Chronic exposure to low concentration of MC-LR caused hepatic lipid metabolism disorder

Can Du; Shuilin Zheng; Yue Yang; Xiangling Feng; Jihua Chen; Yan Tang; Hui Wang; Fei Yang

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113649

Chronic exposure to low concentration of MC-LR caused hepatic lipid metabolism disorder

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Jul 1:239:113649. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113649. Epub 2022 May 20.

Authors

Can Du¹, Shuilin Zheng¹, Yue Yang¹, Xiangling Feng¹, Jihua Chen¹, Yan Tang², Hui Wang², Fei Yang³

Affiliations

¹ Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China.
² Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Typical Environmental Pollution and Health Hazards, School of Public Health, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China.
³ Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China; Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Typical Environmental Pollution and Health Hazards, School of Public Health, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China; The Key Laboratory of Ecological Environment and Critical Human Diseases Prevention of Hunan Province Department of Education, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China. Electronic address: yangfeilong@126.com.

PMID: 35605325
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113649

Abstract

Microcystin-LR (MC-LR), a potent hepatotoxin can cause liver damages. However, research on hepatic lipid metabolism caused by long-term exposure to environmental concentrations MC-LR is limited. In the current study, mice were exposed to various low concentrations of MC-LR (0, 1, 30, 60, 90, 120 μg/L in the drinking water) for 9 months. The general parameters, serum and liver lipids, liver tissue pathology, lipid metabolism-related genes and proteins of liver were investigated. The results show that chronic MC-LR exposure had increased the levels of triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) in serum and liver. In addition, histological observation revealed that hepatic lobules were disordered with obvious inflammatory cell infiltration and lipid droplets. More importantly, the mRNA and proteins expression levels of lipid synthesis-related nuclear sterol regulatory element binding protein-1c (nSREBP-1c), SREBP-1c, cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36), acetyl-CoA-carboxylase1 (ACC1), stearoyl-CoA desaturase1 (SCD1) and fatty acid synthase (FASN) were increased in MC-LR treated groups, the expression levels of fatty acids β-oxidation related genes peroxisomal acyl-coenzyme A oxidase 1 (ACOX1) was decreased after exposure to 60-120 μg/L MC-LR. Furthermore, the inflammatory factors interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were higher than that in the control group. All the findings indicated that mice were exposed to chronic low concentrations MC-LR caused liver inflammation and hepatic lipid metabolism disorder .

Keywords: Chronic oral exposure; Inflammation; Lipid metabolism; Liver; Microcystin-LR.

MeSH terms

Animals
Lipid Metabolism Disorders* / chemically induced
Lipid Metabolism Disorders* / pathology
Lipid Metabolism*
Liver / metabolism
Liver / physiopathology
Marine Toxins / toxicity
Mice
Microcystins* / toxicity
Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Protein 1 / genetics

Substances

Marine Toxins
Microcystins
Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Protein 1
cyanoginosin LR