Interactive Effects of Curcumin and Silver Nanoparticles on Growth, Hemato-Biochemical Parameters, Digestive Enzymes Activity and Histology of Common Carp (Cyprinus Carpio)

Background: Promising physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles (NPs) have encouraged their increasing synthesis and application in various industries which is accompanied with their leakage to the environment with inevitable effects on non-target animals including fish. Accordingly, developing strategies to protect fish against NPs contamination has gained attention. The aims of this study were to (a) explore the effects of feed born silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in common carp (Cyprinus carpio), and (b) to examine whether dietary curcumin supplementation can ameliorate the impacts of AgNPs on growth, hemato-biochemical parameters, digestive enzymes activity and organ histology. Methods: Nine experimental diets were prepared with three different levels of AgNPs (0, 0.05 and 0.15 g/kg) and curcumin (0, 0.75 and 1.5 g/kg) and fed to triplicate groups of common carp (4.82 ± 0.41 g) for 60 days. Results: The results showed that AgNPs significantly (P < 0.05) reduces growth performance and enhances feed conversion ratio in a dose dependent manner. Supplementing 0.75 g/kg curcumin at lower AgNPs level improved growth rate while its inclusion at higher AgNPs level further hampered fish growth. A similar trend was observed for survival rate. The highest hematocrit and hemoglobin concentrations and white blood cells count were recorded in the group received 0.75 g/kg curcumin, and inclusion of the same dose of curcumin in the diet containing 0.05 g/kg AgNPs retrieved the reduction of these parameters. Serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and lactate dehydrogenase activities, and glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were enhanced by increasing AgNPs level, and curcumin inclusion particularly at lower level of AgNPs significantly decreased their values. Activity of digestive enzymes including alkaline protease and lipase were progressively decreased by increasing AgNPs level and significant improvements were found by curcumin application at lower AgNPs level. In addition, severe pathological changes in liver and intestine were observed at high concentrations of AgNPs and curcumin. Conclusions: The findings in this study demonstrated that dietary supplementation of curcumin at lower dose of AgNPs can restrain the toxic effects, however, its inclusion at higher dose of AgNPs exacerbated the negative impacts.