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Distinct embryotoxic effects of lithium appeared in a new assessment model of the sea urchin: the whole embryo assay and the blastomere culture assay

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Abstract

Early embryogenesis is one of the most sensitive and critical stages in animal development. Here we propose a new assessment model on the effect of pollutant to multicellular organism development. That is a comparison between the whole embryo assay and the blastomere culture assay. We examined the LiCl effect on the sea urchin early development in both of whole embryos and the culture of isolated blastomeres. The mesoderm and endoderm region were capable to differentiate into skeletogenic cells when they were isolated at 60-cell stage and cultured in vitro. The embryo developed to exogastrula by the vegetalizing effect of the same LiCl condition where ectodermal region changed their fate to endoderm, while the isolated blastomeres from the presumptive ectoderm region differentiated into skeletogenic cells in the culture with LiCl. The effect of LiCl to the sea urchin embryo and to the dissociated blastomere is a unique example where same cells response distinctly to the same agent depend on the condition around them. Present results show the importance of examining the process in cellular and tissue levels for the exact understanding on the morphological effect of chemicals and metals.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr Mamoru Yamaguchi (Tateyama Marine Laboratory, Marine and Coastal Research Center, Ochanomizu University) for the animal collections and Dr Hideki Katow (Tohoku University) for providing PMC-specific antibody.

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Author notes

  1. Seiko Morinaga

    Present address: Laboratory of Signal Transduction, Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8568, Japan

  2. Nagisa Ooi

    Present address: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tateyama Marine Laboratory, Marine and Coastal Research Center, Ochanomizu University, Kou-yatsu 11, Tateyama, Chiba, 294-0301, Japan

    Masato Kiyomoto, Seiko Morinaga & Nagisa Ooi

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  1. Masato Kiyomoto
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Correspondence to Masato Kiyomoto.

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Kiyomoto, M., Morinaga, S. & Ooi, N. Distinct embryotoxic effects of lithium appeared in a new assessment model of the sea urchin: the whole embryo assay and the blastomere culture assay. Ecotoxicology 19, 563–570 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-009-0452-9

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