BFFECf OF STARVATION AND REPEEDING ON TISSUE PROlGMATE

ANALYSIS OF HEPATIC AND MUSCULAR TISSUES OF

TILAPIA MOSSAMBICA (PETERS)

C. V. NARASIMHA MOORTHY, V. KRISHNA MURTHY, G. VEMANANDA REDDY,

V. BHASKARA HARANATH, P. REDOANNA AND S. GOVINOAPPA
Dept. of ZolXogy, Sri Venkataeswara University, Tirupati, 517502.

ABSTRACT

Starvation in Tilapia mossambka (' ters) induced higher depleti-o-n Gf car bohyd.rate
retserws in all the tissues. WJlile liver :and red muscle 5Jhowed higb.er lipolysis, the
white muscle 'had higher proteolysis. 11he refeeding process rewltW in Te'J)leni:s-
hment of tissue re:rervs in wbi·te muscle, wihHe those of Hver .1md red m 1scle were
at lower level -than O(trmal, suggesting tbe possibi:lity of imopa•irme:- t of synthetic
acrhities in liver and red muscle a-fter prolonged starvation. The car
hohydnlte synthetic efficiency in white muscle seem- to be consideMhlv elevated
o.n refeedtng. The lipid reserves of all the tissues were de.plet.ro even after
refeeding and hence the course of starwttion a·:ld refee.ding wa.& envisaged to
decrease the tissue fat depots.

INTRODUCTION

Majority of fishes live through severe depletion of food for at least a. part
of every year in their natural environment (Love 1970) and hence they are
known to be well adapted for mobilizing ·their body constituents during starva
tion. Starvation and refeeding exerts significant effects on ca11bobydrate and fat
metabolism (Me GaiT)' ·et al 1973). Sharp decline in the liver glycogen during
starvation and its rapid replenishment during refeeding was reported in several
animals (Raptz and Mus·acchina 1957, Gist 1972). Decreased. lipid content in the
liver of 5 years old gold fish starved for 25 days was repor.ted (Stimpson 1965).
Contrary to this, ·studies on A. Japonica have shown. that glycogen was more
readily utilized than lipids in liver during 3 months of starvation (Tashima and
Oabill 1965). However, the information on starvation and refeeding on fishes is
scanty and hence the present work has been undertaken in order to elucidate the
possible changes in the nutritive values of fishes through the study of tissue
proxima·te analysis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS

The f-reshwater fishes belonging to the -spe<:ies Tila.pia mossambica were

selected for tbe present study, owing to tb ir survival for prolonged periods of
216 MOORTHY AND OTHERS

starvation (Ridtard a-nd Fleming 1969). The fishes were maintained in labora
tory conditions .for one monlih, before usi·ng them for expe!imentation. The fishes
were divided into three batches. The tint batch of fishes were fed regularly,
while the other twQ batches were maintained for starvation for 30 days. Among
them the third batCh of animals were refed after 'tlte starvation period regularly
for a period of 30 days. The first batcll of fishes were taken as controls, the
second batoh as starved -and the third batch as refed animals. These animals
were pithed and the tissues like liver, red muscle and white muscle were isolated
and tak·en .for biochemical assays.

Total proteins (Lowry et al 1951), total carbohydrates (Caroll et al

1956), total lipids (Folch et al 1957) and free fatty acids (Natelson 1971)
were estimated in these tissues. Dry weight and water content of the tissues
were estimated gravimetrically as described elsewhere (Bhaskar:a Haranath 1979).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data presented in the table reveal the impact of starvadon and re
feeding on vhe tissue proximarte analysis of hepatic and muscular tissues. In
normal fishes, liver contains highest levels of proteins, carl>ahydra1es and lipid
reserves. Red muscle seems to have close relationship with that of liver in the
biochemical components which is in confirmi y with the earHer workers. •,

Starvation of fishes resulted in a general depletion in all the t1ssue re

serves. The pattern of depletion in all the tissues revealed rhe greater utilization
of carbohydrate reserves than the others. This observa'tion suggests the major
contribution of carbohydrates towards the energy release during tot·al calorific
depletion and this is in consonance with the earlier workers (Emerson 1967,
Humphrey .et al 1973). Among the three, -red muscle seems to mobilize higher
carbdhydrate reserves, while -the white muscle had the least. Lipid reserves of
all tbe . issues were mobilized a:t a lessr level than .that of carbohydrates. The
tissues studied had an increase in the level of .free fatty acids, the increase being
more ·in red muscle. Elevated fatty acid levels suggest he Hpolytic activities of
these tissues. The white muscle had higher protein depletion than its lipid con
stituency unlike the other tissues. Since the whi.te muscl·e of fishes ex-hibits highest
proteolytic activity during starvation (Si·amak 1976) higher level of protein
deplet4on in .this tissue can be expected. The dry matter in all the tissues had
considerable depletion, suggesting the mobility of tissue con.stituents towards the
energy release during starvation. These tissues showed .the accumulation of water
to a varying degree, \Vhich ·is in ag.reement with the earlier reports (Sutton 1968,
Soutter ·and Higgim 1977).

