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Bioenergetic Investigation of the Effects of La(III) and Ca(II) on the Metabolic Activity of Tetrahymena thermophila BF5

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Abstract

The heat flux of Tetrahymena thermophila BF5 during growth and the effects of La3+ and Ca2+ on them were investigated with microcalorimetry; simultaneously, morphological changes of T. thermophila were obtained by light microscope. La3+ in low concentration (0–5.0 × 10–4 mol/l) remarkably stimulated T. thermophila metabolism, but high dose of La3+ (5.8–8.6 × 10–4 mol/l) restrained it in a linear manner with IC50 being 7.2 × 10–4 mol/l. In contrast, low concentration of Ca2+ did not manifest obvious stimulation on T. thermophila metabolism; moreover, the IC50 of Ca2+ was much higher than that of La3+. Low concentration of La3+ did not lead to changes in appearance of T. thermophila, but low dose of Ca2+ clearly promoted the cell proliferation. In addition, the morphological changes of T. thermophila evoked by high concentrations of La3+ and Ca2+ were consistent with relevant microcalorimetric results. It is concluded that La and Ca influence T. thermophila via different pathways, and La represents toxic action rather than Ca analogy.

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Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 30570015, 20621502), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2005ABC002), the Science Research Foundation of Chinese Ministry of Education (nos. [2006]8IRT0543), and the Research Program of Hubei Provincial Department of Education, China (no. 2004X048).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Dai, Ye-Zhong Zhang, Qi Xiao, Ke-Lin Lei & Yi Liu

  2. College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei, 434025, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Dai, Chuan-Ling Li, Ye-Zhong Zhang & Yi Liu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Liu

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  1. Jie Dai
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  2. Chuan-Ling Li
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  5. Ke-Lin Lei
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Correspondence to Yi Liu.

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Dai, J., Li, CL., Zhang, YZ. et al. Bioenergetic Investigation of the Effects of La(III) and Ca(II) on the Metabolic Activity of Tetrahymena thermophila BF5. Biol Trace Elem Res 122, 148–156 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-007-8071-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-007-8071-x

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