metabolism in fish. Fish were fed diets enriched in linoleic acid (LA, 18:2 n-6), α-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3 n-3), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5 n-3) or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6 n-3) for ten weeks, with the addition of MeHg to the diets during the last six weeks (0, 2.4 or 5.5 mg MeHg/kg dry matter). LA and ALA are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) typical of plant-derived oils whereas EPA and DHA are n-3 long chain PUFA largely found in fish oil, all used in feed formulation in aquaculture. The results showed that the LA-enriched diet induced a higher whole-body lipid content compared to the three other diets. On the contrary, the addition of MeHg led to a significant reduction of the whole-body lipid content, regardless of the diet. Interestingly, the adipocytes were larger both in presence of LA, compared to EPA and DHA, or MeHg, indicating a lipogenic effect of these two compounds. No effect was, however, observed on lipid accumulation per gram of adipose tissue. The fatty acid composition of adipose tissue and liver was significantly modified by the dietary lipids, reflecting both the fatty acid composition of the diets and the high bioconversion capacity of the rainbow trout. Exposure to MeHg selectively led to a release of n-6 PUFA from the hepatic membranes of fish fed the LA-enriched diet, showing a disruption of the pathways using n-6 PUFA. This study highlights the significant impact of MeHg exposure and dietary fatty acids on lipid metabolism in fish. Further investigation is needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and to explore the potential involvement of other organs.

Research center :

FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège

Disciplines :

Aquatic sciences & oceanology
Environmental sciences & ecology

Author, co-author :

Tinant, Gilles

Van Larebeke, Mélusine

Lemaire, Benjamin

Courteille, Marine

Gardin, Cécile

Neefs, Ineke

Das, Krishna ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Océanographie biologique

Page, Melissa M.

Rees, Jean-François

Larondelle, Yvan

Debier, Cathy

Language :

English

Title :

Dietary methylmercury and fatty acids affect the lipid metabolism of adipose tissue and liver in rainbow trout

Publication date :

August 2023

Journal title :

Aquatic Toxicology

ISSN :

0166-445X

eISSN :

1879-1514

Publisher :

Elsevier BV

Pages :

106673

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Development Goals :

14. Life below water

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0166445X23002758?httpAccept=text/xml

Funders :

BELSPO - Belgian Science Policy Office [BE]
FRIA - Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture [BE]

Data Set :

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2023.106673

Available on ORBi :

since 29 August 2023

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