E150d is a food additive used to increase palatability and impart colour to foods and drinks. Known as 'caramel dye', it contains 4-methylimidazole, a cytotoxic molecule for animal models and human. Recently, the growing consumption of E150d causes an increasing release of this additive into the environment, particularly in water bodies. For this reason, in this study it was assessed the toxic effect of E150d on zebrafish embryos, a conventional aquatic model organism. Six hours post fertilization embryos were treated with two different concentrations of E150d (0.3 g/L and 0.6 g/L) for 72 h and their embryonic development was studied. It emerged that this food additive induced toxic effects on hatching, survival, embryos phenotype and cardiac beat with a dose-dependent trend. Furthermore, it impaired swimming performance and induced damages in skeletal muscles and pericardial cavity. Data obtained showed the risk associated with the dispersion of E150d in water bodies suggesting that a greater attention should be paid in avoiding an unnecessary use so to preserve human and environmental health.
Keywords: 4-MEI; Caramel food dye; E150d; Swimming performance; Teratogenic defects; Zebrafish.
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