Preliminary evaluation of the mechanism underlying vulnerability/resistance to methylmercury toxicity by comparative gene expression profiling of rat primary cultured cerebrocortical and hippocampal neurons

• DOI: 10.2131/jts.47.211
• Publication Date: 2022-05-04T22:09:51Z
• Authors: Masatake Fujimura; Takamitsu Unoki
• Keywords: Neurotoxicity

Methylmercury (MeHg), an environmentally toxic substance, causes site-specific neuronal cell death; while MeHg exposure death in cerebrocortical neurons, interestingly, it does not hippocampal which are generally considered to be vulnerable substances. This phenomenon of can reproduced animal experiments; however, the mechanism underlying resistance neurons toxicity has been clarified. In this study, we comparatively analyzed response terms viability and expression characteristics primary cultured derived from fetal rat brain. Neuronal differentiated were more resistant than as indicated by a 2‒3 fold higher half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50; 3.3 μM vs. 1.2 μM), despite similar intracellular mercury concentrations both types. Comprehensive RNA sequencing-based gene analysis non-MeHg-exposed cells revealed that 80 out 15,208 genes showed at least 10-fold whereas six neurons. particular, related function, including those encoding transthyretin brain-derived neurotrophic factor, approximately 50-fold conclusion, may high function-related proteins.