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Updated: Jul 10, 2025
Cytotoxicity Assays with Zebrafish Cell Lines
Published on: January 6, 2023
Tissue-specific toxic effects of nano-copper on zebrafish
Haiqiang Liu1, Yanli Xu2, Yuqiong Sun2
1MOE Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Systems Optimization, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China; Key Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry Imaging and Metabolomics (State Ethnic Affairs Commission), Centre for Imaging & Systems Biology, Minzu University of China, Beijing, 100081, China.
None:
Understanding the behavior and potential toxicity of copper nanoparticles (nano-Cu) in the aquatic environment is a primary way to assess their environmental risks. In this study, RNA-seq was performed on three different tissues (gills, intestines, and muscles) of zebrafish exposed to nano-Cu, to explore the potential toxic mechanism of nano-Cu on zebrafish. The results indicated that the toxic mechanism of nano-Cu on zebrafish was tissue-specific. Nano-Cu enables the CB1 receptor of the presynaptic membrane of gill cells to affect short-term synaptic plasticity or long-term synaptic changes (ECB-LTD) through DSI and DSE, causing dysfunction of intercellular signal transmission. Imbalance of de novo synthesis of UMP in intestinal cells and its transformation to UDP, UTP, uridine, and uracil, resulted in many functions involved in the pyrimidine metabolic pathway being blocked. Meanwhile, the toxicity of nano-Cu caused abnormal expression of RAD51 gene in muscle cells, which affects the repair of damaged DNA through Fanconi anemia and homologous recombination pathway, thus causing cell cycle disorder. These results provide insights for us to better understand the differences in toxicity of nano-Cu on zebrafish tissues and are helpful for a comprehensive assessment of nano-Cu's effects on aquatic organisms.
