Effects of Dietary Pb and Cd and Their Combination on Glutathion-S-Transferase and Catalase Enzyme Activities in Digestive Gland and Foot of the Green Garden Snail, Cantareus apertus (Born, 1778).

The present study was focused on the assessment of glutathion-S-transferase (GST) and catalase (CAT) activities in the digestive gland and foot of the land snail, Cantareus apertus (Born, 1778), exposed to different nominal dietary concentrations of Pb (25 and 2500 mg Pb/Kg), Cd (5 and 100 mg Cd/Kg) and their combination (25 mg Pb + 5 mg Cd/Kg and 2500 mg Pb + 100 mg Cd/Kg) for 7 and 60 days. GST activity was significantly increased after 7 and 60 days exposure to the highest concentration of Pb, Cd and their combination. The levels of CAT activity were different in the two studied organs but in both cases it resulted increased after 7 and 60 days of exposure, which varied significantly between metals and dietary concentrations. Therefore, it can be concluded that GST and CAT enzymes in digestive gland and foot of C. apertus are responsive to Cd, Pb and their combination, whereby they are suitable to be included in a battery of biomarkers for ecosystem health assessment in metal polluted soils using this species as sentinel.