Assaying Environmental Nickel Toxicity Using Model Nematodes

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dc.contributor.authorRudel, David
dc.contributor.authorDouglas, Chandler D.
dc.contributor.authorHuffnagle, Ian M.
dc.contributor.authorBesser, John M.
dc.contributor.authorIngersoll, Christopher G.
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-06T16:04:21Z
dc.date.available2016-06-06T16:04:21Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.description.abstractAlthough nickel exposure results in allergic reactions, respiratory conditions, and cancer in humans and rodents, the ramifications of excess nickel in the environment for animal and human health remain largely undescribed. Nickel and other cationic metals travel through waterways and bind to soils and sediments. To evaluate the potential toxic effects of nickel at environmental contaminant levels (8.9-7,600 µg Ni/g dry weight of sediment and 50-800 µg NiCl2/L of water), we conducted assays using two cosmopolitan nematodes, Caenorhabditis elegans and Pristionchus pacificus. We assayed the effects of both sediment-bound and aqueous nickel upon animal growth, developmental survival, lifespan, and fecundity. Uncontaminated sediments were collected from sites in the Midwestern United States and spiked with a range of nickel concentrations. We found that nickel-spiked sediment substantially impairs both survival from larval to adult stages and adult longevity in a concentration-dependent manner. Further, while aqueous nickel showed no adverse effects on either survivorship or longevity, we observed a significant decrease in fecundity, indicating that aqueous nickel could have a negative impact on nematode physiology. Intriguingly, C. elegans and P. pacificus exhibit similar, but not identical, responses to nickel exposure. Moreover, P. pacificus could be tested successfully in sediments inhospitable to C. elegans. Our results add to a growing body of literature documenting the impact of nickel on animal physiology, and suggest that environmental toxicological studies could gain an advantage by widening their repertoire of nematode species.en_US
dc.identifier.citationPLoS ONE; 8:10 p. 1-17en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0077079
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.pmidpmc3792034en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10342/5465
dc.relation.urihttp://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077079en_US
dc.subjectFecundityen_US
dc.subjectSedimenten_US
dc.subjectNickelen_US
dc.subjectLarvaeen_US
dc.subjectVulvaen_US
dc.subjectGonadsen_US
dc.titleAssaying Environmental Nickel Toxicity Using Model Nematodesen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
ecu.journal.issue10en_US
ecu.journal.namePLoS ONEen_US
ecu.journal.pages1-17en_US
ecu.journal.volume8en_US

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