The environmental toxicants such as copper are known to affect vital organ especially liver. This study examined the effects of copper sulfate (CuSO4) on the liver morphological structure of P. javanicus. The untreated control, 0.1 and 0.3 mg/L CuSO4 treated groups displayed normal polygonal structure of the hepatocyte. However, at the concentrations of 0.5, 1.0 and 5.0 mg/L CuSO4, the hepatostructure was significantly affected, as shown by the increasing number of dilation and congestion of sinusoids, vacuolation, macrophage activities and peliosis. The damage level and HSI value were increased while the number of hepatic nuclei per mm(2) was decreased with the increasing of copper concentration. In conclusion, this study shows that the degree of liver damage in P. javanicus is dependent to the dose exposure. (c) All Rights Reserved

Due to the latest industrial development, many dangerous chemicals have been released directly or indirectly which resulted in the polluted water bodies. Water rehabilitation is an alternative way to restore the quality of water, followed by the environmental management to control the waste discharge to ensure the balance of the degradation rates or detoxifying by environmental factors. However, this process consumed a lot of time and cost. Besides, most of the metal ions, especially copper which is capable to bioaccumulate in aquatic organism and at the elevated level may cause physiological and biochemical alteration which leads to mortality. Environmental monitoring is the initial step presupposed evaluating the potential toxicity of effluent gushing at its purpose to discharge, avoiding the determining effects of contaminant in water bodies. Due to the high sensitivity of the aquatic life towards dissolving toxicant, the fish has been utilized as the biological measurement (Biomarker) to indicate the existence of toxicant exposure and/or the impact towards the evaluation of molecular, cellular to physiological level. Thus, this paper gives an overview of the manipulation of fish as a biomarker of heavy metals through behavior response, hepatocyte alteration, enzymatic reaction and proteomic studies which have proven to be very useful in the environmental pollution monitoring. (c) All Rights Reserved