Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Name : The 47th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
Date : 2020 -
It is known that organisms use a variety of mechanisms to avoid toxicity caused by non-essential metals and essential metals beyond their nutritional requirements. As the detoxification of harmful metals, organisms induce and bind the metals to metal-binding proteins and peptides such as metallothioneine and phytochelatin, regulate the expression of transporters for an influx and an efflux the metals to control the intracellular concentrations, or enhance a transformation of metalloids. In addition to such detoxification mechanisms, my group has recently found a formation of biogenic nanoparticles in animal cells and plants, when there is exposure to ionic metals. Further, nanoparticle formation of mercury selenide was experimentally confirmed in mammalian cells when the cells were co-exposed with mercury and selenium, which are classically known to show antagonism. The mechanism of the generation of biogenic nanoparticles and their toxicological significance will be discussed.
