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Wang SS, Lu AX, Li WH, Zhang H, Hu CP, Liu JX, Pan H, Wu MQ, Xu X, Yan CH, Gao ZY. Effects of food-borne cholesterol supplementation on lead-induced neurodevelopmental impairments of rats based on BDNF signaling pathway and cholesterol metabolism. ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 2023; 259:115026. [PMID: 37210997 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Revised: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 05/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Despite the ubiquity and prevalence of lead (Pb) in the environment and industry, the mechanism of lead-induced neurotoxicity in the brain remains unclear, let alone its prevention and treatment. In this study, we hypothesized that exogenous cholesterol supplementation acts as an effective remedy for lead-induced neurodevelopmental impairments caused by lead. Forty 21-day-old male rats were randomly divided into four groups and administered 0.1 % lead water and/or 2 % cholesterol-containing feed for 30 d. Ultimately, rats in the lead group lost weight, accompanied by spatial learning and memory impairments as verified by the Morris water maze test, in which the escape latency of rats was prolonged, and the number of crossings in the target platform and the residence time in the target quadrant were significantly diminished compared to the control group. Hematoxylin-Eosin (H&E) staining and Nissl staining illustrated that typical pathological morphology occurred in the brain tissue of the lead group, where the tissue structure was loose, the number of hippocampal neurons and granulosa cells decreased significantly and were arranged loosely, along with enlarged intercellular space, light matrix staining, and decline in Nissl bodies. In addition, inflammatory response and oxidative stress were significantly induced by lead. Immunofluorescence experiments showed apparent activation of astrocytes and microglia, followed by the enhancement of TNF-α and IL-β levels. Moreover, the MDA content in the lead group was elevated dramatically, whereas the activities of SOD and GSH were significantly inhibited. As for the mechanism, western blot and qRT-PCR experiments were performed, where lead could significantly inhibit the BDNF-TrkB signaling pathway, lowering the protein expression of BDNF and TrkB. Cholesterol metabolism was also affected by lead exposure, in which cholesterol metabolism-related protein expression and gene transcription, including SREBP2, HMGCR, and LDLR, were downregulated. However, cholesterol supplementation efficiently detoxified the negative effects of lead-induced neurotoxicity, reversing the inflammatory response, oxidative stress, inactivation of the BDNF signaling pathway, and imbalance of cholesterol metabolism, thus improving the learning and memory ability of rats. In brief, our study demonstrated that cholesterol supplementation could ameliorate the deficiency of learning and memory induced by lead, which is closely associated with the initiation of the BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway and regulation of cholesterol metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Su-Su Wang
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - An-Xin Lu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Wan-He Li
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Hong Zhang
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Chun-Ping Hu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jun-Xia Liu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Hui Pan
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Mei-Qin Wu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Xi Xu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Chong-Huai Yan
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
| | - Zhen-Yan Gao
- Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics, Xinhua Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China.
