Copper and cadmium administration induce toxicity and oxidative stress in the marine flatworm Macrostomum lignano

Abstract

The contamination of coastal regions with different toxicants, including heavy metal ions such as copper and cadmium jeopardizes health and survival of organisms exposed to this habitat. In order to study the effects of high copper and cadmium concentrations in these marine environments, we used the flatworm Macrostomum lignano as a model. This platyhelminth lives in shallow coastal waters and is exposed to high concentrations of all toxicants that accumulate in these shallow sea floors. We show that both, cadmium and copper induce toxicity at high concentrations, with copper being more toxic than cadmium. At concentrations below those inducing acute toxicity, long-term survival rates were reduced for both metal ions. The effects of sublethal doses comprise reduced physical activities and an increase in ROS levels within the worms.

Geochemical factors affecting the solubility of copper in seawater

“…A survey of the literature from the past 25 years indicated several studies where the highest exposure concentrations in toxicity tests have exceeded 5 mg Cu L À1 (e.g. Valdovinos and Zuniga 2002;Ma et al 2020;Wang et al 2020). Toxicity endpoints have also been reported at concentrations higher than the solubility limits of copper in seawater determined in the current study.…”

The microbiome of the marine flatworm Macrostomum lignano provides fitness advantages and exhibits circadian rhythmicity

“…Animal culturing. Animal culturing was essentially done as described earlier 76 . Macrostomum lignano (DV1 line) was originally collected from sediments of the Adriatic Sea and obtained from the Department of Zoology and Limnology, University of Innsbruck, Austria, and then reared in petri dishes, fed with Nitszchia curvilineata and cultured in Guillard's F/2 medium (Sigma G0154).…”

Looking at Developmental Neurotoxicity Testing from the Perspective of an Invertebrate Embryo

“…Despite the fact that a considerable part of the invertebrate community is involved in research about animal models for human diseases [24,[30][31][32][33], the advantage of using available model organisms for DNT testing has hardly been recognized. Except for many applied studies of ecotoxicological risk assessment [34][35][36], which are not in the focus of my review, the issue of DNT did not catch the attention of most invertebrate developmental neurobiologists. This is quite understandable because, even in toxicology, DNT is among the most difficult and least-studied areas [10].…”