Caenorhabditis elegans to Model the Capacity of Ascorbic Acid to Reduce Acute Nitrite Toxicity under Different Feed Conditions: Multivariate Analytics on Behavioral Imaging.

Samuel Verdu,Alberto J Perez,José M Barat,Pau Talens,Conrado Carrascosa,Raúl Grau

doi:10.3390/ijerph18042068

Abstract

Nitrocompounds are present in the environment and human diet and form part of vegetables and processed meat products as additives. These compounds are related to negative impacts on human and animal health. The protective effect of ascorbic acid has been demonstrated by some biological systems as regards several nitrocompounds. This work focused on studying the possibility of modeling this effect on nitrite toxicity with the model Caenorhabditis elegans. The three factors studied in this work were ascorbic acid concentration, nitrite exposure concentration, and presence/absence of food. The protective effect was evaluated by scoring lethality and its impact on behavior by means of multivariate statistical methods and imaging analytics. The effects of nitrite and the influence of food availability were evidenced. Apart from increasing lethality, nitrite had disruption effects on movements. All the observed symptoms reduced when ascorbic acid was administered, and it diminished lethality in all cases. Ascorbic acid maintained nematodes’ postural capacities. The results suggest that nitrites’ nonspecific toxicity in C. elegans can be mitigated by ascorbic acid, as previously evidenced in other biological systems. Thus, our results reveal the ability of C. elegans to reproduce the known protective effect of ascorbic acid against nitrite.

Highlights

Nitrogen is present in the environment in different forms, and its properties change throughout the nitrogen cycle [1]
The observed reduction in nitrite toxicity by means of ascorbic acid was in accordance with the studies carried out with other previously reported biological systems and Ncompounds
It evidenced the capacity of C. elegans as a biological model to reproduce these phenomena

Summary

Introduction

Nitrogen is present in the environment in different forms, and its properties change throughout the nitrogen cycle [1]. Nitrites (NO2 − ) are ubiquitous in the environment, transformed and nontransformed food products, industrial processes, and physiological systems. The main nitrate and nitrite sources are food, such as vegetables and processed meats, and are endogenously formed [3]. Nitrate and nitrite naturally form part of fruit and vegetables, mainly leaves, which represent an important fraction of a healthy human diet for their known beneficial health effects. They are widely used as food additives in products such as ham, sausages, bacon, and other processed meats because of their preservative and coloring properties

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