Microscopy Research, 2015, 3, 33-40 Published Online July 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/mr http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/mr.2015.33005 How to cite this paper: Ciamarro, C.M., Pereira, B.F., da Silva Alves, R.M., Valim, J.R.T., Pitol, D.L. and Caetano, F.H. (2015) Changes in Muscle and Collagen Fibers of Fish after Exposure to Urban Pollutants and Biodegradable Detergents. Micro- scopy Research, 3, 33-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/mr.2015.33005 Changes in Muscle and Collagen Fibers of Fish after Exposure to Urban Pollutants and Biodegradable Detergents Cynthia Medina Ciamarro¹, Bruno Fiorelini Pereira 2 , Rebeca Mamede da Silva Alves¹, João Rodolfo Tuckumantel Valim¹, Dimítrius Leonardo Pitol 3* , Flávio Henrique Caetano¹ ¹Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”—UNESP, Campus Rio Claro, Rio Claro, Brazil 2 Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Oeste da Bahia—UFOB, Campus Barreiras, Barreiras, Brazil 3 Faculdade de Odontologia de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo—FORP/USP, Campus Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil Email: * dimitrius@forp.usp.br Received 26 May 2015; accepted 30 June 2015; published 3 July 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Fish populations are sensitive to environmental impact resulting from many factors, as an intro- duction of exotic species, industrial or residual waste, oil spills, pesticides or other agents that can directly affect the ecology and species survival. Astyanax altiparanae is pelagic and active swim- mer specie and can have serious implications on its way of life as changes in muscle structure of fish may occur since the presence of pollutants in the water. In this study we analyze the altera- tions in Muscle and collagen fibers of the pectoral muscles and pollutants exposed flows contained in water with biodegradable detergents, and water coming from the Blue Lake, River clear-SP (2˚24'39"S, 47˚33'39"E) diluted. Effects of these exposures were analyzed during the period of seven and thirty days. Compared with acclimatized fish (Astyanax altiparanae) with pure water from an artesian well, the muscle fibers morphology and collagen concentration on them have changed due to the exposure to urban pollutants and biodegradable detergents. Keywords Astyanax altiparanae, Biodegradable Detergents, Pollutants * Corresponding author.