Effect of combined copper, zinc, chromium and selenium by orthogonal array design on alkaline phosphatase activity in liver of the red sea bream, Chrysophrys major

Red sea bream, Chrysophrys major, were obtained from a marine fish cage-culture farm located in Hoshao Island near Xiamen, People's Republic of China, in August, (1990) Orthogonal array design was used to investigate the activating and inhibitory effects of the combination of waterborne Cu, Zn, Cr(VI) and Se(VI) on alkaline phosphatase (APase) activity in liver of C. major. The results obtained demonstrated that (1) the APase activity was significantly increased when Zn was at the level of 100 μg/1 whereas no change was found when Zn was at 500 μg/1; (2) Cu at 20 μg/1 increased APase activity whereas Cu at 100 μg/1 significantly inhibited APase activity; (3) the effect of Se(VI) on APase activity was minimal. However, Se(VI) could suppress the action of Cu on APase activity; and (4) Cr(VI) at concentrations of 0–500 μg/1 had little effect on APase activity. In addition, the results also showed that the duration of exposure was independent of the effects of the combination of waterborne metals on APase activity and no interactive effects of Zn × Se(VI) or Cu × Zn on APase activity were observed.