Abstract
Mercury compounds are known to cause central nervous system disorders; however the detailed molecular mechanisms of their actions remain unclear. Methylmercury increases the expression of several chemokine genes, specifically in the brain, while metallothionein-III (MT-III) has a protective role against various brain diseases. In this study, we investigated the involvement of MT-III in chemokine gene expression changes in response to methylmercury and mercury vapor in the cerebrum and cerebellum of wild-type mice and MT-III null mice. No difference in mercury concentration was observed between the wild-type mice and MT-III null mice in any brain tissue examined. The expression of Ccl3 in the cerebrum and of Cxcl10 in the cerebellum was increased by methylmercury in the MT-III null but not the wild-type mice. The expression of Ccl7 in the cerebellum was increased by mercury vapor in the MT-III null mice but not the wild-type mice. However, the expression of Ccl12 and Cxcl12 was increased in the cerebrum by methylmercury only in the wild-type mice and the expression of Ccl3 in the cerebellum was increased by mercury vapor only in the wild-type mice. These results indicate that MT-III does not affect mercury accumulation in the brain, but that it affects the expression of some chemokine genes in response to mercury compounds.
Highlights
Several mercury compounds are considered hazardous, exerting mainly central nervous system (CNS) or renal damage [1,2,3]
We examined the impact of methylmercury on the expression of chemokine genes in various mouse tissues and found that expression of Ccl4 shows brain specific induction by methylmercury treatment [21]
We investigated the involvement of MT-III in chemokine gene expression in the cerebrum and cerebellum in response to methylmercury and mercury vapor using the MT-III null mice
Summary
Several mercury compounds are considered hazardous, exerting mainly central nervous system (CNS) or renal damage [1,2,3]. Recent epidemiological investigations have shown that pregnant women who take up relatively large amounts of methylmercury are at higher risk of delivering children with developmental disorders [6,7]. Mercury vapor produces neuronal damage, and the exposure of gold miners to high levels of mercury vapor through mercury amalgamation is a great concern in developing countries [8,9]. The exposure of children to mercury vapor has increased due to the use of mercury in amalgam to extract gold from ores [10]. It was reported that high concentrations of methylmercury were detected in grains yielded
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