Biochemical characterization, antimicrobial and hemolytic studies on skin mucus of fresh water spiny eel Mastacembelus armatus

ABSTRACT

Objective: To characterize the biochemical, antimicrobial and hemolytic activities of Mastacembalus armatus skin mucus. Methods: Antimicrobial and antifungal activities of mucus extractions against human and fish pathogens were tested along with ampicillin as control. Hemolytic activity of the extraction was evaluated against sheep and cow blood cells. Amino acid and fatty acid profiles were analyzed by HPLC and gas chromatography in the mucus of fish. SDS-PAGE analysis of mucus and muscle tissue was done. Oneway-ANOVA was performed against all extraction and pathogens, amino acids and fatty acids. Result: All the mucus extracts exhibited higher inhibitory activity than antibiotic ampicillin against bacterial and fungal pathogens. The hemolytic activity was increased with higher mucus concentrations in both sheep and cow blood cells. The protein content soluble and insoluble fractions of mucus were 63.22 μg/g and 55.79μg/g, respectively. Out of 17 amino acids leucine was higher (8.54 mole %) in soluble gel, and glutamic acid was higher (6.92 mole %) in the insoluble gel, Histidine was very low (i.e. 0.20 mole%) both in soluble and (0.30 mole %) insoluble gel. In SDS-PAGE analysis, 6 bands of mucus and 9 bands of muscle were observed. Conclusions: The soluble and insoluble proteins are responsible for antimicrobial and hemolytic activity, these results indicate that mucus gel was prospective applications in fish and human therapeutics.