en عمومى General مقاله اصیل Original Article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="fontstyle0">Background: </span><span class="fontstyle2">There is little information about the trace elements (TEs) concentrations in the muscle tissue of Caspian kutum (</span><span class="fontstyle3">Rutilus kutu</span><span class="fontstyle2">m) in the South Caspian Sea.</span><br> <span class="fontstyle0">Methods: </span><span class="fontstyle2">A total of 51 </span><span class="fontstyle3">R. kutum </span><span class="fontstyle2">specimens were caught at five fishing stations (Gorgan, Sari, Kiashahr, Anzali, and Astara) in the South Caspian Sea from September 2018 to January 2019. The inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was employed to measure the<br> TEs concentrations in the fish muscles.</span><br> <span class="fontstyle0">Results: </span><span class="fontstyle2">The maximum concentrations of Al (7.2 ppm), Pb (0.07 ppm), and Ni (0.02) were reported in Astara, and the highest concentrations of As (0.2 ppm), Cu (0.49 ppm), Cr (0.12 ppm), and Zn (1.56 ppm) were reported in Sari and Gorgan. The TEs concentrations measured in the fish muscles (except Mg, Zn, As, Al, Na, and S) had no significant differences among the sampling areas. The TEs concentrations were higher in the eastern areas (Sari and Gorgan) than in the western areas (Astara, Anzali, and Kiashahr) excluding As and Al. The concentrations of Pb, Zn, Mn, Cu, Sn, Sb, Al, Cr, and Cd in muscles of R. kutum were found to be significantly lower (</span><span class="fontstyle3">P </span><span class="fontstyle2">< 0.05) than the maximum permitted levels according to the WHO/FAO standards, while As concentrations were comparable to these standards.</span><br> <span class="fontstyle0">Conclusion: </span><span class="fontstyle2">The TEs concentrations in different fishing stations of Kiashahr, Anzali, and Astara, located in the southwestern areas were respectively compared with those obtained from Sari and Gorgan, located in the middle and southeastern shore of the Caspian Sea. According to the results, the TEs concentrations obtained from the fish muscles cannot pose a threat to human health.</span><br style=" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " > &nbsp;</div> Caspian Sea, Rutilus kutum, Elements, Human health 89 96 http://ehemj.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-169&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Masoud Sattari msattari647@gmail.com 10031947532846006668 10031947532846006668 Yes Corresponding author:Fisheries Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Sowmeh Sara, Iran Mehdi Bibak mehdi.bibak65@yahoo.com 10031947532846006669 10031947532846006669 No Fisheries Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Sowmeh Sara, Iran Mohammad Forouhar Vajargah mohammadfourhar@yahoo.com 10031947532846006670 10031947532846006670 No Fisheries Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Sowmeh Sara, Iran