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Postnuclear Supernatants of Rat Brain Regions as Substrates for the In Vitro Assessment of Cadmium-Induced Neurotoxicity on Acetylcholinesterase Activity

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Abstract

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity is thought to be a major neurotoxicity biomarker. Considering the recently highlighted controversy over the use of AChE activity as a biomarker for the neurotoxicity induced by cadmium (Cd; a major environmental contaminant), we have evaluated the in vitro effects of different concentrations of Cd on AChE activity in postnuclear supernatants of brain regions of newborn, 21-day-old, and adult male Wistar rats. Our findings demonstrate that Cd is a consistent inhibitor of AChE activity at concentrations higher than 10−3 M as well as that, at a concentration of 10−2 M, Cd induces an almost absolute inhibition of this crucial enzyme in the examined postnuclear supernatants. These findings confirm previous in vitro experiments of ours, but are not in full agreement with the available in vivo findings; in fact, they underline that this in vitro approach to Cd-induced neurotoxicity does not produce the distinctive brain region-specific responses in terms of AChE activity that we have recently observed in vivo. Our study does not support the use of AChE activity as a biomarker for the assessment of Cd-induced neurotoxicity in rat brain-derived postnuclear supernatants, at least under the examined in vitro experimental conditions.

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Notes

  1. “Postnuclear supernatant” is the term for the resulting supernatant of a single refrigerated centrifugation of an appropriately prepared 10 % (w/v) homogenized brain sample at ~1,000 g for 10 min; the resulting pellet is often called “primary nuclear pellet.” The postnuclear supernatant is considered a crude supernatant and can be further fractionated if desired.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Stephanie D. Boomkamp (University of Strathclyde) for her valuable assistance in manuscript preparation.

Conflict of Interest

All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Physiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, PO Box 65257, 15401, Athens, Greece

    Vasiliki Gkanti, Vasileios Stolakis, Konstantinos Kalafatakis, Konstantinos M. Zissis, Apostolos Zarros & Stylianos Tsakiris

  2. Laboratory of Pharmacology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Vasileios Stolakis & Charis Liapi

  3. Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Apostolos Zarros

Authors
  1. Vasiliki Gkanti
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  2. Vasileios Stolakis
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  3. Konstantinos Kalafatakis
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  4. Charis Liapi
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  5. Konstantinos M. Zissis
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  6. Apostolos Zarros
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  7. Stylianos Tsakiris
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Correspondence to Stylianos Tsakiris.

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Gkanti, V., Stolakis, V., Kalafatakis, K. et al. Postnuclear Supernatants of Rat Brain Regions as Substrates for the In Vitro Assessment of Cadmium-Induced Neurotoxicity on Acetylcholinesterase Activity. Biol Trace Elem Res 158, 87–89 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-9907-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-9907-9

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