Thyroidal inhibition following diverse stress in soft-shelled turtle, Lissemys punctata punctata bonnoterre.
The current study was undertaken to ascertain the effects of diverse stress on thyroid activity in soft-shelled turtles, Lissemys punctata punctata. The findings revealed that starvation (10 days), dehydration (10 days) or exposure to electric shock (12 volts for 15 seconds at an interval of 30 min for 3 h) caused significant decrease in the body weight (except in electric shock), relative weight, peripheral and central epithelial heights of the follicles and peroxidase activity of the thyroid gland of turtles. The degree of change in the values of these parameters was nearly same in all the stress experiments, indicating that there is not much difference in the degree of thyroid responses to diverse stress in turtles. It is suggested that these stressors might have exerted their actions on thyroid activity presumably indirectly via adrenal medulla and/or substance in metabolic stress (starvation and dehydration) and via hypothalamo-hypophysial-adrenocortical axis in non-metabolic stress (electric shock) in Lissemys turtles.
Ray
Prajna Paramita
PP
Histophysiology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Calcutta 700 019, India.
Sengupta
Amita
A
Chaudhuri-Sengupta
Santasri
S
Maiti
B R
BR
D000818:Animals; D003681:Dehydration / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004597:Electroshock; D005260:Female; D007453:Iodide Peroxidase / Q000378:metabolism; D013217:Starvation / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014426:Turtles / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*
D007453:Iodide Peroxidase