Prenatal exposure to organomercury, thimerosal, persistently impairs the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems in the rat brain: implications for association with developmental disorders.
Thimerosal, an organomercury compound, has been widely used as a preservative. Therefore, concerns have been raised about its neurotoxicity. We recently demonstrated perturbation of early serotonergic development by prenatal exposure to thimerosal (Ida-Eto et al. (2011) [11]). Here, we investigated whether prenatal thimerosal exposure causes persistent impairment after birth. Analysis on postnatal day 50 showed significant increase in hippocampal serotonin following thimerosal administration on embryonic day 9. Furthermore, not only serotonin, striatal dopamine was significantly increased. These results indicate that embryonic exposure to thimerosal produces lasting impairment of brain monoaminergic system, and thus every effort should be made to avoid the use of thimerosal.
Department of Anatomy II, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, Japan. etom@doc.medic.mie-u.ac.jp
Michiru
M
Ida-Eto
Akiko
A
Oyabu
Takeshi
T
Ohkawara
Yasura
Y
Tashiro
Naoko
N
Narita
Masaaki
M
Narita
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects*; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D009941:Organomercury Compounds / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011310:Preservatives, Pharmaceutical / Q000009:adverse effects*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D013849:Thimerosal / Q000009:adverse effects*
D009941:Organomercury Compounds; D011310:Preservatives, Pharmaceutical; D013849:Thimerosal; D012701:Serotonin; D004298:Dopamine