Characterization of glyphosate-induced cardiovascular toxicity and apoptosis in zebrafish

Abstract

Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide, presents new hazards to human health. The developmental toxicity of glyphosate, especially its cardiovascular toxicity, needs to be closely monitored. To understand how glyphosate affects development, we performed toxicity tests on zebrafish embryos that were continuously exposed to glyphosate. The results indicated that glyphosate affected the overall development of zebrafish embryos, including mortality, hatching abnormalities, and decreased body length. At the same time, zebrafish embryos exposed to glyphosate exhibited cardiac malformations, including enlarged chambers, thinned ventricular walls, and rhythm disturbances. In addition, defective intersegmental vasculature occurred after glyphosate exposure, indicating impaired angiogenesis. Mechanistically, apoptosis clustered in the heart and vascular regions and levels of ATP and apoptosis-related genes including caspase-3, caspase-9, bax, and bcl-2 were altered. In summary, the data showed that cardiovascular toxicity caused by glyphosate exposure may be related to apoptosis. Our study provides evidence for a link between glyphosate exposure and cardiovascular developmental toxicity. This raises concerns regarding the health risks of the glyphosate.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Developmental toxicity; Glyphosate; Heart; Vascular; Zebrafish.