title: High content screening in zebrafish speeds up hazard ranking of transition metal oxide nanoparticles.
abstract: Zebrafish is an aquatic organism that can be used for high content safety screening of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). We demonstrate, for the first time, the use of high content bright-field and fluorescence-based imaging to compare the toxicological effect of transition metal oxide (CuO, ZnO, NiO, and Co(3)O(4)) nanoparticles in zebrafish embryos and larvae. High content bright-field imaging demonstrated potent and dose-dependent hatching interference in the embryos, with the exception of Co(3)O(4) which was relatively inert. We propose that the hatching interference was due to the shedding of Cu and Ni ions, compromising the activity of the hatching enzyme, ZHE1, similar to what we previously proposed for Zn(2+). This hypothesis is based on the presence of metal-sensitive histidines in the catalytic center of this enzyme. Co-introduction of a metal ion chelator, diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA), reversed the hatching interference of Cu, Zn, and Ni. While neither the embryos nor larvae demonstrated morphological abnormalities, high content fluorescence-based imaging demonstrated that CuO, ZnO, and NiO could induce increased expression of the heat shock protein 70:enhanced green fluorescence protein (hsp70:eGFP) in transgenic zebrafish larvae. Induction of this response by CuO required a higher nanoparticle dose than the amount leading to hatching interference. This response was also DTPA-sensitive. We demonstrate that high content imaging of embryo development, morphological abnormalities, and HSP70 expression can be used for hazard ranking and determining the dose-response relationships leading to ENM effects on the development of the zebrafish embryo.
authors.affiliation: Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, California NanoSystems Institute, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Sijie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Zhaoxia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Saji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: Sijing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Haiyuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Suman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pokhrel
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mädler
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Damoiseaux
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Andre E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Nel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D010087:Oxides / Q000633:toxicity*; D018675:Toxicity Tests; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology
chemical_list: D010087:Oxides