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Perinatal Exposure to Arsenic in Drinking Water Alters Glutamatergic Neurotransmission in the Striatum of C57BL/6 Mice

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Abstract

Although exposure to arsenic (As) induces developmental neurotoxicity, there is a lack of data regarding its specific effects on glutamatergic neurotransmission in offspring from dams exposed to As during gestation and lactation. In this study, the body weight, glutamate content, and expression of vesicular glutamate transporter 2 (VGLUT2) and metabotropic glutamate receptors mGluR2 and mGluR3 was examined in the striatum of offspring following treatment of the dams with As (10 or 100 mg/L NaAsO2 in drinking water). At postnatal day 21, body weight was decreased significantly, whereas the glutamate content in the striatum of offspring in the 100-mg/L As group were not significantly different from those in the control group. Although mGluR3 expression was not significantly different, VGLUT2 and mGluR2 expression was significantly lower in the striatum of offspring of As-exposed dams. These data indicate that altered glutamatergic neurotransmission may contribute to As-induced developmental neurotoxic effects.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. NRF-2016R1A2B4011596).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collage of Pharmacy, Keimyung University, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea

    Kyunghwa Sung, Haesoo Kim & Kisok Kim

  2. Collage of Pharmacy, Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, 03760, Republic of Korea

    Minjeong Kim

  3. Laboratory of Molecular and Biochemical Toxicology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    Gi-Wook Hwang & Kisok Kim

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  1. Kyunghwa Sung
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Correspondence to Kisok Kim.

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All experimental protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Keimyung University (approval no. KM-2014-78R2). Experiments were conducted according to NIH guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Sung, K., Kim, M., Kim, H. et al. Perinatal Exposure to Arsenic in Drinking Water Alters Glutamatergic Neurotransmission in the Striatum of C57BL/6 Mice. Biol Trace Elem Res 187, 224–229 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-018-1374-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-018-1374-2

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