Laboratory of Functional and Structural Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Para, Rua Augusto Corrêa n° 1, Campus do Guamá, Belém, Pará, 66075-110, Brazil.
School of Dentistry, Institute of Health Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 2021 Aug;199(8):2983-2991. doi: 10.1007/s12011-020-02409-z. Epub 2020 Oct 3.
Methylmercury (MeHg) is one of the main global pollutants. The vulnerability of fetus and newborn to MeHg-induced changes is extensively reported, making relevant investigation possible for alternative sample matrix for human biological monitoring for at this stage of life. This study aimed to characterize tissue change effects of environmental-experimental MeHg on salivary glands of offspring rats after pre- and postnatal exposure. For this, pregnant Wistar rats were orally exposed to MeHg (40 μg/kg BW/day) or only vehicle (control group), from the gestational period to the end of the lactation period. Salivary glands (SG) were collected from the offspring to analyze possible Hg levels and main findings by histopathological evaluations and CK19 and α-SMA immunostaining. The results indicated that Hg levels in SG of intoxicated offspring were associated with histologic abnormalities, such as acinar atrophy and an increase in the intercellular matrix among the acini, as well as damages in the architecture of epithelium and myoepithelial cells, evidenced by a decrease in immunostaining area. Thus, this is the first study to show in the literature the toxicopathologic findings on SG of offspring after pre- and postnatal exposure to MeHg. Moreover, it presents the SG as an attractive target to futures studies, mainly in children exposed to environmentally relevant doses.
甲基汞（MeHg）是全球主要污染物之一。胎儿和新生儿极易受到 MeHg 诱导变化的影响，这使得在生命的这个阶段，针对人类生物监测的替代样本基质进行相关调查成为可能。本研究旨在描述环境实验性 MeHg 对产前和产后暴露后代大鼠唾液腺组织变化的影响。为此，妊娠 Wistar 大鼠从妊娠期到哺乳期结束，经口暴露于 MeHg（40μg/kg BW/天）或仅给予载体（对照组）。从后代收集唾液腺（SG），通过组织病理学评估和 CK19 和 α-SMA 免疫染色分析可能的 Hg 水平和主要发现。结果表明，中毒后代 SG 中的 Hg 水平与组织学异常相关，如腺泡萎缩和腺泡间细胞外基质增加，以及上皮和肌上皮细胞结构损伤，免疫染色面积减少。因此，这是首次在文献中报道产前和产后暴露于 MeHg 后，后代 SG 的毒理学发现。此外，它将 SG 作为未来研究的一个有吸引力的靶点，特别是针对暴露于环境相关剂量的儿童。
