AUTHOR=Xiao Kang , Wang Xi , Liu Wen-Bin , Zhang Ding-Dong , Li Xiang-Fei , Zhang Chun-Nuan , Chen Wei-Hua , Abasubong Kenneth Prudence , Jiang Guang-Zhen 

TITLE=Corticosterone Can Be an Essential Stress Index in Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.692726

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2021.692726

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=This study aims to evaluate whether corticosterone can be used as an index to evaluate channel catfish stress. To keep the experiment's accuracy, physical, chemical, and microbial stress types and the selection of ammonia nitrogen, high- temperature, acid, alkali, Aeromonas hydrophila, and salinity were used to stress channel catfish for as long as 48 hours. The concentrations of serum corticosterone and cortisol were measured at 0 h before stress and 12 h, 24 h, 36 h, and 48 h after stress. Kidney samples were taken to detect 3 β-HSD and CYP17A1, the essential proteins regulating corticosterone and cortisol. The results showed that after seven kinds of stress, the corticosterone content in plasma of channel catfish was significantly higher than that of cortisol, and the dynamic change of corticosterone in 48h was different from that of cortisol. These results showed that corticosterone was more sensitive to stress in fish that had a slow response to cortisol after stress, and the cortisol-related CYP17A1 in channel catfish had no significant difference before and after stress. However, corticosterone-related 3 β-HSD was significantly different (P<0.05) before and after stress. Summary, on the premise of the determination of cortisol, corticosterone can be used as a stress index to improve the evaluation of the stress degree of those fish that are not sensitive to cortisol, such as channel catfish.