Table 5.

Summary of nephrotoxicity of microcystins in fishes.

Test Organism/System	Exposure	Toxicant	Concentration/Dose	Time Point	Toxic Effects	References
Microcystins crude extracts
Carp	I.G.	cyanobacterial crude extracts	400 μg/kg MC-LR	3 days	Microstructural damage, apoptosis, necrosis, cell shedding, proteinaceous casts↑ at the cortico-medullary junction	Fischer et al. [58]
Tilapia	Immersion	cyanobacterial crude extracts	60.0 μg MC-LR/fish	14, 21 days	Microstructural damage, ALP↑, ACP↑	Molina et al. [103]
Silver carp	Immersion	cyanobacterial crude extracts	-	-	CAT↑, GST↑, GSH↑, GPX↑, SOD↑, ultrastructural changes	Li et al. [104]
Bighead Carp	I.P.	cyanobacterial crude extracts	200, 400 μg/kg MC-LR	24 h	CAT↑, microstructural damage	Li et al. [105]
Tenca	Immersion	cyanobacterial crude extracts	5, 11, 25, 55 μg		CAT↓, SOD↓, ultrastructural damage	Atencio et al. [106]
Silver carp, Bighead Carp, Carassius auratus, Culter ilishaeformis	Immersion	cyanobacterial crude extracts	-	-	Microstructural damage, alterations of antioxidant enzymes	Qiu et al. [32]
Pure microcystins
Oncorhynchus mykiss	I.P.	MC-LR	400, 1000 μg/kg	16 h	Microstructural damage	Kotak et al. [107]
Silver carp	I.V.	MC-LR	50, 200 μg/kg	1, 3, 8, 12 h	Downregulated PP2A-A transcription	Ma et al. [108]
Tilapia	Immersion	MC-LR	120 μg/kg	7 days	Dysfunction in redox dynamic balance, CAT↓, SOD↓, GSH-Px↓, GR↓	Prieto et al. [109]
Tilapia	Immersion	MC-LR	60 μg MC-LR	21 days	LPO↑, alterations of antioxidant enzymes, modulation of GPx and GST genes transcription	Puerto et al. [110]
Silver carp	I.V.	MC-LR	50 and 200 μg/kg	8, 24, 48 h	Modulation of 7 miRNAs transcription	Feng et al. [111]
Zebrafish	Immersion	MC-LR	1, 5, 25 μg/L	60 days	Microstructural damage, modulation of genes transcription, apoptosis, ROS↑	Wang et al. [34]
CIK cell	-	MC-LR	1, 10, 100 μg/L	24, 48 h	Cell viability↓, G2/M phase arrest, ROS↑, MDA↑, modulation of antioxidant enzymes including CAT and SOD, modulation of cytoskeletal genes (β-actin, lc3a, and keratin) transcription	Huang et al. [112]

I.P. = intraperitoneal; I.V. = intravenous; I.G. = intragastrical; ↑ = effect increase; ↓ = effect decrease; - = not determined.