Bioremoval of Lead from Polluted Waters Using the Fungus Talaromyces stipitatus and Its Impact on Male Albino Rats | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries | ||||
| Article 28, Volume 27, Issue 5, September and October 2023, Page 429-462 PDF (1.93 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejabf.2023.319124 | ||||
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| Author | ||||
| Ayat Taha et al. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Lead (Pb) is one of the most serious environmental pollutants due to its accumulation in soil and water, which causes serious problems for human health and the environment. Biosorption using dead microbial biomass represents one of the most innovative, economically feasible, and environmentally safe tools for removing heavy metals. Therefore, the present study focused on removing lead using Talaromyces stipitatus as a dead fungal biomass and evaluating its impact on animal toxicity. Lead-tolerant fungi were isolated from polluted sites, and T. stipitatus was chosen for the biosorption investigation based on its distinctive characteristics and identified according to its morphological and molecular characteristics then submitted to the GenBank database under accession number OQ691598. The biosorption capacity and efficiency of Pb were evaluated at 28±2°C with various parameters, which included pH, contact time and biomass concentration. Our findings showed that the highest significant biosorption capacity (56.10 mg/g) and efficiency (96.62%) for lead removal from aqueous solutions (lead initial concentration, 58 mg/L) were achieved at pH 6 and 30 minutes of contact time, with a biomass content of 1 g/L. Three groups of male albino rats were used after the biosorption study; the negative control group orally received double-distilled water only; the positive control group orally received Pb aqueous solution (58 mg/L) for 30 days, and the treatment group orally received Pb aqueous solution (58 mg/L) after being treated with T. stipitatus as biosorbent material for 30 days. The findings revealed that Pb induced a significant decrease in weight gain and relative weights of liver and testis, sperm count and motility, as well as serum total protein and albumin levels, but it induced a significant increase in relative weights of lung, brain, and prostate, serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase activities, serum urea, creatinine, and uric acid levels, sperm abnormalities, and bioaccumulation of Pb traces in liver and kidney tissues with several histopathological changes in the liver, kidney, testis and epididymis of male albino rats. The treatment group showed considerable improvements in each of the aforementioned results in animals. These findings suggest that T. stipitatus is capable of removing lead from polluted waters without posing any health risks to animals. To the best of our knowledge, no previous report has documented the use of T. stipitatus for lead removal and its effect on animal toxicity. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Biochemical alteration; Biosorption; Dead biomass; Histological alteration; Lead toxicity; Talaromyces stipitatus; Water treatment | ||||
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