Abstract
The extensive use of the broad-spectrum antibiotics like oxytetracycline (OTC) has become a serious environmental issue globally. OTC has profound negative effects on aquatic organisms including fishes. In this study, RNA-Seq analysis was employed to examine the possible molecular mechanism of hepatotoxicology in zebrafish induced by OTC exposure. Adult male zebrafish was exposed to 0, 5, 90, and 450 μg/L OTC for 3 weeks. The results showed the decrease in body weight and tail length but the increase in total length of zebrafish under OTC exposure in a dose-dependent way. In addition, severe histopathological damages were featured by increasing tissue vacuolization in the livers of 450 μg/L OTC group. Moreover, RNA-Seq analysis revealed that molecular signaling and functional pathways in the liver were disrupted by OTC exposure. Furthermore, the down-regulation of gene expression after OTC exposure was found on both the genes related to fatty acid degradation and the genes related to lipid synthesis. The present study implied that OTC induced liver malfunction and fish health risks through growth retard, histopathological damages, molecular signaling disruption, genetic expression alteration, and lipid metabolism disturbance.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.
Abbreviations
- GSK-3β:
-
Glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta
- TSC2:
-
Tuberous sclerosis 2
- mTOR:
-
Mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase
- GPD1C:
-
Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1c
- GPAT2:
-
Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 2
- AGPAT2:
-
1-Acylglycerol-3-phosphate O-acyltransferase 2
- LPIN1:
-
Phosphatidate phosphatase
- DGAT2:
-
Diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 2
- CPT1Ab:
-
Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1Ab
- CPT2:
-
Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2
- ACOX1:
-
Acyl-CoA oxidase 1
- ECHS1:
-
Enoyl-CoA hydratase 1
- HADH:
-
3-Hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase
- ACAA2:
-
Acetyl-CoA acyltransferase 2
- ACSL5:
-
Long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase 5
- FABP1a:
-
Fatty acid binding protein 1a
- APOA4a:
-
Apolipoprotein A-IV a
- PPARα-a:
-
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha-a
- CEBPα:
-
CCAAT enhancer binding protein alpha
- DAG:
-
Diglyceride
- DHAP:
-
Dihydroxyacetone phosphate
- LPA:
-
Lysophosphatidic acid
- PA:
-
Phosphatidic acid
- TAG:
-
Triglyceride
- VLDL:
-
Very-low-density lipoprotein
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Ms. Xuan Li, Ling Wang and Ying Zheng for data analysis and writing suggestions.
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Animal care and experimental procedure were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Shaanxi Normal University.
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Zhang, G., Xu, Y., Xia, Y. et al. Transcriptomic Analysis of Hepatotoxicology of Adult Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Exposed to Environmentally Relevant Oxytetracycline. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 82, 539–550 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-022-00930-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-022-00930-x