摘要：Although fish in natural populations may carry high body burdens of both organic and inorganic mercury, the effects of this divalent metal on such lower vertebrates is poorly understood. In this report, inorganic mercury in the form of mercuric chloride (HgCl2) is shown to produce both high-dose inhibition and low-dose activation of leukocytes in a marine teleost fish, Sciaenops ocellatus. Concentrations of inorganic mercury > or = 10 microM suppressed DNA synthesis and induced rapid influx of radiolabeled calcium, as well as tyrosine phosphorylation of numerous cellular proteins. Lower concentrations (0.1-1 microM) of HgCl2 that activated cell growth also induced a slow sustained rise in intracellular calcium in cells loaded with the calcium indicator dye fura-2, but did not produce detectable tyrosine phosphorylation of leukocyte proteins. These studies support the possibility that subtoxic doses of HgCl2 may inappropriately activate teleost leukocytes, potentially altering the processes that regulate the magnitude and specificity of the fish immune response to environmental pathogens. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (2.3M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106
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