Chromium exposure altered metabolome and microbiome‐associated with neurotoxicity in zebrafish

Abstract

In recent years, chromium (Cr) has been found to induce neurotoxicity. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of chromium exposure on the metabolome and microbiome that may contribute to neurotoxicity in juvenile zebrafish. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to 1 mg/L Cr (III) and 1 mg/L Cr (VI) for 7 days, respectively. Swimming distance and locomotor behavior was decreased, and acetylcholinesterase activity was reduced in Cr‐exposed groups. Total cholesterol levels were decreased in Cr‐exposed groups. The differential‐expressed metabolites due to Cr exposure were mainly enriched in primary bile acid biosynthesis, which indicated that Cr exposure may promote cholesterol conversion. The abundance of Bacteroidetes decreased and the abundance of Actinomycetes increased in Cr‐exposed groups, as compared with that in the control group. At the genus level, the abundance of Acinetobacter, Acidophorax, Mycobacterium, Aeromonas, Hydrophagophaga, and Brevundimonas increased, whereas Chryseobacterium, Pseudomonas, Delftia, and Ancylobacter decreased in the Cr‐exposed groups. Analysis of the correlation between gut microbiota and bile acid metabolites showed that changes of gut microbial community due to Cr exposure may be related to secondary bile acid metabolism. Collectively, chromium exposure may disturb cholesterol metabolism, including primary bile acid and microbiota‐related secondary bile acid metabolism. This study provides potential mechanism of the effects of chromium on neurotoxicity based on modulation of metabolome and gut microbiota diversity, which needs further verification.

Ecotoxicological Effects of Potassium Dichromate on the Tadpole Shrimp Triops longicaudatus

“…The hexavalent form is highly toxic to aquatic animals and humans, as well as clastogenic and carcinogenic [18,19]. Hexavalent chromium can also induce histological changes in crustaceans, such as Palaemonetes pugio [20], behavioral alterations in invertebrates [21] and fish [22,23], decreased appetite [24], as well as developmental effects and metabolic alterations [25,26], genotoxicity and DNA damage [25,27]. Hexavalent chromium is also neurotoxic to humans and several aquatic species, including zebrafish Danio rerio [23,[28][29][30].…”

Effects of hexavalent chromium on structure of liver, intestine and ovary of Zebra fish

“…Zebrafish are important in monitoring water pollution, so they are used extensively in the regulation of aquatic toxicity testing (Hill et al, 2005). The evaluation of the impact of chromium (VI) on organism life in vivo or in vitro has been attracting the attention of many research groups (Jin et al, 2015;Xu et al, 2021;Yan et al, 2023). One of the commonly models for this research direction is the use of aquatic animals as experimental models.…”

Hexavalent Chromium Inhibited Zebrafish Embryo Development by Altering Apoptosis- and Antioxidant-Related Genes

“…A chromium-contaminated adult zebrafish diet decreases the viability of zebrafish offspring [ 12 ]. Chromium induces changes in the metabolism of zebrafish larvae and causes neurotoxicity [ 13 ]; moreover, chromium treatment also alters the metabolome and microbiome of zebrafish, which is associated with neurotoxicity [ 14 ]. Zebrafish embryos exposed to chromium exhibit aberrant embryonic development and teratogenic consequences, including severe heart abnormalities [ 1 ].…”