title: Cadmium-induced cell killing in Sacharomyces cerevisiae involves increases in intracellular NO levels.
abstract: Cadmium is a widespread environmental pollutant and poses some potential risks to human health. However, the signaling events controlling cadmium toxicity are not fully understood. In this study, we examined the effect of cadmium chloride on cell viability and the intracellular nitric oxide (NO) level in yeast cells. The results showed that exposure of yeast cells to cadmium (0-100 μM) could induce cell killing with significantly increased intracellular NO levels. Morphological analysis of the nuclei with 4('),6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining and DNA strand breaks analysis showed that cadmium at 50 μM can induce cell apoptosis in yeast cells. Treatment of yeast cells with cadmium (50 μM) and the nitric oxide scavenger c-PTIO [2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,4,5,5-teramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide; 0.2 mM] showed that c-PTIO attenuated the cadmium-induced cell killing. Our findings indicated that cadmium-induced yeast cell killing is mediated by a directly increased intracellular NO level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Taiyuan Normal University, Taiyuan 030031, China wlh1981622_510@163.com.
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Taiyuan Normal University, Taiyuan 030031, China.
authors.forename: Yanfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Taiyuan Normal University, Taiyuan 030031, China.
authors.forename: Huixian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiological and Environmental Medicine, China Institute for Radiation Protection, Taiyuan 030006, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiological and Environmental Medicine, China Institute for Radiation Protection, Taiyuan 030006, China.
authors.forename: Liqun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D002104:Cadmium / Q000633:toxicity*; D019256:Cadmium Chloride / Q000633:toxicity; D042541:Intracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000187:drug effects*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002104:Cadmium; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D019256:Cadmium Chloride
keywords: cadmium chloride; cell survival; nitric oxide; yeast