Mechanism of cadmium-induced cytotoxicity on the ZFL zebrafish liver cell line.

The cadmium ion (Cd²⁺) is a highly toxic metal ion; however， its hepatic toxic effects are not very well characterized in a systematic manner. In this study， a zebrafish liver cell line， ZFL was used as a model to investigate the mechanism of Cd²⁺-induced cytotoxicity on hepatocytes. The intracellular level of reactive oxygen species decreased following the administration of Cd²⁺; antioxidant levels and related enzyme activities and gene expression were detected， showing that the toxic effects of Cd²⁺ might not be coupled to oxidative stress. To understand the cytotoxic effects of Cd²⁺ on ZFL cells after Cd²⁺ exposure， a total of 77 differentially expressed proteins were detected by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis; 43 of them were further identified by MALDI-TOF-MS. The proteins that responded to Cd²⁺ in ZFL cells were related to stress response， transporters， regulation of transcription， redox homeostasis， or different signaling pathways， with half of these proteins having metal ion binding capabilities.