PUBLICATION
Developmental toxicology of cadmium in living embryos of a stable transgenic zebrafish line
- Authors
- Blechinger, S.R., Warren, J.T., Kuwada, J.Y., and Krone, P.H.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-021016-5
- Date
- 2002
- Source
- Environmental health perspectives 119(19): 1041-1046 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Krone, Patrick H., Kuwada, John, Warren, James T., Jr.
- Keywords
- cadmium; green fluorescent protein; hsp70 promoter; stable transgenic zebrafish; toxicology; zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Cadmium/toxicity*
- Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects
- Embryonic Development
- Environmental Exposure*
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/drug effects*
- Genetic Markers
- Green Fluorescent Proteins
- HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins/biosynthesis*
- Luminescent Proteins/biosynthesis
- Reproducibility of Results
- Sensitivity and Specificity
- Transcriptional Activation
- Water Pollutants/toxicity*
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- PubMed
- 12361930 Full text @ Environ. Health Perspect.
Citation
Blechinger, S.R., Warren, J.T., Kuwada, J.Y., and Krone, P.H. (2002) Developmental toxicology of cadmium in living embryos of a stable transgenic zebrafish line. Environmental health perspectives. 119(19):1041-1046.
Abstract
The toxic effects of cadmium and other heavy metals have been well established, and many of these and other environmental pollutants are known to be embryotoxic or teratogenic. However, it has proven difficult to identify individual cells that respond to toxicants among the wide range of cell populations in an intact animal, particularly during early development when cells are continually changing their molecular and physiologic characteristics as they differentiate. Here we report the establishment of an in vivo system that uses hsp70 gene activation as a measure of cadmium toxicity in living early larvae of transgenic zebrafish carrying a stably integrated hsp70-enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) reporter gene. We demonstrate that eGFP expression in this strain of fish acts as an accurate and reproducible indicator of cell-specific induction of hsp70 gene expression. Furthermore, the transgene responds in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations similar to those observed for morphologic indicators of early-life-stage toxicity and is sensitive enough to detect cadmium at doses below the median combined adverse effect concentration and the median lethal concentration. The stable nature of this trangenic line should allow for extremely rapid and reproducible toxicologic profiling of embryos and larvae throughout development.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping