Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Name : The 49th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
Date : June 30, 2022 - July 02, 2022
Neonicotinoids are chemicals used as pesticides because they are selectively toxic to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchRs) in insects. However, it may also affect the human nAchR, which is important for neuronal differentiation. Therefore, we examined the effects of neonicotinoid exposure on neurodevelopment and differentiation using Rencell VM cells, a human fetal midbrain-derived neural progenitor cell line. Cells were cultured in bFGF- and EGF-free culture medium to induce differentiation into brain cells. The differentiated cells were exposed to neonicotinoids (acetamiprid, imidacloprid, dinotefuran) and nicotine from the onset of induction of differentiation, and total RNA was extracted on the third day of differentiation and subjected to RT-PCR to confirm differentiation status using neuronal cell markers. In addition, immunostaining was performed to observe the number and morphology of βⅢ-tubulin-positive cells.
The results of RT-PCR and immunostaining showed no significant difference in both βIII-tubulin and GFAP in the neonicotinoid-exposed group compared to the control group. These results suggest that neonicotinoids are unlikely to affect the differentiation of neural progenitor cells into neural cells.
