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BDE-47-induced damage prevented by melatonin in grass carp hepatocytes (L8824)

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Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are toxic to organisms with melatonin (MT) providing protection for tissues and cells against these. This study investigates the mechanism of damage of 2,2′,4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) and the cellular protection of MT on grass carp hepatocytes. Grass carp hepatocytes were exposed to 25 μmol/L BDE-47 and/or 40 μmol/L MT for 24 h before testing. Acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) double fluorescence staining results showed that BDE-47 could induce cell apoptosis. The expression levels of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related genes ire1, atf4, grp78, perk, and chop were also significantly up-regulated (P < 0.01). The levels of the apoptosis-related genes caspase3, bax, and caspase9 were significantly up-regulated (P < 0.0001), while the level of bcl-2 was significantly down-regulated (P < 0.01). Compared with the BDE-47 group, the BDE-47 + MT group showed reduced levels of ER and apoptosis of hepatocytes, while the expression of the ER stress-related genes ire1, atf4, grp78, perk, and chop and the apoptosis-related genes caspase3, bax, and caspase9 were down-regulated (P < 0.05), and the level of bcl-2 was up-regulated (P < 0.01). In conclusion, BDE-47 can activate ER and apoptosis in grass carp hepatocytes, while MT can reduce these responses.

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Funding

This study was supported by Excellent Youth Foundation of Heilongjiang Province of China (YQ2021C021).

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Author notes

  1. Jianhua Shan and Haoyue Guan have contributed equally in the paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, People’s Republic of China

    Jianhua Shan, Zhuoqi Zhang, Wenxue Ma, Jingzeng Cai, Ge Gao & Ziwei Zhang

  2. College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Haoyue Guan

  3. Key Laboratory of the Provincial Education Department of Heilongjiang for Common Animal Disease Prevention and Treatment, Harbin, 150030, People’s Republic of China

    Jingzeng Cai & Ziwei Zhang

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  1. Jianhua Shan
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Contributions

Ziwei Zhang and Jingzeng Cai conceived and designed the experiments. Jianhua Shan and Haoyue Guan wrote the paper. Zhuoqi Zhang and Wenxue Ma revised the paper. Ge Gao assisted in organizing the data.

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Correspondence to Ziwei Zhang.

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Shan, J., Guan, H., Zhang, Z. et al. BDE-47-induced damage prevented by melatonin in grass carp hepatocytes (L8824). Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 26089–26098 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32856-3

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