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Neurobehavioral effects of the exposure to mercury vapor and methylmercury during postnatal period on mice

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Abstract

In this study, we investigated the neurobehavioral alterations and modifications of gene expression in the brains of female mice exposed to low-level mercury vapor and/or methylmercury during postnatal development. The mice were exposed to low-level mercury vapor at a mean concentration of 0.094 mg/m3 and supplied with tap water containing 5 ppm methylmercury from postnatal day 11 to 12 weeks of age. Behavioral analyses were performed at 17 weeks of age. Total locomotor activity in the open field test and the retention trial performance in the passive avoidance test were significantly reduced in the combined exposure group compared with those in the control group. The differences in locomotor activity and performance in the retention trial at 17 weeks were no longer detected at 45 weeks. These results suggest that the effect of aging on the behavioral abnormalities resulting from postnatal exposure to mercury complexes are not significant. In the microarray analysis of brains in the combined exposure group, the gene expression levels of Ano2 and Sgk1 were decreased. Real-time RT-PCR analysis confirmed these changes caused by combined mercury exposure, showing significant downregulation of Ano2 and Sgk1 in the cerebrum. These genes play key roles in the brain as a calcium-activated chloride channel and as a kinase that responds to cellular stress, respectively. Our findings provide insight into the neurobehavioral changes caused by combined mercury exposure.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was funded by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (Grant in Aid for Scientific Research [C], No. 18K10029).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Aichi Gakuin University, 1-100 Kusumoto-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8650, Japan

    Jin-Yong Lee & Masahiko Satoh

  2. Department of Nursing, Tokyo Junshin University, 2-600 Takiyama-machi, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0011, Japan

    Minoru Yoshida

  3. Interfaculty Initiative in Planetary Health, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8523, Japan

    Chiho Watanabe

Authors
  1. Jin-Yong Lee
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  2. Minoru Yoshida
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  3. Masahiko Satoh
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  4. Chiho Watanabe
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Contributions

JYL contributed to conceptualization, methodology, experiments, data analysis, and draft preparation. YM contributed to funding, conceptualization, data analysis, review, and editing. MS contributed to data analysis, review, and editing. CW contributed to data analysis, review, and editing.

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Correspondence to Jin-Yong Lee or Minoru Yoshida.

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Lee, JY., Yoshida, M., Satoh, M. et al. Neurobehavioral effects of the exposure to mercury vapor and methylmercury during postnatal period on mice. Toxicol Res. 40, 111–124 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43188-023-00210-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43188-023-00210-3

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