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Wang SS, Xu X, Lu AX, Li WH, Liu JX, Liu C, Yan CH. Amelioration of cholesterol sulfate for lead-induced CTX cell apoptosis based on BDNF signaling pathway mediated cholesterol metabolism. ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 2022; 248:114307. [PMID: 36423370 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Revised: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Lead (Pb), as a deleterious heavy metal, ubiquitously exists in environment and industry, which engenders multi-organ disfunction, especially the brain of infants who are vulnerable to attack from lead-induced neurotoxicity. Although cholesterol sulfate (CS) is crucial constituent of cell membranes and precursor of neurosteroids, which maintains the function and survival of neurons, the role of CS in lead-induced neurological damage still remains incomplete. In this work, Rat Brain Astrocytes cell line (CTX cells) was applied into exploration that protective effects of CS on CTX cell apoptosis induced by lead via the regulation of BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway mediated cholesterol metabolism. We found that CTX cells exposed to lead manifested apparent cytotoxicity, where the viability of CTX cells was significantly suppressed, accompanied with the elevation of apoptosis, in response to a trend towards increases in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and pro-apoptotic protein Cleaved-caspase3, synchronized with the decline in anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. Moreover, accumulation of lead in CTX cells showed a dose-dependent increase, and meanwhile, decrements in cholesterol content occurred along with increase in lead exposure, in which expressions of cholesterol metabolism related proteins and transcriptions of its genes (SREBP2, LDLR, and HMGCR) were diminished. Furthermore, BDNF signaling pathway was obviously blocked after lead exposure, down-regulating expressions of proteins BDNF and TrkB. However, pretreatment with CS detoxified the negative impacts of lead-invoked CTX cell damage, acting as an effective remedy for apoptosis, imbalance of cholesterol metabolism and inhibition of BDNF signaling pathway. In addition, the relationship between BDNF signaling pathway and cholesterol metabolism was further verified, in which cholesterol metabolism related proteins and genes were promoted significantly after the activation of BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway using 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone (7,8-DHF), thereby detoxifying lead-induced CTX cell injury. However, the pretreatment of TrkB inhibitor ANA-12 offset the promotion of 7,8-DHF and ultimately inhibit cholesterol metabolism. Overall, our study demonstrated that CS could initiate the BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway, regulating the cholesterol metabolism against CTX cell apoptosis invoked by lead.
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Affiliation(s)
- Su-Su Wang
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xi Xu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - An-Xin Lu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Wan-He Li
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering and Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
| | - Jun-Xia Liu
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Chen Liu
- School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu, China
| | - Chong-Huai Yan
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
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Stein W, DeMaegd ML, Benson AM, Roy RS, Vidal-Gadea AG. Combining Old and New Tricks: The Study of Genes, Neurons, and Behavior in Crayfish. Front Physiol 2022; 13:947598. [PMID: 35874546 PMCID: PMC9297122 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.947598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
For over a century the nervous system of decapod crustaceans has been a workhorse for the neurobiology community. Many fundamental discoveries including the identification of electrical and inhibitory synapses, lateral and pre-synaptic inhibition, and the Na+/K+-pump were made using lobsters, crabs, or crayfish. Key among many advantages of crustaceans for neurobiological research is the unique access to large, accessible, and identifiable neurons, and the many distinct and complex behaviors that can be observed in lab settings. Despite these advantages, recent decades have seen work on crustaceans hindered by the lack of molecular and genetic tools required for unveiling the cellular processes contributing to neurophysiology and behavior. In this perspective paper, we argue that the recently sequenced marbled crayfish, Procambarus virginalis, is suited to become a genetic model system for crustacean neuroscience. P. virginalis are parthenogenetic and produce genetically identical offspring, suggesting that germline transformation creates transgenic animal strains that are easy to maintain across generations. Like other decapod crustaceans, marbled crayfish possess large neurons in well-studied circuits such as the giant tail flip neurons and central pattern generating neurons in the stomatogastric ganglion. We provide initial data demonstrating that marbled crayfish neurons are accessible through standard physiological and molecular techniques, including single-cell electrophysiology, gene expression measurements, and RNA-interference. We discuss progress in CRISPR-mediated manipulations of the germline to knock-out target genes using the ‘Receptor-mediated ovary transduction of cargo’ (ReMOT) method. Finally, we consider the impact these approaches will have for neurophysiology research in decapod crustaceans and more broadly across invertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Stein
- School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, United States
- Stiftung Alfried Krupp Kolleg Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- *Correspondence: Wolfgang Stein, ; Andrés G. Vidal-Gadea,
| | - Margaret L. DeMaegd
- School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, United States
- Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Abigail M. Benson
- School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, United States
| | - Rajit S. Roy
- School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, United States
| | - Andrés G. Vidal-Gadea
- School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, United States
- *Correspondence: Wolfgang Stein, ; Andrés G. Vidal-Gadea,
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