Investigation of the effect of exposure to non cytotoxic amounts of microcystins
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Date
2011
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Metabolomics
Abstract
This paper describes a metabolomic approach
for investigation of the potential effect of exposure of
humans to low amounts of microcystins using HepG2 cell
line. Microcystins are hepatotoxins produced by cyanobacteria
(blue-green algae) which occur in water bodies
with high eutrophication especially those with a slow flow
rate or those that are stagnant in warm climates. Mammalian
exposure to these compounds has been associated
with deleterious effects and in high dosage cases, deaths of
animals has been reported. The metabolic profile of HepG2
cells is closely related to that of hepatocytes and therefore
serves as a good model due to their human origin. Proton
nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR) and
direct injection mass spectrometry (DIMS) were used to
analyse media extracts from the cells and data obtained was
reduced by chemometric methods. The use of principal
component analysis (PCA) enabled achievement of a visual
distinction between the metabolic profiles of samples
exposed to microcystins, control samples (unexposed), and
those which were exposed to acetaminophen (positive
control). A profile of media components showed that some
components in the samples exposed to microcystins
increased compared to those in control samples. They
included amino acids, organic acids, lipids, some purines
and pyrimidines. In general exposure to low concentration
of microcystin was found to interfere with amino acid
metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, lipid metabolism
and nucleic acids metabolism. Furthermore, low concentration
of microcystins did not result in significant cell
death; rather the cells continued to proliferate.
Description
Keywords
Metabolomics, Chronic exposure to microcystins, HepG2, 1H NMR, Direct injection MS (DIMS)
Citation
Birungi, G., & Li, S. F. Y. (2011). Investigation of the effect of exposure to non cytotoxic amounts of microcystins. Metabolomics, 7(4), 485-499. DOI 10.1007/s11306-010-0265-0