Pattern of renal pathology in fish from Al-Hassa waterways, Saudi Arabia Moneim Ashraf Abdel1,2,*, Elmenshawy Omar1,3, Al-Kahtani Mohamed4, Sayed Abdalla1,5, Alfwuaires Manal1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, King Faisal University, Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia 1Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, King Faisal University, Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia 2Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt 3Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt 4Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia 5Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Minia University, Minia, Egypt *Corresponding author's e-mail: aabdelmoneim@kfu.edu.sa
Abstract Pollution of aquatic environment is a great concern worldwide. The teleostean kidney is one of the first organ to be affected by contaminants in water. The aim of this study is to assess histological changes of Oreochromis niloticus kidney collected from spring canalsin Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia. We report histological alterations in thekidney tissue of fish collectedfrom three sites, namely Al-Jawhariya (site #1), Um-Sabah (site #2) and Al-Khadoud spring (site #3). The histopathological studies revealed relative differences in the severity of organ lesions among the three sites. The overall results showed that kidney architecture of fish samples was markedly disrupted. The major symptoms were dilation of the glomerular capillaries, reduction of Bowman's space, degeneration of tubular epithelium, tubule cast deposition, and accumulation of pigmented macrophages (i.e., melanomacrophages). The histological damage in the kidney of O. niloticus is an evidence of the poor environmental quality of these spring canals. It appears that these wetland areas are still threatened by human activities and environmental degradation. Top Keywords Biomarkers, Histopathology, Pollution, Renal lesions, Teleost fish. Top |