title: Highly sensitive visualization of inorganic mercury in mouse neurons using a fluorescent probe.
abstract: In the present study, we used the previously developed fluorescence probe, EPNP, to generate the first image of the distribution of mercuric ion in primary mouse neuron cultures. At postnatal day 1 (P1), the mice were intraperitoneally (IP) injected with mercuric chloride in doses ranging from 0.05 to 0.6 μg/g body weight. After 1, 2, 3, and 4 days exposure, primary nervous cell cultures and frozen brain and spinal tissue sections were prepared and dyed using EPNP. On the third day of repeated injections, Hg(2+) was visualized in primary cerebral neuron cultures as an increase of Hg(2+)-induced fluorescence at the doses ≥ 0.1 μg/g. A similar accumulation of Hg(2+) was observed in frozen hippocampus tissue sections. In contrast, no Hg(2+) was observed in spinal cord neurons and spinal tissue sections. The detection of a low dose of IP injected mercury in mouse cerebral neurons facilitated the evaluation of the exposure risk to low-dose Hg(2+) in immature organisms. Moreover, the highly sensitive EPNP revealed Hg(2+) in the cerebral neurons of mice younger than P4, while the presence of Hg(2+) was not detected until ≥ P11 in previous reports. Thus, this technology and the results obtained herein are of interest for neurotoxicology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiolgy, Jilin Province People's Hospital, Jilin, 130021, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Chuang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yubo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhichao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000032:analysis* / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D008627:Mercuric Chloride / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008628:Mercury / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008627:Mercuric Chloride; D008628:Mercury