title: Exposure to low dose benzo[a]pyrene during early life stages causes symptoms similar to cardiac hypertrophy in adult zebrafish.
abstract: Growing evidence indicates that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can lead to cardiac hypertrophy and recent research indicates that exposure to low dose crude oil during early embryonic development may lead to impacts on heart health at later life stages. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether exposure during early life stages to low dose benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), as a high-ring PAH, would lead to cardiac hypertrophy at later life stages. Zebrafish were exposed to low dose BaP until 96 hpf, then transferred to clean water and maintained for a year before histological and molecular biological analysis. Our results showed that exposure to low level BaP during early life stages increased heart weight to body weight ratios and deposited collagen in the heart of adult zebrafish. ANP, BNP and c-Myc were also induced in the heart of adult zebrafish by BaP. These results proved that low level BaP exposure during early life stages caused symptoms similar to cardiac hypertrophy in adult zebrafish. Our results displayed an elevated expression of CdC42, RhoA, p-ERK1, 2 and Rac1. Therefore, the mechanism of the cardiac hypertrophy caused by BaP exposure during early life stages may be through inducing the expression of CdC42, RhoA and Rac1, together with activating ERK1, 2.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, 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 361005, China.
authors.forename: Dongxu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, 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 361005, China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
authors.forename: Chonggang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China. Electronic address: zuozhenghong@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhenghong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zuo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001564:Benzo(a)pyrene / Q000633:toxicity*; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000139:chemically induced*; D017931:DNA Primers; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D015027:Zebrafish
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D001564:Benzo(a)pyrene
keywords: Adult zebrafish; BaP; Cardiac toxicity; Early life stages; Later life consequences