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Fenpropathrin exposure induces neurotoxicity in zebrafish embryos

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Abstract

Fenpropathrin has been a commonly used insecticide to control agricultural and household insects over a few decades. Up to now, fenpropathrin residue in soil and water has been often determined due to its widespread use, which poses serious threat to environment and aquatic organisms. The potential of fenpropathrin to affect aquatic lives is still poorly understood. In this study, we used zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo as an experimental model system to evaluate the toxicity of fenpropathrin to the development of zebrafish nervous system. Zebrafish embryos were separately exposed to fenpropathrin at the dose of 0.016 mg/L, 0.032 mg/L, 0.064 mg/L, starting at 6 h post-fertilizationhpf (hpf) up to 96 hpf. The results showed that fenpropathrin exposure gives rise to physiological, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental impairments in zebrafish embryos, including enhanced acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, abnormal swimming behavior, karyopyknosis in brain cells, increased intercellular space, and uneven migration of neuron in brain area. In addition, the expressions of genes concerning neurodevelopment and neurotransmitter system were inhibited following fenpropathrin exposure. We also found that fenpropathrin exposure distinctly induced oxidative stress by increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and inhibiting the production of antioxidant enzymes catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Expectedly, some apoptosis-associated genes were induced and the apoptosis appeared in the brain and heart cells of zebrafish embryos. Moreover, fenpropathrin exposure also inhibited the expressions of genes in Nrf2 signaling pathway, such as heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and SOD. In summary, the results of this study indicate that oxidative stress-triggered apoptosis may be an underlying fundamental of fenpropathrin-induced neurotoxicity in zebrafish embryos.

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Funding

This work is supported by the earmarked fund for the Project Funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31960735, 32160871, and 32160872), Jiangxi Agriculture Research System (JXARS-06), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M662279), and Jiangxi Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019KY43, 2020RC22).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, Jiangxi, China

    Tingting Yu, Xiaowen Xu, Huiling Mao, Xue Han, Yulong Liu, Hongying Zhang, Jingli Lai, Jianfeng Gu, Mengling Xia, Chengyu Hu & Dongming Li

  2. School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fuzhou Medical College, Nanchang University, Fuzhou, 344000, Jiangxi, China

    Dongming Li

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  1. Tingting Yu
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  2. Xiaowen Xu
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  3. Huiling Mao
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  4. Xue Han
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  5. Yulong Liu
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  6. Hongying Zhang
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  10. Chengyu Hu
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  11. Dongming Li
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Contributions

TY conducted and designed experiment. XX, HM, XH, YL, HZ, JL, JG, and MX analyzed the results; CH wrote the manuscript; DL revised the manuscript and supervised this study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dongming Li.

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The authors declare that all experiments involving zebrafish were ethical. All of our experiments were conducted in compliance with the standard ethical guidelines and under control of Nanchang University.

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Yu, T., Xu, X., Mao, H. et al. Fenpropathrin exposure induces neurotoxicity in zebrafish embryos. Fish Physiol Biochem 48, 1539–1554 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-022-01134-9

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