PUBLICATION
Review: myogenic and muscle toxicity targets of environmental methylmercury exposure
- Authors
- Tam, L.M., Rand, M.D.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-240329-2
- Date
- 2024
- Source
- Archives of toxicology 98(6): 1645-1658 (Review)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- Developmental origins of health and disease, Methylmercury, Myogenesis, Myotoxicity, Skeletal muscle
- MeSH Terms
-
- Humans
- Muscle, Skeletal*/drug effects
- Muscle, Skeletal*/metabolism
- Environmental Pollutants*/toxicity
- Neuromuscular Junction/drug effects
- Methylmercury Compounds*/toxicity
- Muscle Development*/drug effects
- Animals
- Environmental Exposure*/adverse effects
- PubMed
- 38546836 Full text @ Arch. Toxicol.
Citation
Tam, L.M., Rand, M.D. (2024) Review: myogenic and muscle toxicity targets of environmental methylmercury exposure. Archives of toxicology. 98(6):1645-1658.
Abstract
A number of environmental toxicants are noted for their activity that leads to declined motor function. However, the role of muscle as a proximal toxicity target organ for environmental agents has received considerably less attention than the toxicity targets in the nervous system. Nonetheless, the effects of conventional neurotoxicants on processes of myogenesis and muscle maintenance are beginning to resolve a concerted role of muscle as a susceptible toxicity target. A large body of evidence from epidemiological, animal, and in vitro studies has established that methylmercury (MeHg) is a potent developmental toxicant, with the nervous system being a preferred target. Despite its well-recognized status as a neurotoxicant, there is accumulating evidence that MeHg also targets muscle and neuromuscular development as well as contributes to the etiology of motor defects with prenatal MeHg exposure. Here, we summarize evidence for targets of MeHg in the morphogenesis and maintenance of skeletal muscle that reveal effects on MeHg distribution, myogenesis, myotube formation, myotendinous junction formation, neuromuscular junction formation, and satellite cell-mediated muscle repair. We briefly recapitulate the molecular and cellular mechanisms of skeletal muscle development and highlight the pragmatic role of alternative model organisms, Drosophila and zebrafish, in delineating the molecular underpinnings of muscle development and MeHg-mediated myotoxicity. Finally, we discuss how toxicity targets in muscle development may inform the developmental origins of health and disease theory to explain the etiology of environmentally induced adult motor deficits and accelerated decline in muscle fitness with aging.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping