Bioaccumulation and elimination of nickel in the organs of black fish ( Capoeta fusca)

Since toxicity is based on the effect that a toxicant produces at a target site within an organism, establishing the relationship between the concentration of substance at the target site and the subsequent toxic effect can provide a tool for predicting toxicity. This article aims to investigate the patterns of bioaccumulation and elimination of nickel in the selected organs of black fish (Capoeta fusca) exposed to two treatments of nickel (4.5 and 12.7 mg/L) for a period of 30 days. Nickel was assayed using Shimadzu AA 680 atomic absorption spectrophotometer, and the results were given as μg/g wet weight. This finding showed that the accumulation patterns of nickel, for lower sub-lethal (LSL) and higher sub-lethal (HSL) concentrations of nickel, are in the following order: gill > liver > muscle > skin. The elimination patterns of nickel are in the following order: gill > skin > muscle > liver, for LSL concentration, and gill > skin > liver > muscle, for HSL concentration of nickel. The results show that the target organ for accumulation and elimination of nickel is gill.