PUBLICATION
Morphofunctional Alterations in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Gills after Exposure to Mercury Chloride
- Authors
- Macirella, R., Brunelli, E.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-170414-3
- Date
- 2017
- Source
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences 18(4): (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- Na+/K+-ATPase, RT-PCR, acute effects, confocal microscopy, gills, histology, inorganic mercury, metallothionein, ultrastructure
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Gills/drug effects*
- Gills/metabolism
- Gills/ultrastructure
- Immunohistochemistry
- Mercuric Chloride/toxicity*
- Metallothionein/genetics
- Metallothionein/metabolism
- Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
- Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Sodium-Potassium-Exchanging ATPase/genetics
- Sodium-Potassium-Exchanging ATPase/metabolism
- Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicity*
- Zebrafish/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 28406445 Full text @ Int. J. Mol. Sci.
Citation
Macirella, R., Brunelli, E. (2017) Morphofunctional Alterations in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Gills after Exposure to Mercury Chloride. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 18(4).
Abstract
Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that may exert its toxic effects on living organisms and is found in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in three chemical forms; elemental, organic, and inorganic. The inorganic form (iHg) tends to predominantly accumulate in aquatic environments. The gill apparatus is a very dynamic organ that plays a fundamental role in gas exchange, osmoregulation, acid-base regulation, detoxification, and excretion, and the gills are the primary route of waterborne iHg entrance in fish. In the present work we investigated the morphofunctional and ultrastructural effects in Danio rerio gills after 96 h exposure to two low HgCl₂ concentrations (7.7 and 38.5 µg/L). Our results clearly demonstrated that a short-term exposure to low concentrations of mercury chloride resulted in gill morphology alterations and in the modifications of both Na+/K⁺-ATPase and metallothioneins (MTs) expression pattern. The main morphological effects recorded in this work were represented by hyperplasia and ectopia of chloride cells (CCs), lamellar fusion, increased mucous secretion, alteration of pavement cells (PVCs), detachment of the secondary epithelium, pillar cell degeneration, degeneration, and apoptosis. Trough immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR analysis also showed a dose-related modulation of Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase and MTs.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping