Ruocco N et al. (2016), New insights into negative effects of lithium o...

ECB-ART-44887

Sci Rep 2016 Aug 26;6:32157. doi: 10.1038/srep32157.

Show Gene links Show Anatomy links

New insights into negative effects of lithium on sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus embryos.

Ruocco N , Costantini M , Santella L .

???displayArticle.abstract???
The diffuse use of lithium in a number of industrial processes has produced a significant contamination of groundwater and surface water with it. The increased use of lithium has generated only scarce studies on its concentrations in ambient waters and on its effects on aquatic organisms. Only few contributions have focused on the toxicity of lithium in marine organisms (such as marine animals, algae and vegetables), showing that the toxic effect depends on the animal species. In the present study we describe the morphological and the molecular effects of lithium chloride (LiCl), using the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus as a model organism. We show that LiCl, if added to the eggs before fertilization, induces malformations in the embryos in a dose-dependent manner. We have also followed by RT qPCR the expression levels of thirty seven genes (belonging to different classes of functional processes, such as stress, development, differentiation, skeletogenesis and detoxifications) to identify the molecular targets of LiCl. This study opens new perspectives for the understanding of the mechanism of action of lithium on marine organisms. The findings may also have relevance outside the world of marine organisms since lithium is widely prescribed for the treatment of human bipolar disorders.

???displayArticle.pubmedLink??? 27562248
???displayArticle.pmcLink??? PMC4999890
???displayArticle.link??? Sci Rep

Genes referenced: LOC100887844

???attribute.lit??? ???displayArticles.show???

References [+] :

ANDERSON, The toxicity thresholds of various sodium salts determined by the use of Daphnia magna. 1946, Pubmed

	Figure 1. Malformations induced by LiCl.Examples of malformations induced in (B–E) Paracentrotus lividus plutei treated with LiCl from 1.0 to 10 mM and observed at 48 hpf in comparison with (A) embryos in sea water without LiCl. Photos were taken with a Zeiss Axiovert 135TV, 10x/0.30, magnification / numerical aperture. Bar, 50 μM.
	Figure 2. Percentage of abnormal plutei.Percentage of abnormal plutei (at 48 hpf) in P. lividus eggs incubated with LiCl 10 minutes before fertilization and then fertilized (A) and in eggs treated with LiCl 10 minutes after fertilization (B). Different concentrations of LiCl were used: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 mM. Significant differences compared to the control (4.3 ± 0.8 abnormal embryos): ***p < 0.001 (Student’s t-test, GraphPad Software Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). Experiments were conducted in triplicate using three egg groups collected from three different females.
	Figure 3. Malformations in sea urchin embryos at one week after fertilization.Examples of malformed embryos induced in P. lividus embryos at one week of incubation with LiCl 5 and 10 mM (B–L), in comparison with control embryos in sea water without LiCl (A). Photos were taken with a Zeiss Axiovert 135TV, 10x/0.30 (magnification/numerical aperture). Bar, 50 μM.

	Figure 5. Experiments with LiCl 80 mM.Embryos observed at 21 hpf (B) and 48 hpf (C), when eggs were incubated with LiCl 80 mM and then fertilized; (A) shows control embryos (embryos in sea water without LiCl) at 21 hpf.

	Figure 7. Gene expression by Real Time qPCR.Histograms showing the differences in expression levels of the genes analysed by Real Time qPCR. P. lividus embryos were grown in the presence of LiCl and collected at different developmental stages: early blastula (5 hpf), late gastrula (21 hpf) and pluteus (48 hpf). Data are reported as a fold difference compared to control embryos in sea water without HEPES (mean ± SD). Fold differences greater than ±1 (see dotted horizontal guidelines at values of 1 and −1) were considered significant.