title: Selenocystine against methyl mercury cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells.
abstract: Methyl mercury (MeHg) is a highly toxic substance and the effect of selenium against MeHg toxicity is a hot topic. Until now, no related works have been reported from the view of the point of elemental speciation which is promising to study the mechanism at the molecular level. In this work, to reveal the effect of selenocystine (SeCys2) against MeHg cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells, a comprehensive analytical platform for speciation study of mercury and selenium in MeHg incubated or MeHg and SeCys2co-incubated HepG2 cells was developed by integrating liquid chromatography (LC) - inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) hyphenated techniques and chip-based pretreatment method. Interesting phenomenon was found that the co-incubation of MeHg with SeCys2promoted the uptake of MeHg in HepG2 cells, but reduced the cytotoxicity of MeHg. Results obtained by ICP-MS based hyphenated techniques revealed a possible pathway for the incorporation and excretion of mercury species with the coexistence of SeCys2. The formation of MeHg and SeCys2aggregation promotes the uptake of MeHg; majority of MeHg transforms into small molecular complexes (MeHg-glutathione (GSH) and MeHg-cysteine (Cys)) in HepG2 cells; and MeHg-GSH is the elimination species which results in reducing the cytotoxicity of MeHg.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, P. R. China. bbchen@whu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Beibei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Man
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, P. R. China. binhu@whu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D003553:Cystine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds / Q000633:toxicity*; D016566:Organoselenium Compounds / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D008767:Methylmercury Compounds; D016566:Organoselenium Compounds; C009226:selenocystine; D003553:Cystine; C073972:dimethyl mercury; D008628:Mercury