PUBLICATION

Excessive nitrite affects zebrafish valvulogenesis through yielding too much NO signaling

Authors
Li, J., Jia, W., Zhao, Q.
ID
ZDB-PUB-140513-293
Date
2014
Source
PLoS One   9: e92728 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Zhao, Qingshun
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Cyclic GMP/metabolism
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism
  • Heart Defects, Congenital/chemically induced
  • Heart Valves/embryology
  • Heart Valves/pathology
  • Nitric Oxide/metabolism*
  • Nitrites/pharmacology*
  • Organogenesis/drug effects*
  • Signal Transduction/drug effects*
  • Zebrafish/embryology*
  • Zebrafish/metabolism*
PubMed
24658539 Full text @ PLoS One
Abstract
Sodium nitrite, a common food additive, exists widely not only in the environment but also in our body. Excessive nitrite causes toxicological effects on human health; however, whether it affects vertebrate heart valve development remains unknown. In vertebrates, developmental defects of cardiac valves usually lead to congenital heart disease. To understand the toxic effects of nitrite on valvulogenesis, we exposed zebrafish embryos with different concentrations of sodium nitrite. Our results showed that sodium nitrite caused developmental defects of zebrafish heart dose dependently. It affected zebrafish heart development starting from 36 hpf (hour post fertilization) when heart initiates looping process. Comprehensive analysis on the embryos at 24 hpf and 48 hpf showed that excessive nitrite did not affect blood circulation, vascular network, myocardium and endocardium development. But development of endocardial cells in atrioventricular canal (AVC) of the embryos at 48 hpf was disrupted by too much nitrite, leading to defective formation of primitive valve leaflets at 76 hpf. Consistently, excessive nitrite diminished expressions of valve progenitor markers including bmp4, has2, vcana and notch1b at 48 hpf. Furthermore, 3', 5'-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), downstream of nitric oxide (NO) signaling, was increased its level significantly in the embryos exposed with excessive nitrite and microinjection of soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitor ODQ (1H-[1], [2], [4]Oxadiazolo[4,3-a] quinoxalin-1-one), an antagonist of NO signaling, into nitrite-exposed embryos could partly rescue the cardiac valve malformation. Taken together, our results show that excessive nitrite affects early valve leaflet formation by producing too much NO signaling.
Errata / Notes
Correction: There is an error in the Materials and Methods in the last sentence of the first paragraph under the subheading “Whole mount in situ hybridizations.” The primer sequences for vmhc are incorrect. The primer sequences for vmhc should read “F: AAAGA CTCCT GGTGC AATG” and “R: TTCAG CTCAG AGCAT TCGT.”
Genes / Markers
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