Abstract
Environmental and occupational mercury exposure is considered a major public health issue. Despite being well known that MeHg exposure causes adverse effects in several physiologic functions, MeHg effects on salivary glands still not completely elucidated. Here, we investigated the cellular MeHg-induced damage in the three major salivary glands (parotid, submandibular, and sublingual) of adult rats after chronic, systemic and low doses of MeHg exposure. Rats were exposed by 0.04mg/kg/day over 60days. After that, animals were euthanized and all three glands were collected. We evaluated total Hg accumulation, metallothionein I/II (MT I/II), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and cytokeratin 18 (CK18) immune expression. Our results have showed that MeHg is able to disrupt gland tissue and to induce a protective mechanism by MT I/II expression. We also showed that cell MT production is not enough to protect gland tissue against cellular structural damage seen by reducing marking of cytoskeletal proteins as CK18 and α-SMA. Our data suggest that chronic MeHg exposure in low-daily doses is able to induce cellular damage in rat salivary glands.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
