Effects of Cu2O nanoparticle and CuCl2 on zebrafish larvae and a liver cell-line
- Authors
- Chen, D., Zhang, D., Yu, J.C., and Chan, K.M.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-110816-21
- Date
- 2011
- Source
- Aquatic toxicology (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 105(3-4): 344-354 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Chan, King-Ming
- Keywords
- biomarker, copper transporters, metallothionein, Cu2O nanoparticle
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Biomarkers/metabolism
- Cell Line
- Copper/toxicity*
- Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
- Gene Expression Profiling
- Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects*
- Hepatocytes/chemistry
- Hepatocytes/drug effects*
- Hepatocytes/metabolism
- Larva/chemistry
- Larva/drug effects
- Larva/genetics
- Larva/metabolism
- Lethal Dose 50
- Metal Nanoparticles/toxicity*
- No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level
- Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicity*
- Zebrafish/genetics
- Zebrafish/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 21839701 Full text @ Aquat. Toxicol.
The extensive uses of nanomaterials have caused many concerns of their potential hazards to the aquatic environments. As partial dissolution of metal nanoparticles may occur, it is important to study the toxic effects of nanoparticles and determine the no observable effect levels (NOELs) and lowest observable effect levels (LOELs) of these materials in water by using biomarker genes’ expression in zebrafish (Danio rerio). In this study, the toxic effects of Cu2O nanoparticle (NP) on zebrafish larvae and zebrafish liver cell-line (ZFL) were evaluated by determining their 96 h LC50 values (zebrafish larvae: 242.4 ppb; ZFL: 110 ppm), which was less toxic than CuCl2 (zebrafish larvae: 85.73 ppb; ZFL: 23.04 ppm). However, zebrafish larvae are sensitive to both Cu2O NP and CuCl2. We also examined the effects of elevated Cu2O NP and CuCl2 on the expression of several copper related genes in zebrafish larvae by using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. It was found that Cu2O NP and CuCl2 induced the mRNA levels of metallothionein (MT), Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn SOD), metal regulatory transcription factor 1 (MTF1) and copper transporters, ATP7A and 7B, but down-regulated the mRNA levels of glutathione sulfur transferase (GST). Interestingly, the inductions of MT, ATP7A and ATP7B in the Cu2O NP exposure groups were much higher than that of the CuCl2 exposure groups, and resulted in higher copper accumulation in the Cu2O NP exposure groups. Furthermore, as determined by using MT, ATP7A and ATP7B gene expression, the NOELs of CuCl2 and Cu2O NP were 11 ppb and 30 ppb whereas the LOELs of CuCl2 and Cu2O NP were 43 ppb and 121 ppb, respectively.