Abstract
BackgroundLead is a nonessential heavy metal, which can inhibit heme synthesis and has significant cytotoxic effects. Nevertheless, its effect on the electrical properties of red blood cells (RBCs) remains unclear. Consequently, this study aimed to investigate the electrical properties and the electrophysiological mechanism of lead exposure in mouse blood using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) in 0.01–100 MHz frequency range. Data characteristic of the impedance spectrum, Bodes plot, Nyquist plot and Nichols plot, and Constant Phase Element (CPE) equivalent circuit model were used to explicitly analyze the differences in amplitude–frequency, phase–frequency, and the frequency characteristics of blood in electrical impedance properties.ResultsCompared with the healthy blood in control mice, the changes in blood exposed to lead were as follows: (i) the hematocrit decreased; (ii) the amplitude–frequency and phase–frequency characteristics of electrical impedance decreased; (iii) the characteristic frequencies (f0) were significantly increased; (iv) the electrical impedance of plasma, erythrocyte membrane, and hemoglobin decreased, while the conductivity increased. (v) The pseudo-capacitance of cell membrane (CPE_Tm) and the intracellular pseudo-capacitance (CPE-Ti) were decreased.ConclusionsTherefore, EIS can be used as an effective method to monitor blood and RBC abnormalities caused by lead exposure. The electrical properties of the cells can be applied as an important observation in the evaluation of the toxic effects of heavy metals.
Highlights
Lead is a nonessential heavy metal, which can inhibit heme synthesis and has significant cytotoxic effects
Effect of lead exposure on electrical impedance spectroscopy and Nyquist plots of blood The blood Hct of the exposure group (37.52 ± 3.67%) was 9.66% (p < 0.05) lower than that of the control group (41.53 ± 3.6%), which suggested that the number of red blood cells (RBCs) decreased due to lead exposure
The resistance of blood decreased is consistent with the Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) performance of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency [13]
Summary
Lead is a nonessential heavy metal, which can inhibit heme synthesis and has significant cytotoxic effects. Yang et al BioMed Eng OnLine (2021) 20:99 heme synthesis by interfering with porphyrin metabolism disorder This can eventually cause the compensatory proliferation of erythroblasts in bone marrow, increase reticulocyte and alkaline granulocyte and decrease of the numbers of erythrocytes and leukocytes in the blood, which in turn lead to hemolytic anemia [6]. Ahyayauch et al measured the membrane properties of rat erythrocytes and erythrocyte membrane ghosts by either chronic or acute Pb2+ treatments and found that 1.8 μM Pb2+ could directly increase cell membrane permeability, thereby increasing hemolysis [7] Despite these documented molecular insights into the lead on blood or immunocytes, there is still no report on the electrical properties of lead exposure in mouse blood. The electrophysiological mechanism of lead-exposed RBCs remains unclear and needs to be further explored
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