Individual and Combined Effects of Arsenic and Lead on Behavioral and Biochemical Changes in Mice

Abstract

Arsenic (As) toxicity has caused an environmental tragedy affecting millions of people in the world. Little is known about the toxic effects of As on neurobehavioral and biochemical changes in vivo. Along this line of metal toxicity, co-exposure of lead (Pb) could aggravate the situation in the host. The present study was designed to explore the combined effects of As and Pb on behavioral changes like anxiety, spatial memory and learning impairment, and blood indices related to organ dysfunction. Exposure of mice to As (10 mg/kg body weight), Pb (10 mg/kg body weight), and As + Pb via drinking water significantly decreased the time spent exploring the open arms while it increased the time spent in the closed arms compared to control mice in the elevated plus maze. The mean latency time of the control group to find the platform decreased significantly during the learning for 7 days compared to all three treated groups in the Morris water maze test, and the As-exposed group spent significantly less time in the desired quadrant as compared to the control group in the probe trial. Both metals posed an anxiety-like behavior and deficits in spatial memory and learning, and also altered blood indices related to liver and kidney dysfunction, and a combined exposure of these metals inhibited the individual accumulation of As and Pb. Taken together, these data suggest that As has more toxic effects on neurobehavioral and biochemical changes than Pb, and there may be antagonism in the effects and accumulation between these two toxicants.

Endocrine active metals, prenatal stress and enhanced neurobehavioral disruption

“…As-induced changes in NOR have been previously reported (Martinez-Finley et al, 2009a), although it is not indicated whether these effects differed by sex. In contrast to our findings with elevated plus maze in which As increased the time spent in the open arms and thus could be considered ‘anxiogenic’, others have reported anxietylike phenotypes (Aktar et al, 2017; Chang et al, 2015), whereas in another study, anxiety and anti-anxiogenic effects were observed depending upon As exposure level (Umezu et al, 2012). Taken together, our work indicates that prenatal stress can modulate the developmental neurotoxicity of multiple metals including Pb, MeHg, and now As (Cory-Slechta et al, 2010; Cory-Slechta et al, 2004; Rossi-George et al, 2009; Rossi-George et al, 2011; Weston et al, 2014a; Weston et al, 2014b).…”

Heavy metal pollutants have additive negative effects on honey bee cognition

“…Interactions among stressors are commonly classified as antagonistic (when the effect of one stressor reduces the effect of the other one), additive (when stressors have cumulative effects) or synergistic (when stressors together have a greater effect than the sum of their individual effects) (Folt et al, 1999). Additive effects of As, Cu and Pb have been described for humans (Lin et al, 2016), rats (Aktar et al, 2017;Mahaffey et al, 1981;Schmolke et al, 1992) and fishes (Verriopoulos and Dimas, 1988). In rats, for instance, co-exposure to Pb and As disrupted brain biogenic amine levels (Agrawal et al, 2015).…”

Effects of Untreated Drinking Water at Three Indigenous Yaqui Towns in Mexico: Insights from a Murine Model

“…ROS are the main participants in damage caused by neurodegenerative processes, including cell death [52,53]. Following this, the ROS production triggered by As accumulation in mice brains has been associated with neurobehavioral changes, mainly anxiety and depression [54,55]. Moreover, we detected degenerative changes in cerebral cortex neurons, such as those reported by Selim et al [56] and alterations in behavior from the first days of exposure that was characterized by a marked aggressiveness in group IV (the mice fed with drinking water containing the highest concentration of As of the three sources sampled).…”