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Embryonic exposure to low concentration of bisphenol A affects the development of Oryzias melastigma larvae

  • 15th International Symposium on Toxicity Assessment
  • Published:
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Abstract

The prevalence of bisphenol A (BPA) in the environment has attracted increasing attention because of the toxicity of this manmade pollutant. However, the toxicity related to cardiac development remains largely unknown. In the present paper, we investigated the cardiac toxicity of BPA using marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) embryos. At 2 days postfertilization (dpf), the embryos were continuously exposed to a low concentration of BPA (200 μg/L) for the whole embryonic stage. Heart rate and sinus venosus (SV)–bulbus arteriosus (BA) distance were measured under microscopy. The mRNA expression levels of genes were quantified by SYBR real-time RT-PCR, and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was used to examine the histology of fish larvae hearts. Neither the heart rate nor the SV-BA distance of the embryos was affected by BPA exposure. However, the mRNA expression levels of Na+–K+–ATPase, BMP4, COX-1, FGF8, GATA4, and NKX2.5 were all downregulated at the critical developmental stages (6 and 10 dpf). Interestingly, the mRNA expression levels of COX-2 and LERP were significantly upregulated at 10 dpf. The mRNA expressions of inflammation-related genes (TNFα, IL1β, SOD, and CCL11) were all significantly upregulated after exposure. Moreover, we found that both the body length and the body width decreased in the larvae after embryonic exposure to BPA. The distributed foci of inflammation were observed in the juveniles after 2 weeks’ depuration. Exposure to BPA at embryonic stages could alter the expression of heart development-related genes and inflammation-related genes of O. melastigma. The larvae hatched from exposed embryos showed the foci of inflammation in the heart ventricles and the decrease of the body length and width.

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Abbreviations

BPA:

Bisphenol A

DMSO:

Dimethyl sulfoxide

BMP4:

Bone morphogenetic protein 4

GATA4:

GATA-binding protein 4

NKX2.5:

NK2 transcription factor related 5

FGF8:

Fibroblast growth factor 8

NKA:

Na+–K+–ATPase

EPO:

Erythropoietin

COX:

Cyclooxygenase

LERP:

Leptin receptor

dpf:

Days postfertilization

SV:

Sinus venosus

BA:

Bulbus arteriosus

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Acknowledgments

This investigation was supported by the 100 Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-BR-18), Grant 2011J05117 from the Science and Technology Foundation of Fujian Province and Grant 3502Z20112019 of the Science and Technology Planning Project of Xiamen City.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, People’s Republic of China

    Qiansheng Huang, Chao Fang, Yajie Chen, Xinlong Wu, Ting Ye, Yi Lin & Sijun Dong

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  1. Qiansheng Huang
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  2. Chao Fang
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  3. Yajie Chen
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  4. Xinlong Wu
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  7. Sijun Dong
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Correspondence to Sijun Dong.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Qiansheng Huang and Chao Fang contributed equally to this work.

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Huang, Q., Fang, C., Chen, Y. et al. Embryonic exposure to low concentration of bisphenol A affects the development of Oryzias melastigma larvae. Environ Sci Pollut Res 19, 2506–2514 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1034-6

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