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Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation
Methylmercury (MeHg) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that is known to be neurotoxic, particularly during fetal development. However, the mechanisms responsible for MeHg-induced changes in adult neuronal function, when their exposure occurred primarily during fetal development, are not yet un...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30308979 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics6040061 |
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author | Yuan, Xiaoyang Wang, Jing Chan, Hing Man |
author_facet | Yuan, Xiaoyang Wang, Jing Chan, Hing Man |
author_sort | Yuan, Xiaoyang |
collection | PubMed |
description | Methylmercury (MeHg) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that is known to be neurotoxic, particularly during fetal development. However, the mechanisms responsible for MeHg-induced changes in adult neuronal function, when their exposure occurred primarily during fetal development, are not yet understood. We hypothesized that fetal MeHg exposure could affect neural precursor development leading to long-term neurotoxic effects. Primary cortical precursor cultures obtained from embryonic day 12 were exposed to 0 µM, 0.25 µM, 0.5 µM, 2.5 µM, and 5 µM MeHg for 48 or 72 h. All of the concentrations tested in the study did not affect cell viability. Intriguingly, we observed that cortical precursor exposed to 0.25 µM MeHg showed increased neuronal differentiation, while its proliferation was inhibited. Reduced neuronal differentiation, however, was observed in the higher dose groups. Our results suggest that micromolar MeHg exposure may deplete the pool of neural precursors by increasing premature neuronal differentiation, which can lead to long-term neurological effects in adulthood as opposed to the higher MeHg doses that cause more immediate toxicity during infant development. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6315723 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-63157232019-01-11 Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation Yuan, Xiaoyang Wang, Jing Chan, Hing Man Toxics Article Methylmercury (MeHg) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that is known to be neurotoxic, particularly during fetal development. However, the mechanisms responsible for MeHg-induced changes in adult neuronal function, when their exposure occurred primarily during fetal development, are not yet understood. We hypothesized that fetal MeHg exposure could affect neural precursor development leading to long-term neurotoxic effects. Primary cortical precursor cultures obtained from embryonic day 12 were exposed to 0 µM, 0.25 µM, 0.5 µM, 2.5 µM, and 5 µM MeHg for 48 or 72 h. All of the concentrations tested in the study did not affect cell viability. Intriguingly, we observed that cortical precursor exposed to 0.25 µM MeHg showed increased neuronal differentiation, while its proliferation was inhibited. Reduced neuronal differentiation, however, was observed in the higher dose groups. Our results suggest that micromolar MeHg exposure may deplete the pool of neural precursors by increasing premature neuronal differentiation, which can lead to long-term neurological effects in adulthood as opposed to the higher MeHg doses that cause more immediate toxicity during infant development. MDPI 2018-10-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6315723/ /pubmed/30308979 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics6040061 Text en © 2018 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ). |
spellingShingle | Article Yuan, Xiaoyang Wang, Jing Chan, Hing Man Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation |
title | Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation |
title_full | Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation |
title_fullStr | Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation |
title_full_unstemmed | Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation |
title_short | Sub-Micromolar Methylmercury Exposure Promotes Premature Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Neural Precursor at the Expense of Their Proliferation |
title_sort | sub-micromolar methylmercury exposure promotes premature differentiation of murine embryonic neural precursor at the expense of their proliferation |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30308979 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics6040061 |
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