Effects of growth hormone on plasma ionic regulation,respiration and extracellular acid-base status in trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) transferred to seawater

The effects of trout recombinant growth hormone (rtGH) treatment (0.25 g g^–1 by intraperitoneal implant) on plasma ionic regulation, extracellular acid-base status and respiration were investigated in freshwater rainbow trout and during a 4-day period after direct transfer into seawater (35 g 1^–1).In freshwater, rtGH treatment resulted in a significant increase in gill (Na⁺, K⁺) ATPase activity and in standard metabolism (MO₂). The latter would mainly result from a higher rate of protein synthesis. Direct transfer from freshwater to seawater induced a decrease in arterial blood pH, far more pronounced in controls than in treated fish. This effect could be regarded in both groups mainly as a metabolic acidosis resulting from extracellular ion composition changes (i.e., an increase higher in chloride than in sodium, more marked in controls than in treated fish). As the rise in PaCO₂, in spite of an increase in ventilatory activity, is more significant in controls than in treated fish, it can be assumed that rtGH treatment lightened the decrease in the gas diffusing capacity of gills induced by transfer to seawater. The initial increase in MO₂ in both controls and treated fish could be the consequence of an increase in energetic cost of ventilation and osmoregulation. Then, in treated fish, the persistent high level of M may indicate a stimulation of intermediary metabolism by rtGH. In addition, the absence in treated fish of an increase in plasma lactate concentration, as observed in controls, would indicate that rtGH attenuated the decrease in O₂ affinity of haemoglobin foreseeable from the metabolic acidosis.This article is dedicated to Professor Claude Peyraud, whose recent death has deeply saddened us. We respectfully pay a tribute to his memory.