TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrer, Beatriz
A1  - Peres, Tanara Vieira
A1  - dos Santos, Alessandra Antunes
A1  - Bornhorst, Julia
A1  - Morcillo, Patricia
A1  - Goncalves, Cinara Ludvig
A1  - Aschner, Michael
T1  - Methylmercury affects the expression of hypothalamic neuropeptides that control body weight in C57BL/6J mice
JF  - Toxicological sciences
N2  - Methylmercury (MeHg) is an environmental pollutant that affects primarily the central nervous system (CNS), causing neurological alterations. An early symptom of MeHg poisoning is the loss of body weight and appetite. Moreover, the CNS has an important role in controlling energy homeostasis. It is known that in the hypothalamus nutrient and hormonal signals converge to orchestrate control of body weight and food intake. In this study, we investigated if MeHg is able to induce changes in the expression of key hypothalamic neuropeptides that regulate energy homeostasis. Thus, hypothalamic neuronal mouse cell line GT 1-7 was treated with MeHg at different concentrations (0, 0.5, 1, and 5 mu M). MeHg induced the expression of the anorexigenic neuropeptide pro-omiomelanocortin (Pomc) and the orexigenic peptide Agouti-related peptide (Agrp) in a concentration-dependent manner, suggesting deregulation of mechanisms that control body weight. To confirm these in vitro observations, 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice (males and females) were exposed to MeHg in drinking water, modeling the most prevalent exposure route to this metal. After 30-day exposure, no changes in body weight were detected. However, MeHg treated males showed a significant decrease in fat depots. Moreover, MeHg affected the expression of hypothalamic neuropeptides that control food intake and body weight in a gender-and dose-dependent manner. Thus, MeHg increases Pomc mRNA only in males in a dose-dependent way, and it does not have effects on the expression of Agrp mRNA. The present study shows, for first time, that MeHg is able to induce changes in hypothalamic neuropeptides that regulate energy homeostasis, favoring an anorexigenic/catabolic profile.
KW  - methylmercury
KW  - hypothalamus
KW  - neuropeptides
KW  - control body weight
KW  - glucose homeostasis
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfy052
SN  - 1096-6080
SN  - 1096-0929
VL  - 163
IS  - 2
SP  - 557
EP  - 568
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bornhorst, Julia
A1  - Kipp, Anna P.
A1  - Haase, Hajo
A1  - Meyer, Soeren
A1  - Schwerdtle, Tanja
T1  - The crux of inept biomarkers for risks and benefits of trace elements
JF  - Trends in Analytical Chemistry
N2  - Nowadays, the role of trace elements (TE) is of growing interest because dyshomeostasis of selenium (Se), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) is supposed to be a risk factor for several diseases. Thereby, research focuses on identifying new biomarkers for the TE status to allow for a more reliable description of the individual TE and health status. This review mirrors a lack of well-defined, sensitive, and selective biomarkers and summarizes technical limitations to measure them. Thus, the capacity to assess the relationship between dietary TE intake, homeostasis, and health is restricted, which would otherwise provide the basis to define adequate intake levels of single TE in both healthy and diseased humans. Besides that, our knowledge is even more limited with respect to the real life situation of combined TE intake and putative interactions between single TE.
KW  - Trace elements
KW  - Copper
KW  - Zinc
KW  - Manganese
KW  - Selenium
KW  - Biomarker
KW  - Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
KW  - Hyphenated techniques
KW  - Isotope ratios
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2017.11.007
SN  - 0165-9936
SN  - 1879-3142
VL  - 104
SP  - 183
EP  - 190
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -