VITAMIN E AND REPRODUCTION lN CULTURED SEA BASS
Giulia Guerriero, Alesxandra Di Firtizio, and Gizemrw Ciarcin
A vitamin E study was performed on fish of the cultured interest, the sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax using a high-pressure liquid chromatography method. The first part of the work was devoted to vitamin E detection in plasma breeders, seminal fluid and eggs, and embryo development of sea bass. in the second part of the study, variations of vitamin E levels during the larval development aspect were examined. The obtained results show a direct correlation of plasma vitamin E with body size of male and female cultured breeders of sea bass. High vitamin E value was found in their seminal fluid, in eggs before and after fertilization and in embryos during develop- ment and at hatching, whereas it was low in death embryos and in embryos with a low survival. During the larval development, the vitamin E content decreased slowly but steadly, during the first four days of the larval growth and progressively increased from the 9th to the 40th day. ln teratogenic larvae, the vitamin E con- tents result significantly higher than in normal Ian/ae. Accordingly, the data are presented as fish antioxidative defence studies in the reproductive processes and presents an indirect evidence of vitamin E in the sea bass reproduction.