Affiliations: College of Life Science and Technology, Shanxi
University, Taiyuan 030006, China | Institution of Soil Science and Fertilizer, Shanxi
Academy of Agriculture Science, Taiyuan 030031, China
Abstract: The toxic effects of Cr(VI) on antioxidant enzymes of Oxya
chinensis (Orthoptera: Acridoidae) were determined. Changes in the activities of
the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and guaiacol
peroxidase (GPx) were measured in O. chinensis insects injected with
Cr(VI). Fifth-nymphs of O. chinensis insects were injected with
Cr(VI) with different concentrations (0, 75, 150, 225, 300, 375, 450
mg/kg of body weight). The results showed that Cr(VI) led to the
change of SOD, CAT, and GPx activities at different concentrations, which
revealed that: (1) The oxidative stress of SOD increased with the increase of
Cr(VI) concentration. (2) With the increase of Cr(VI)
concentrations, CAT activities for females increased at lower concentrations,
but decreased at higher concentration range, which indicated that antioxidant
system of O. chinensis was not influenced by the presence of Cr(VI).
A very similar response to Cr(VI) effect for males indicated that
Cr(VI) concentrations were not high enough to damage O. chinensis in
terms of CAT. (3) The GPx activity for females increased in all treatments,
which revealed that the damage power of Cr(VI) was increased with the
increase of Cr(VI) concentrations in terms of GPx, but the effect was
not so remarkable. There was not a consistent trend of GPx activities for males
in all treatments of Cr(VI). Cr(VI)-induced changes in
antioxidant enzymes were different for SOD, CAT and GPx, of which the tendency
was that activities generally changed with increase of concentrations of
Cr(VI) suggesting SOD, CAT, and GPx could serve as indices of
oxidative stress to some extent.
