Assessment of development defects and immunotoxicity due to heavy metal exposure in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

newline Metals are omnipresent in the body of living organism and silently play the newlineprotagonist in almost every bodily function. Directly or indirectly, bonded or unbonded, the newlinepresence of metals just in the right quantity is essential to our survival. Excess or deficiency newline21 newlineof any could lead to toxicity and multiple disease symptoms. Out of all these metals, lead newline(Pb) and cadmium (Cd) are amongst the most common environmental pollutants having no newlinebiological role to play. Recent studies have indicated multiple consequences of their exposure newlineincluding immune dysfunction. Thus, the current work utilizes the Drosophila system to newlinesimulate the response of a human body to these exposures. newlineThe Pb and Cd toxicity was established by dietary supplementation and the newlinecorresponding negative impact in the development and the life span of the organism was newlineassessed. Individually, Pb toxicity was augmented upon downregulation of metallothionein B newline(mtnB) which hints towards the role of mtnB in Pb detoxification. Further, the Pb fed flies newlineshowed increased susceptibility towards B. subtilis bacterial infection in contrast to their newlinecontrols. Hemocytes that play a secondary role as immune cells in Drosophila were newlinesignificantly reduced upon Pb exposure. The two major hemocytes in third instar larval newlinehemolymph, crystal cells and plasmatocytes showed a decreasing trend with the increase in newlinePb concentration. However, we did not find any noticeable morphological changes in giemsa newlinestained hemocytes.