ABSTRACT
A neurophysiological detector (NPD) is a hybridization of olfactory system neurons of the fish crucian carp, Carassius carassius L., with a computerized electronic device connected to a high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC). This system makes it possible to measure neurophysiological activities in the olfactory system of C. carassius L. after exposure of this fish to alarm pheromones. The construction of the system was presented for the first time at the 3rd International Symposium on Separation in Bio Sciences SBS 2003 in I. Brondz, et al., The Fish Olfactory System Used as an In-Line HPLC Neurophysiologic Detector NPD, 3rd Int. Symposium on Separation in Bio Sciences SBS 2003: A 100 Years of Chromatography, 13-18 May, Moscow, Russia, 2003, Abstract O- 27, p. 95. A complete paper was published in I. Brondz, et al., Neurophysiologic Detector (NPD)—A Selective and Sensitive Tool in High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, Chromatography B: Biomedical Sciences and Applications, Vol. 800, No. 1-2, 2004, pp. 41-47, and the hybridization of living cells with an electronic device has been discussed (I. Brondz, et al., International Scientific-Technical Conference Sensors Electronics and Microsystems Technology (SEMST-1), 1-5 June, (Odessa), Ukraine, 2004, Plenum Lecture, Abstract p. 17; I. Brondz, et al., The European Chemoreception Research Organization ECRO 2004 Congress, 12-15 September, (Dijon), France, 2004, Abstract P-3; and I. Brondz, et al., Biosensors as Electronic Compounds for Detector in the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Electronic Components and Systems, Vol. 3, No. 103, 2006, pp. 25-27). In the present study, an HPLC equipped with an NPD was used to assess the influence of organophosphate (OP) pesticides on olfactory sensory nerves and the modification of nerve signals from the olfactory organ. The results show that exposure of the olfactory system to OP pesticides can lead to disruption of normal reflexes and to significant suppression of individual sexual activity and, as a result, to the suppression of a population.