PUBLICATION

Immune response induced by major environmental pollutants through altering neutrophils in zebrafish larvae

Authors
Xu, H., Zhang, X., Li, H., Li, C., Huo, X.J., Hou, L.P., Gong, Z.
ID
ZDB-PUB-180615-18
Date
2018
Source
Aquatic toxicology (Amsterdam, Netherlands)   201: 99-108 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Gong, Zhiyuan
Keywords
Immunotoxicity, Metals, Neutrophils quantification, Organic chemicals, Transgenic zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Environmental Exposure/analysis
  • Environmental Pollutants/toxicity*
  • Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects
  • Immunity, Cellular/drug effects
  • Inflammation/pathology
  • Larva/drug effects
  • Larva/genetics
  • Larva/immunology
  • Neutrophils/drug effects
  • Neutrophils/metabolism*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Transcription, Genetic/drug effects
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicity
  • Zebrafish/genetics
  • Zebrafish/immunology*
PubMed
29902668 Full text @ Aquat. Toxicol.
CTD
29902668
Abstract
Environmental pollutants may cause adverse effects on the immune system of aquatic organisms. However, the cellular effects of pollutants on fish immune system are largely unknown. Here, we exploited the transgenic zebrafish Tg(lysC:DsRed2) larva as a preliminary screening system to evaluate the potential inflammatory effects of environmental pollutants. Tg(lysC:DsRED2) larvae aged 7-day-postfertilization (7 dpf) were treated with selected environmental chemicals for 24 h (24 h) and the number of neutrophils were quantified using both image analysis and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). We found that the numbers of neutrophils in the Tg(lysC:DsRED2) larvae were significantly increased by most of the organic chemicals tested, including E2 (17β-estradiol), BPA (Bisphenol-A), NDEA (N-nitrosodiethylamine), 4-NP (4-Nitrophenol) and Lindane (γ-hexachlorocyclohexane). Neutrophil numbers were also increased by all the metals tested (Na2HAsO4· 7H2O, Pb(NO3)2, HgCl2, CdCl2, CuSO4·5H2O, ZnSO4, and K2Cr2O7). The only exception was TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), which significantly reduced the number of neutrophils after exposure. Additionally, the transcription of genes (lyz, mpo, tnfα and il8) related to fish immune system were significantly modulated upon exposure to some of the selected chemicals such as E2, TCDD, Cu and Cd. This study revealed that representatives of major categories of environmental pollutants could cause an acute inflammatory response in zebrafish larvae as shown by alterations in the neutrophils, which may imply a common immunotoxicity mechanism for most environmental pollutants. This study has also demonstrated that Tg(lyz:DsRed2) transgenic zebrafish is an excellent tool for screening environmental chemicals with potential inflammatory effects through FACS-facilitated neutrophil counting.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping