当前位置: X-MOL 学术Neurotoxicology › 论文详情
Our official English website, www.x-mol.net, welcomes your feedback! (Note: you will need to create a separate account there.)
The brains of bats foraging at wastewater treatment works accumulate arsenic, and have low non-enzymatic antioxidant capacities
NeuroToxicology ( IF 3.4 ) Pub Date : 2017-12-14 , DOI: 10.1016/j.neuro.2017.12.004
Kate Hill , M. Corrie Schoeman , Dalene Vosloo

Increasing rates of urbanisation cause ubiquitous infrastructures that remove anthropogenic contaminants – particularly Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTWs) – to become stressed, and hence pollute surrounding water systems. Neoromicia nana bats are suitable models to study the effects of pollution in these environments because they exploit abundant pollutant-tolerant chironomid midges that breed at WWTWs, and consequently accumulate metals such as iron, copper and zinc in their livers and kidneys. If these metals persist in their circulatory systems, and cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) they can have adverse effects on critical functions such as flight and echolocation. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential neurological effects on N. nana foraging at WWTWs versus bats at reference sites in Durban, South Africa. Our objectives were to 1) compare trace metal levels in brain and hair samples (as a proxy for circulating metals) between N. nana foraging at WWTWs and reference sites to determine if excess metals pass through the BBB via the circulatory system; and 2) compare biomarkers of neuron function (acetylcholinesterase activity), protection (antioxidant capacity), DNA integrity (DNA fragmentation), lipid integrity (lipid peroxidation) and cell viability (caspase-3 activity) between N. nana foraging at WWTW and reference sites. We found a significantly higher concentration of arsenic in hair (p < 0.05) and brain tissue (p < 0.1) of WWTW bats compared to bats at reference sites. By contrast, acetylcholinesterase activity did not differ in bats among sites and there was no evidence of significant differences in lipid peroxidation, compromised DNA integrity or apoptosis in the brains between WWTW bats and reference site bats. However, total antioxidant capacity was significantly lower in brains of WWTW bats than bats at reference sites suggesting that antioxidant protection may be compromised. Long-term exposure to environmental pollutants at WWTWs may therefore affect cellular processes and protection mechanisms in brains of N. nana bats. It may also affect other mechanisms and functions in the brain such as mitochondrial efficiency and other neurotransmitters but that remains to be tested.



中文翻译:

在污水处理厂觅食的蝙蝠的大脑中积累了砷,并且具有低的非酶抗氧化能力

城市化进程的加快导致无处不在的基础设施(尤其是废水处理厂(WWTW))清除人为污染,从而污染了周围的水系统。Neoromicia nana蝙蝠是研究这些环境中污染影响的合适模型,因为它们利用在WWTW上繁殖的大量耐污染的拟南芥mid,并因此在其肝脏和肾脏中积累铁,铜和锌等金属。如果这些金属在其循环系统中持续存在并穿过血脑屏障(BBB),它们可能会对关键功能(例如飞行和回声定位)产生不利影响。这项研究的目的是调查对娜娜猪笼草的潜在神经学影响在WWTW上觅食,而在南非德班的参考地点则用蝙蝠觅食。我们的目标是:1)比较WWTW处N. nana觅食的N. nana的大脑和头发样本(作为循环金属的替代物)中的痕量金属水平,以确定参考金属是否通过循环系统通过BBB。和2)比较N. nana之间神经元功能(乙酰胆碱酯酶活性),保护(抗氧化能力),DNA完整性(DNA片段化),脂质完整性(脂质过氧化)和细胞生存力(caspase-3活性)的生物标记在WWTW和参考站点觅食。我们发现WWTW蝙蝠的头发(p <0.05)和脑组织(p <0.1)中的砷浓度比参考地点的蝙蝠高得多。相比之下,不同部位的蝙蝠中的乙酰胆碱酯酶活性没有差异,并且没有证据表明WWTW蝙蝠和参考部位的蝙蝠在脂质过氧化,DNA完整性受损或脑细胞凋亡方面存在显着差异。但是,WWTW蝙蝠的大脑中的总抗氧化能力明显低于参考部位的蝙蝠,这表明抗氧化保护作用可能受到损害。因此,长期接触环境污染物在WWTWs可能会影响大脑的细胞过程和保护机制N.娜娜蝙蝠。它也可能影响大脑的其他机制和功能,例如线粒体效率和其他神经递质,但这仍有待测试。

更新日期:2017-12-14
down
wechat
bug