Evidence of hepatotoxicity in the sand lizard Acanthodactylus scutellatus from Kuwait's Greater Al-Burgan oil field

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of oil pollution in a desert location (the Greater Al-Burgan oil fields, an area damaged in the Gulf War in 1991) in Kuwait on the hepatotoxicity of the Sand lizard Acanthodactylus scutellatus (A. scutellatus). Twenty lizards (10 of each sex) from each polluted and each control sites were collected. Livers were removed from dissected animals and ready for fixation by Bouin's solution and formal-saline. Twenty sections (10 from males and 10 from females) from each tar mat (polluted) and control sites were prepared and examined for cell diameter and nuclear measurements using Cell Analysis Systems. The cytology of hepatocytes showed normal appearance in samples from the control sites. Dead cells were abundant in the sections of lizard livers from the tar mat sites and occurred in notably greater numbers than the sections of livers of animals from the control sites. Examinations of the data confirm that the cell and nuclear diameters in liver samples of males collected from polluted sites were generally greater than those of corresponding females. The liver sections obtained from animals in the tar mat site had greater cellular diameters than counterparts from control sites. Females from the polluted sites were also affected by oil pollution by having larger hepatocyte diameters and their nuclei were also affected, being larger than female nuclei from the control sites. The most remarkable feature observed in hepatocytes of lizards collected from the tar mat sites were swelling of hepatocytes, ballooning degeneration of hepatic cytoplasm and cell death. This study confirmed that the prolonged exposure to oil pollution may result in increased accumulation of contaminants and may cause severe liver pathology in a range of wild organisms such as A. scutellatus.