PUBLICATION
Icariin induces developmental toxicity via thyroid hormone disruption in zebrafish larvae
- Authors
- Wu, M., Zheng, N., Zhan, X., He, J., Xiao, M., Zuo, Z., He, C.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-231029-74
- Date
- 2023
- Source
- Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association 182: 114155 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- He, Chengyong
- Keywords
- Developmental toxicity, Icariin, Thyroid hormone, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Endocrine Disruptors*/toxicity
- Larva
- Thyroid Gland
- Thyroid Hormones
- Water Pollutants, Chemical*/toxicity
- Zebrafish
- PubMed
- 37898232 Full text @ Food Chem. Toxicol.
Citation
Wu, M., Zheng, N., Zhan, X., He, J., Xiao, M., Zuo, Z., He, C. (2023) Icariin induces developmental toxicity via thyroid hormone disruption in zebrafish larvae. Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association. 182:114155.
Abstract
Icariin (ICA) is a natural flavonoid isolated from the traditional Chinese medicinal herb, Epimedium brevicornu Maxim. Although previous studies have reported that ICA exhibits various pharmacological activities, little is known about its toxicology. Herein, zebrafish embryos were exposed to ICA at 0, 2.5, 10, and 40 μM. In developmental analysis, reduced hatching rates, decreased body length, and abnormal swim bladder were found after treatment with 10 and 40 μM ICA. In addition, the ability of locomotor behavior was impaired by ICA. Two important thyroid hormones (THs), triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4), were tested. The exposure resulted in a remarkable alteration of T4 level and a significant decrease of the T3/T4 ratio in the 40 μM, indicating thyroid endocrine disruption. Furthermore, gene transcription analysis showed that genes involved in thyroid development (nkx2.1) and THs synthesis (tg) were up-regulated after ICA exposure. Significant down-regulation of iodothyronine deiodinase (dio1) was also observed in the 10 and 40 μM groups compared to the control. Taken together, our study first demonstrated that ICA caused developmental toxicity possibly through disrupting thyroid development and hormone synthesis. These results show that it is necessary to perform risk assessments of ICA in clinical practice.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping