The 28-day repeated arsenic exposure increases tau phosphorylation in the rat brain

Herein, we examined whether prolonged arsenic exposure altered tau phosphorylation in the brain of Sprague Dawley rats expressing endogenous wild-type tau. The results showed that daily intraperitoneal injections of 2.5 mg/kg BW sodium arsenite over 28 days caused arsenic accumulation in the rat brain. Interestingly, we found an increase in tau phosphorylation at the Tau 1 region (189-207) and S202 in the hippocampus, S404 in the cerebral cortex, and S396 and S404 in the cerebellum of arsenic-treated rats. Additionally, arsenic increased active ERK1/2 phosphorylation at T202/Y204 in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and cerebellum. Meanwhile, we detected increasing active JNK phosphorylation at T183/Y185 in the hippocampus and cerebellum. Moreover, p35, a neuron-specific activator of CDK5, was also elevated in the cerebellum of arsenic-treated rats, suggesting that CDK5 activity may be increased by arsenic. These results suggested that arsenic may induce tau phosphorylation through the activation of tau kinases, ERK1/2, JNK, and CDK5. Together, the findings from this study demonstrated that prolonged arsenic exposure is implicated in neurodegeneration by promoting tau phosphorylation in the rat brain and points toward a possible prevention strategy against neurodegeneration induced by environmental arsenic exposure.