Análise transcriptômica das linhagens celulares B103 e C6 expostas à ação do metilmercúrio

Abstract

The intensification of anthropogenic activities produces a high rate of environmental pollution, mainly in water bodies, where the contamination by metals has become an object of great interest, due to their inability to support such load. Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring metal that can be used in the manufacture of home products such as fluorescent lamps, fungicides, and germicides. The entry of Hg into the food chain occurs through the methylation of Hg2+ ions into MeHg. After methylation, Hg is considered highly toxic to humans, and among the main target organs of this intoxication we can mention the brain, since MeHg easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and can accumulate in different brain areas. It is known that, once in the CNS, MeHg can cause extensive cellular damage, such as DNA damage, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and cell death in both neurons and glial cells. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the transcriptomic alterations of cell lines B103 and C6, derived from neuroblastoma and glioma of Rattus norvegicus, exposed to the action of methylmercury. For this, the expression microarray technique was used to evaluate the global profile of gene expression after 24h of MeHg exposure. Our results demonstrate that MeHg induces significant alterations in gene expression of the two cell lines evaluated. The alterations were more prominent in the C6 cell line, in which a greater amount of differentially expressed genes was observed. Among the genes differentially expressed of the B103 cells we can highlight the genes Cdc42se2 (log2 FC -4.055713), Dcx (log2 FC 3.618981) and 4930449C09Rik (log2 FC 3.5129156) at a concentration of 0.1 μM. As for the exposure of 2.8 μM, the genes with the highest FC were Crem (log2 FC -4.027875), Otoa (log2 FC 3.501512) and Dcx (log2 FC 3.423433). In addition to the abovementioned genes, the genes Trim14, Gm14169, Gm30871, Otoa and Dcx were shared between the two exposed groups. As for the C6 lineage, ten transcripts with FC above 3 (Aldh1l2, Dac1, Rps4l, Zbtb46, 6430573p05Rik, Tcf12, Awat2, Muc3, Dclre1b, Slc38a6) are highlighted. In the 6.3 μM treatment, only three genes were altered more than 3 times (Rps4l, Ankdr44 and 2610318N02Rik). It is also noteworthy that three genes were shared between treatments (Rps4l, Lamb 3 and Gm 41386).