The Levels of Serum Thyroid Hormone in Sturgeon Populations

Thyroid hormone (TH) play an important role in the growth and development of animals, and regulate the protein metabolism, structure and function of the growth and development of the central nervous system. It also has a direct impact on the quantity and quality of animal population. Sturgeon is rich in nutritional value, and the thyroid hormone function is crucial to the fish growth. However, there is less information about the thyroid hormone concentrations in sturgeon bodies. The aims of this study were to evaluate the serum levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), Free triiodothyronine (FT3) and Free thyroxine (FT4) in three sturgeon populations that were reared in cages. Our results showed that there are differences among the sturgeon populations. The serum T3 levels of Amur sturgeon was significantly lower than both populations of Siberian sturgeon and Russian sturgeon. The serum levels of FT3, FT4 and T4 were significantly different between Siberian sturgeon and Amur sturgeon, but no obvious different with Russian sturgeon. Correlation analysis showed that the serum T3 and FT3, T4 and FT4 had a positive correlation in sturgeon populations, but did not find the serum hormone levels associated with growth traits data. Our results also found that serum T3 and FT4, FT4 and FT3 exist highly relevant in both Russian sturgeon and Amur sturgeon. It is suggested that the sturgeon thyroid endocrine system is relatively complex.