PUBLICATION

Developmental exposure window influences silver toxicity but does not affect the susceptibility to subsequent exposures in zebrafish embryos

Authors
Robinson, P.C., Littler, H.R., Lange, A., Santos, E.M.
ID
ZDB-PUB-201022-10
Date
2020
Source
Histochemistry and cell biology   154(5): 579-595 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Keywords
Danio rerio, Pulsed exposure, Repeated exposure, Sensitivity, Teleost
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects*
  • Silver/administration & dosage
  • Silver/toxicity*
  • Zebrafish/embryology*
PubMed
33083906 Full text @ Histochem. Cell Biol.
Abstract
Silver is a non-essential, toxic metal widespread in freshwaters and capable of causing adverse effects to wildlife. Its toxic effects have been studied in detail but less is known about how sensitivity varies during development and whether pre-exposures affect tolerance upon re-exposure. We address these knowledge gaps using the zebrafish embryo (Danio rerio) model to investigate whether exposures encompassing stages of development prior to mid-blastula transition, when chorion hardening and epigenetic reprogramming occur, result in greater toxicity compared to those initiated after this period. We conducted exposures to silver initiated at 0.5 h post fertilisation (hpf) and 4 hpf to determine if toxicity differed. In parallel, we exposed embryos to the methylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine as a positive control. Toxicity increased when exposures started from 0.5 hpf compared to 4 hpf and LC50 were significantly lower by 1.2 and 7.6 times for silver and 5-azacyitidine, respectively. We then investigated whether pre-exposure to silver during early development (from 0.5 or 4 hpf) affected the outcome of subsequent exposures during the larvae stage, and found no alterations in toxicity compared to naïve larvae. Together, these data demonstrate that during early development zebrafish embryos are more sensitive to silver when experiments are initiated at the one-cell stage, but that pre-exposures do not influence the outcome of subsequent exposures, suggesting that no long-lasting memory capable of influencing future susceptibility was maintained under our experimental conditions. The finding that toxicity is greater for exposures initiated at the one-cell stage has implications for designing testing systems to assess chemical toxicity.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping