Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha 410078, China.
Toxins (Basel). 2019 Aug 21;11(9):482. doi: 10.3390/toxins11090482.
The increasing cyanobacterial blooms have recently been considered a severe environmental problem. Microcystin-leucine arginine (MC-LR) is one of the secondary products of cyanobacteria metabolism and most harmful cyanotoxins found in water bodies. Studies show MC-LR negatively affects various human organs when exposed to it. The phenotype of the jejunal chronic toxicity induced by MC-LR has not been well described. The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of MC-LR on the jejunal microstructure and expression level of inflammatory-related factors in jejunum. Mice were treated with different doses (1, 30, 60, 90 and 120 μg/L) of MC-LR for six months. The microstructure and mRNA expression levels of inflammation-related factors in jejunum were analyzed. Results showed that the microstructure of the jejunum was destroyed and expression levels of inflammation-related factors interleukin (IL)-1β, interleukin (IL)-8, tumor necrosis factor alpha, transforming growth factor-β1 and interleukin (IL)-10 were altered at different MC-LR concentrations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that mice were exposed to a high dose of MC-LR for six months. Our data demonstrated MC-LR had the potential to cause intestinal toxicity by destroying the microstructure of the jejunum and inducing an inflammatory response in mice, which provided new insight into understanding the prevention and diagnosis of the intestinal diseases caused by MC-LR.
近年来，不断增加的蓝藻水华已被认为是一个严重的环境问题。微囊藻毒素-亮氨酸-精氨酸（MC-LR）是蓝藻代谢的次级产物之一，也是在水体中发现的最有害的蓝藻毒素之一。研究表明，暴露于 MC-LR 会对人体各种器官产生负面影响。MC-LR 诱导的回肠慢性毒性的表型尚未得到很好的描述。本文旨在研究 MC-LR 对回肠微观结构和回肠中炎症相关因子表达水平的影响。用不同剂量（1、30、60、90 和 120 μg/L）的 MC-LR 处理小鼠 6 个月。分析回肠的微观结构和炎症相关因子的 mRNA 表达水平。结果表明，MC-LR 以不同浓度处理后，回肠的微观结构被破坏，炎症相关因子白细胞介素（IL）-1β、白细胞介素（IL）-8、肿瘤坏死因子-α、转化生长因子-β1 和白细胞介素（IL）-10 的表达水平发生改变。据我们所知，这是首次研究将小鼠暴露于高剂量 MC-LR 长达 6 个月。我们的数据表明，MC-LR 可能通过破坏回肠的微观结构并在小鼠中引发炎症反应而导致肠道毒性，这为理解 MC-LR 引起的肠道疾病的预防和诊断提供了新的思路。
