Cadmium Accumulation in the Goat Liver and Kidney Is Partially Promoted by the Upregulation of Metal Transporter Genes

Kefyalew Gebeyew; Chunyu Jiang; Qinghua Gao; Liping Zhang; Hanhua Zhu; Yushi Tian; Qi Wang; Yuqing Wei; Zhiliang Tan; Xuefeng Han

doi:10.3390/ani12111408

Cadmium Accumulation in the Goat Liver and Kidney Is Partially Promoted by the Upregulation of Metal Transporter Genes

Animals (Basel). 2022 May 30;12(11):1408. doi: 10.3390/ani12111408.

Authors

Kefyalew Gebeyew^{1

2}, Chunyu Jiang¹, Qinghua Gao¹, Liping Zhang², Hanhua Zhu², Yushi Tian², Qi Wang², Yuqing Wei², Zhiliang Tan², Xuefeng Han²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Animal Husbandry Science and Technology of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, College of Animal Science, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory for Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production, South-Central Experimental Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China.

Abstract

Metal transporters, including divalent metal-ion transporter-1 (DMT1), Zrt-/Irt-like protein 8 and 14 (ZIP8 and ZIP14), and ferroportin-1 (FPN1), reportedly participate in cellular cadmium (Cd) uptake, but those in farm animals remain unclarified. This study aimed to examine the growth, plasma biochemical indices, Cd accumulation, and expression of metal transporter genes in the liver, kidney, and muscle of goats exposed to rice paddies contaminated with different levels of Cd. Twenty-four goats were randomly assigned across three dietary treatments: 0.23, 0.63, and 1.07 mg of Cd/kg of dry matter (DM) for 60 days. The results showed that dietary Cd exposure increased (p < 0.05) both Cd accumulation and the mRNA expressions of metal transporter genes (DMT1, ZIP, and FPN1) in the liver and kidney but not in the muscle, suggesting dietary Cd exhibited different deposition rates between goat liver, kidney, and muscle. These outcomes suggest that high levels of dietary Cd stimulated the expression of metal transporter genes and thereby enhanced the uptake and accumulation of Cd in the goat liver and kidney. As such, higher Cd concentrations in the liver and kidney observed with Cd diets could be partly explained by upregulation of metal transport genes expression.

Keywords: accumulation; cadmium; gene expression; goat; kidney; liver; metal transporter.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Hunan Agricultural Finance Project (2016-6) and the Open Project Program of Key Laboratory of Tarim Animal Husbandry Science and Technology from Xinjiang Production & Construction Group (Grant No.: HS202001).