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Integrative comparison of cadmium and iron oxide as yellow pigment in terms of cellular stress and genotoxicity in vitro and in vivo

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Abstract

Backgrounds

Heavy metals cadmium has been used as a yellow pigment due to its bright and lasting color. Considering the toxicity of cadmium, yellow iron oxide has been suggested as a substitute due to its cost-effectiveness. However, cellular and molecular safety information of yellow iron oxide is not fully understood.

Methods

Metal-mediated cellular stress indicated by metallothionein 1 expression were measured by western blotting and qRT-PCR in cadmium- or iron oxide-treated HepG2 cells. Genotoxicity were detected using comet assay and micronuclei assay in HepG2 cells and rat liver tissue. Observed toxicological effects were quantified and scored on a scale bar for integrated analysis.

Results

Yellow iron oxide showed significantly low metallothionein 1 expression and genotoxicity in all results. This result indicates high potential of iron oxide as an alternative to cadmium.

Conclusion

We demonstrated the comparative toxicity of the cadmium and yellow iron oxide in terms of stress-responsive biomarker expression and genotoxicity in HepG2 cells and rat liver tissue. Our study with the integrated strategy suggests usefulness of the yellow iron oxide as a substitute material in cadmium-containing products and reports useful tool to comprehensively assess the toxicity of suspected toxicants or newly developed materials.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through The Chemical Accident Prevention Technology Development Program (2017001970001) and Environmental Research Laboratory project (412-112-011), funded by Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE).

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Author notes

  1. Hyun Soo Kim, Hyun Jin Lee are Co-first author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Science, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Dongguk University, Biomedi Campus, 32, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 410-820, Republic of Korea

    Hyun Soo Kim, Hyun Jin Lee, Dong Yeop Shin, Yujin Jang, Young Rok Seo & Preeyaporn Koedrith

  2. Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, 999 Phuttamonthon District, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand

    Preeyaporn Koedrith

  3. Department of Safety Engineering, Dongguk University, 707 Seokjang-dong, Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk, 780-714, Republic of Korea

    Won-Young Jung & Jong-Il Weon

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  1. Hyun Soo Kim
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Contributions

YRS and PK designed the research study. HSK and HYL cared animals, performed overall experimental procedure and analyzed data. HSK also wrote the manuscript. YJ and JIW provides chemical processes for iron oxide materials. DYS and YJ reviewed statical analysis and integrative scoring system of the study.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Young Rok Seo or Preeyaporn Koedrith.

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The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Ethical approval

All animal experiments were performed in accordance with the guidelines from Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). All experimental procedures have been approved by the IACUC of Dongguk University (IACUC-2013–023) and were undertaken in compliance with the National Animal Welfare Law of the Republic of Korea.

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Kim, H.S., Lee, H.J., Jung, WY. et al. Integrative comparison of cadmium and iron oxide as yellow pigment in terms of cellular stress and genotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. Mol. Cell. Toxicol. 17, 99–109 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13273-020-00113-6

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