Cicatrização de lesões cutâneas e imunomodulação em Jundiá expostos á ß-glucana

Abstract

The constant growing of world population and increasing demand for healthy, high-quality food stimulated fish farming that has become a major economic activity in several countries including Brazil. To have a good yield it is necessary to observe the development of the fish during different growing stages. There are diseases that cause skin lesions that, together with management practices, might cause skin lesions and tissue damages leading to stress, concomitant diseases, weight loss which results in major economic losses. In these circumstances, it is important to find means and tools to improve the production and welfare of the fish, stimulating the immune system and the healing process; an ideal therapy in this situation should have quick effect, be easy to manipulate and be cost effective. A viable alternative would be to treat fish with diets or give immersion baths containing immunomodulatory molecules, such as β-glucans. Thus, the objective of our study was to evaluate the skin healing (cicatrization) and immunomodulation in silver catfish exposed to immersion baths with a solution containing β-glucans. To achieve our goals, groups of treated fish and their respective controls were submitted to skin biopsies (3 mm in diameter punches) and evaluated visually and histopathologically for skin healing. The immunological parameters were evaluated through serological tests. The visual analysis of wound regression could not detect differences between the treated and control groups, however, the histopathology showed that the treated groups initiated tissue remodeling before the control group, suggesting that β-glucan would benefit healing of the wounds. The Immunological parameters evaluated were similar amongst treated and control groups