Background and Aims: The increasing use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the future will result in pouring this material into the environment and will cause health and environmental problems to humans and other organisms. In this context, the use of biological indicators is necessary for environmental monitoring and control. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accumulation capacity of AgNPs in the gills, intestines and hepatopancreas of freshwater crayfish, as an indicator of environment. Methods: In this study, 15 adult male freshwater crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) were caught from the Aras River (north-west of Iran). Crayfish were exposed to five concentrations of AgNPs colloid (0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/l) for a period of 6 days. The concentration of silver in the intestines, gills and hepatopancreas were measured using Phoenix 986 atomic absorption. The One-Way ANOVA was used to compare the levels of AgNPs in the tissues. Results: According to the findings of this study the highest accumulation of silver were observed in the gill tissue. Also the accumulation amount in the hepatopancreas and intestinal tissues depends on the concentration of AgNPs in the water, so that at lower concentrations, accumulation in the intestine was higher than the hepatopancreas but in higher concentrations, accumulation in the hepatopancreas was higher than the intestine. Conclusion: In this study, the silver bioconcentration was dependent on the target tissue and concentration of AgNPs in the water. Also, due to the higher concentration of silver in the gills of freshwater crayfish in comparison with other tissues, this organ can be recommended as a suitable target tissue. More studies are needed to obtain more comprehensive information about the impact mechanism of AgNPs accumulation in different tissues of this aquatic organism.

Keywords: Silver nanoparticles, Aquatic toxicology, Nanotoxicology, Bioconcentration, Crayfish.

Full-Text [PDF 379 kb]   (1157 Downloads)