Sublethal Effects of Chromium on Enzymatic Activities of the African Catfish: Clarias Gariepinus (Burchell, 1822)

The effect of sublethal concentration (0.00, 2.00, 4.00 and 8.00 mg/l) of chromium was determined on the activities of some enzymes (creatine-kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, cholinesterase, gamma glutamyltransferase) in the plasma, liver and kidney of the exposed juvenile African Catfish Clarias gariepinus (length 23.00±0.86 cm and weight 96.97±5.31 g respectively) after the 7 days exposure period. The activity of lactate dehydrogenase was significantly (p<0.05) decrease in plasma, liver and kidney while cholinesterase showed an insignificant decrease and increase (p>0.05) in plasma and liver and a significant decrease (p<0.05) in kidney after the 7 days exposure period. The activities of gamma glutamyltransferase and creatine-kinase were insignificantly decreased (p>0.05) in plasma, liver and kidney expect liver creatine-kinase that was significantly decreased. Generally, the activities of the determined enzymes were most significant in the liver than in plasma and kidney. Therefore, sublethal concentrations of chromium have some deleterious effect on the basic activities of enzymes of the plasma, liver and kidney of Clarias gariepinus as revealed in this investigation.