Toxicity assessment of the puffer fish Lagocephalus lagocephalus from the Tunisian coast

This study was undertaken to assess the risk of poisoning due to consumption of the puffer fish Lagocephalus lagocephalus collected along the Tunisian coast. Wistar rats were daily intraperitoneally injected, for 10 days, with acidic extracts of liver or flesh (muscles + skin) of L. lagocephalus. Control rats received injections of NaCl (0.9%). No mortality and no evident signs of neurotoxicity were recorded in treated rats. Conversely, treatment led to: (1) diarrhoea and body and organ (liver, kidney) weights loss; (2) oxidative stress evidenced by an increase in lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and conversely a decrease in antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, catalase, GSH-Px) in tissues (blood cells, liver, kidneys); (3) a decrease in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities in blood plasma.     

Mechanical properties of pufferfish (Lagocephalus gloveri) skin and its collagen arrangement

Skin is a biological material the mechanical properties of which are dependent on the constituents from which it is assembled. Skin, the outer covering of animals is made up of collagen fibers arranged in more or less ordered arrays. Pufferfish skin provides a rigid framework to support the body contents and a flexible covering to allow whatever changes are necessary for the remarkable inflation mechanism. Here, we describe the structure and tensile properties of the dorsal and ventral skin of the pufferfish, Lagocephalus gloveri Abe and Tabeta, 1983. The ultimate tensile strength of ventral skin was found to be around two times higher than that of the dorsal skin. It was observed that the dorsal skin could resist more deformation than the ventral skin. The collagen fibers were arranged in different ordered arrays for ventral and dorsal skin and the concentration of fibers was found to be more in ventral than dorsal skin. This provides more stiffness to ventral skin. Scanning electron microscopy studies of the ventral skin showed a unidirectional arrangement of the collagen fibers, which provides more stretching capacity. Dorsal skin, on the other hand, has an orthogonal arrangement of fibers. The present study thus showed that the mechanical behavior of the skin of L. gloveri is strongly influenced by the concentration and arrangement of collagen fibers.     

First confirmed record of Lagocephalus sceleratus(Gmelin, 1789) in the Mediterranean Sea

One specimen of the Indo‐Pacific silverstripe blaasop Lagocephalus sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789)(Tetraodontidae) is recorded from the Aegean coast of Turkey and is confirmed for the Mediterranean. Dispersal of the species to the Mediterranean is due to migration from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal.     

中国鲀科鱼类一新纪录种(英文)

2010年3月和5月分别在北部湾口附近采获鲀科Tetraodontidae兔头鲀属Lagocephalus鱼类标本2尾,经形态学和DNA条形码分析,鉴定为兔头鲀L.lagocephalus(Linnaeus,1758),系我国鱼类1新纪录种。并对新纪录种——兔头鲀的分类地位进行了探讨。研究标本保存于广东海洋大学水产学院。