Selenium protection against mercury neurotoxicity: Modulation of apoptosis and autophagy in the anterior pituitary.
Life Sci
; 231: 116578, 2019 Aug 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31211996
ABSTRACT
AIMS:
The aim of the present study is to shed light on the modulating action of selenium on two of the most crucial cellular pathways; apoptosis and autophagy and the possible interplay between them in determining the pituitary fate in the context of mercury intoxication through demonstration of the molecular, histopathological, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural features of selenium mercury-treated adenohypophysis.METHODS:
Thirty adult Sprague Dawley male albino rats were assigned into control group, mercury-treated group and mercuryselenium concomitantly-treated group. The adenohypophysis was subjected to structural, molecular and protein expression assessment of autophagy and apoptotic markers and western blotted analysis of Beclin 1 as a key cross-regulator of autophagy and apoptosis. KEYFINDINGS:
Selenium treatment ameliorated the mercury-induced apoptosis detected by improvement in PCR and immunohistochemical expression of the apoptotic markers Bax, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3. Selenium also improved mercury-induced autophagic dysfunction with statistically significant improvement in western blotted levels of the autophagy markers LC3I, LC3II and Beclin1. The histopathological and ultrastructural studies strongly confirmed those findings.SIGNIFICANCE:
The crosstalk between the apoptotic Bcl-2 family of proteins and the autophagic Beclin-1LC3 pathway in the context of mercury intoxication paves the way for developing novel effective treatment strategies for several mercury-induced pituitary diseases.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Hipófise
/
Selênio
/
Mercúrio
/
Intoxicação por Mercúrio
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Life Sci
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article