Backgrounds

Heavy metals are environmental pollutants and their breakdown is regarded as a serious risk to human health. Despite increasing evidence that heavy metals have adverse effects in vivo and in vitro, there is no evidence of the effect of heavy metals during placental formation.

Objective

We determined the effect of heavy metals on cell viability of BeWo human placental cells using MTS assay and live and dead assay. We also evaluated cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis by heavy metal treatment using FACS analysis.

Results

Mercury chloride induces severe cell cycle arrest at the sub-G1 phase by the accumulation of cyclin B. Furthermore, we identified that mercury chloride induces apoptosis by enhancing the activity of caspase-3. However, we were unable to confirm the deleterious effect of lead in BeWo cells.

Conclusion

Our results suggested that exposure to heavy metals, specifically mercury chloride, induced cytotoxic effects in BeWo cells through cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

中文翻译：

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通过改变细胞周期调控，暴露于汞诱导人胎盘BeWo细胞的早期凋亡信号

背景资料

重金属是环境污染物，其分解被认为是对人体健康的严重威胁。尽管越来越多的证据表明重金属在体内和体外均具有不良作用，但没有证据表明在胎盘形成过程中有重金属的作用。

目的

我们使用MTS分析和活死分析确定了重金属对BeWo人胎盘细胞活力的影响。我们还使用FACS分析通过重金属处理评估了细胞增殖，细胞周期和凋亡。

结果

氯化汞通过细胞周期蛋白B的积累在sub-G1期诱导了严重的细胞周期停滞。此外，我们发现氯化汞通过增强caspase-3的活性诱导细胞凋亡。但是，我们无法确定铅对BeWo细胞的有害作用。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，暴露于重金属，特别是氯化汞，可通过细胞周期停滞和凋亡诱导BeWo细胞的细胞毒性作用。