title: Use of toxicogenomics to predict the potential toxic effect of Benzo(a)pyrene on zebrafish embryos: ocular developmental toxicity.
abstract: Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) is a representative polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), which is ubiquitous in the environment. The toxic effects of BaP on fish embryos have been described in detail, but some potentially toxic effects of BaP might have been neglected owing to the limitations of traditional techniques. In the present research, global transcriptional patterns were used to study the potentially toxic effects of BaP, as well as its underlying toxicological mechanisms. The expression levels of multiple genes were significantly changed by BaP exposure. The results of ontology assignments and cluster analysis showed that BaP could affect the processes of photoreceptor maintenance and phototransduction. We also conducted an experiment on phototactic response and found that larvae exposed to BaP displayed a decreasing response to light. In addition, BaP exposure decreased the cellular density of the ganglion cell layer (GCL) significantly. These results suggested that BaP exposure induced visual system developmental defects and dysfunction by perturbation of photoreceptor development related genes. Our results were helpful for an understanding of the toxicity of BaP. This study also indicated that microarray analysis was effective for predicting the potential toxicity of chemicals with high sensitivity and accuracy.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China.
authors.forename: Lixing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhenghong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China.
authors.forename: Youyu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China.
authors.forename: Meifang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Harrow International School Beijing, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Jackie Jin
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China. Electronic address: cgwang@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chonggang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001564:Benzo(a)pyrene / Q000633:toxicity*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005123:Eye / Q000187:drug effects / Q000196:embryology* / Q000473:pathology; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000187:drug effects; D007814:Larva / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D043922:Toxicogenetics / Q000379:methods; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D001564:Benzo(a)pyrene
keywords: BaP; Embryonic development; Microarray; Ocular toxicity; Zebrafish