ABSTRACT
Fluorine being a well-known and essential element for normal physiological functions of tissues of different organisms is frequently used for growth and development of body. The mechanisms of adverse and injurious impacts of fluoride are not clear and still are under debate. Therefore, this study was executed to ascertain the potential mechanisms of sodium fluoride in liver tissues of ducks. For this purpose, a total of 14 ducks were randomly divided and kept in two groups including control group and sodium fluoride treated group. The ducks in control group were fed with normal diet while the ducks in other group were exposed to sodium fluoride (750 mg/kg) for 28 days. The results showed that exposure to sodium fluoride induced deleterious effects in different liver tissues of ducks. The results indicated that mRNA levels of Cas-3, Cas-9, p53, Apaf-1, Bax and Cyt-c were increased in treated ducks with significantly higher mRNA level of Cas-9 and lower levels of the mRNA level of Bcl-2 as compared to untreated control group (P < 0.01). The results showed that protein expression levels of Bax and p53 were increased while protein expression level of Bcl-2 was reduced in treated ducks. No difference was observed in protein expression level of Cas-3 between treated and untreated ducks. The results of this study suggest that sodium fluoride damages the normal structure of liver and induces abnormal process of apoptosis in hepatocyte, which provide a new idea for elucidating the mechanisms of sodium fluoride induced hepatotoxicity in ducks.
ABSTRACT
A method has been established for the separation and identification of metallothionein (MT) isoforms and sub-isoforms by liquid chromatography. A mixture of rabbit liver MT was separated on a DEAE A-25 weak anion-exchange chromatographic (AEC) column. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) was used for off-line detection of Zn in each fraction. The two main MT isoforms, MT-1 and MT-2, were isolated. The collected MT isoform fractions were then desalted by a homemade Sephadex G-25 size exclusion chromatographic (SEC) column. Afterwards, the sample was separated on a C18 reversed-phase column with UV detection at 210 nm. Different separation conditions were discussed and several sub-isoforms of MT were well separated at pH 2.0. The sub-isoforms were finally characterized by on-line HPLC-ESI-MS. The isoforms and sub-isoforms were well separated on a reversed-phase column under optimized chromatographic conditions and the detection results of ESI-MS were in agreement with the data found in literature. The method developed can be well used for the separation of metallothionein isoforms and sub-isoforms.
