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Acta Biologica Hungarica

, Volume 61, Issue 2, pp 123–134 | Cite as

Increased Tau Phosphorylation and Beta Amyloid in the Hippocampus of Mouse Pups by Early Life Lead Exposure

  • N. Li
  • Z. L. Yu
  • L. Wang
  • Y. T. Zheng
  • J. X. Jia
  • Q. Wang
  • M. J. Zhu
  • X. H. Liu
  • X. Xia
  • W. J. LiEmail author
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of maternal lead exposure on the learning and memory ability and expression of tau protein phosphorylation (P-tau) and beta amyloid protein (Aβ) in hippocampus of mice offspring. Pb exposure initiated from beginning of gestation to weaning. Pb acetate administered in drinking solutions was dissolved in distilled deionized water at the concentrations of 0.1%, 0.5% and 1% groups. On the 21th of postnatal day, the learning and memory ability of the mouse pups was tested by Water Maze test and the Pb levels in blood and hippocampus of the offspring were also determined. The expression of P-tau and AP in hippocampus was measured by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. The Pb levels in blood and hippocampus of all exposure groups were significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). In Water Maze test, the performances of 0.5% and 1% groups were worse than that of the control group (P<0.05). The expression of P-tau and Aβ was increased in Pb exposed groups than that of the control group (P<0.05). Tau hyper-phosphorylation and Aβ increase in the hippocampus of pups may contribute to the impairment of learning and memory associated with maternal Pb exposure.

Keywords

Lead (Pb) tau phosphorylation beta amyloid neurotoxicity learning and memory 
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© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 2010

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Authors and Affiliations

  • N. Li
    • 1
  • Z. L. Yu
    • 1
  • L. Wang
    • 1
  • Y. T. Zheng
    • 1
  • J. X. Jia
    • 1
  • Q. Wang
    • 1
  • M. J. Zhu
    • 1
  • X. H. Liu
    • 1
  • X. Xia
    • 1
  • W. J. Li
    • 1
    Email author
  1. 1.College of Public HealthZhengzhou UniversityZhengzhouChina

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