The studies on feeding of he fishes atter starvation revealed an overall

eleva.tion in the tissue constituent-s. The protein content of red and white mu les
reached to dtat of nonnal indicatin·g the setting-in of active protein biosynthetic
mechanism-s in these tissues on refeeding. However, liver could not replenish
 TABLE 1. Level of total proteins, total carbohydrates, total lipids, free fatty acids,
dry weight and water content in the tissues of normal (N), starved (S)
and refed ( RF) T. mossambica.

LIVER RED MUSCLE WHITE MUSCLE

Compouent
N s RF N s RF N s R

TotaJ proteins 135.7 81.95 101.03 114,99 78.47 113.84 107.25 68.63 10
(ma:fg.wet wt) ± 10.28 ±6.36 ±7.22 ±10.32 ± 10.12 ±9.28 ±10.31 ±5.2 ±11.23
-38.87 -32.92 -31.76 -1.0 -l6.01
P<O.OOI P<O.OOI P<O.OOI NS P<O.OOI
Tolal carbohydrales 109.92 29.34 88.58 12.77 3.15 10.84 13 0.696
±6.R5 ±3-27 ±6-89 ±0-95 ±0.19 ± 1.15 ±0.12 ±0-07
-o7J.31 -19.48 -75.3 -15.11 -67.32
P<O.OOI P<O.OOI P<O.OOI P<0-<101 P<O.OOI P
Total lipids 380.06 230.76 333.33 146.28 98.08 106.38 ll2.99 88.19
(mgfl! dry WI) ±23.24 ±26.13 ±20.27 ± 12.28 ±8.39 ± 11.21 ±7.38 ±10.21
-39.28 -12.29 -32.95 -21.28 -28.29
P<O.OOI P<0-001 P<0.001 P<O.OOJ P<O.OOI NS
Free fatty acids 17.37 29.39 16.95 11.14 25.95 20.48 10.81 16.9 14.25
(MJ(g dry wtl ± 1.36 ±1.87 ± 1.71 ±0.87 ±2-93 ±3.21 ±0.87 ±1.23 ±1-16
+69.2 -2.42 +132.94 +83.84 +56.34 +31.
P<O.OOI NS P<O.OOI P<O.OOI P<O.OOI P<O.OOl
Dl:y weight 282 238 28() 206 187 210 201 175 195
(mgfg wet wt) ±20.5 ±15.33 ±25.2 ± 10.84 ± 10.32 ±15.82 ±8.37 ±10.27 ± 17.15
-15.6 -().71 -4.37 +1.94 -12.93 -2.98
P<O.OOI NS P<:>.o5 NS P<O.OOI NS
Water contenl 719 772 720 794 813 790 799 825 8()5
(mg wet"') ±52.85 ±61.25 ±64.14 ±40.28 ±33.46 ±31.09 ±2R.9J ±l8.n ±79.23
+7.52 +0.28 +2.4 0.5 +3.25 +0.75
P<0.05 NS P<0.05 NS P<0.05 NS
218 MOORTHY AND OTHERS

the tissue-protein content even after refeeding indicating either efflux of tissue
protein -into the blood or possible impairment of tissue-protein synthetic activities
in response to prolonged starvation. The carbohydrate reserves of the tissues were
replenished on refeeding, suggesting the operation of carbohydrate synthetic me
chanisms. However, the carbohydrate level of liver and red muscle were still
below the normal level. But the white muscle had significantly elevated carbo
hydrate content over ·that of normal, indicati·ng .the improv-ed syntheric efficiency
of the .tissue on refeeding. The lipid content of liver and r-ed muscle was slat
below normal level, where as that of white muscle attained nonnalcy suggesting
starvation and refeeding might decr·ease the fat reserves of the tissues. The free
fatty-acid contents of red and white muscle were highly elevated, while that of
liver showed non-significant change. This observation might sugg·est el-evated
lipolysis or diminished lipogenesis in the tissues in response to refeeding. The
dry matter and water content of the tissues attained normal level supporting the
possible replenishment of tissue constituents tn response to the course of refeeding.
ln .general it can be concluded that the course of starvation and refeeding
in fishes seems to decrease the lipid storeg·e in the tissue and to elevate the car
bohydrate synthetic capacity of white muscle.
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