Vanadium is an important environmental and industrial pollutant whose concentrations have increased in the last decades. Due to its status as reproductive toxicant and a microtubule damaging agent, the present study investigated by immunohistochemistry the effect of the inhalation of vanadium pentoxide on gamma-tubulin within somatic and testicular germ cells. Male mice inhaled vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) (0.02 M) 1 h/twice a week for 12 weeks. Our results demonstrated that vanadium accumulates in the testes starting with the initial inhalation (24 h), and this pattern remained until the last week of treatment. In general, vanadium was capable of significantly decreasing the percentage of gamma-tubulin in all analyzed testicular cells (Sertoli, Leydig and germ cells) starting with the first week of treatment. For all cell types studied, regression analysis revealed a negative and significant relationship between the percentage of immunopositive cells to gamma-tubulin and exposure time, showing a time dependent response in all cases. Our findings suggest that alterations on this protein might imply changes in microtubule-involved function such as cell division, which in the testes might lead to damage in the spermatogenesis, leading probably to infertility.
Akashi, T., Yoon, Y. and Oakley, R. B.1997: Characterization of g-tubulin complexes in Aspergillus nidulans and detection of putative g-tubulin interacting proteins. Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton37, 149-158.
2.
Al-Bayati, A. M., Culbertson, M. R., Shreider, J. P.et al.1992: The lymphotoxic action of vanadate. Journal of Enviroiromental Pathology, Toxicology and Oncology11, 19-27.
3.
Altamirano-Lozano, M., Alvarez-Barrera, L., Basurto-Alcan-tara, F.et al.1996: Reprotoxic and genotoxic studies of vanadium pentoxide in male mice. Teratogenesis, Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis16, 7-17.
4.
Aragón, A. M. and Altamirano-Lozano, M.2001: Sperm and testicular modifications induced by subchronic treatments with vanadium (IV) in CD-1 mice. Reproductive Toxicology15, 145-151.
5.
Avila-Costa, M. R., Montiel Flores, E., Colin-Barenque, L.et al.2004: Nigrostriatal modifications after vanadium inhalation: an immunocytochemical and cytological approach. Neurochemical Research29, 1365-1369.
6.
Barceloux, D. G.1999: Vanadium. Clinical Toxicology37, 265-278.
7.
Dedman, J. R., Brinkley, B. R. and Means, A. R.1979: Regulation of microfilaments and microtubules by calcium and cyclic AMP. In Greengard, P. and Robinson, G. A., editors, Advances in cyclic nucleotide research. Vol. 2. New York, USA: Raven Press, 131-174.
8.
Dill, A. J., Lee, M. K., Mellinger, H. K.et al.2004: Lung deposition and clearance of inhaled vanadium pentoxide in chronically exposed F344 rats and B6C3F1 mice. Toxicological Science77, 6-18.
9.
Domingo, J. L.1996: Vanadium: a review of the reproductive and developmental toxicity. Reproductive Toxicology10, 175-182.
10.
Duensing, S. and Munger, K.2001: Centrosome abnormalities, genomic instability and carcinogenic progression. Biochi-mica et Biophysica Acta1471, M81-M88.
11.
Fortoul, T. I., Quan-Torres, A., Sánchez, I.et al.2002: Vanadium in ambient air: concentrations in lug tissue from autopsies of Mexico City residents in the 1960s and 1990s. Archives of Enviromental Health57, 446-449.
12.
Fortoul, T. I., Salgado, R. C., Moncada, S. G.et al.1999: Ultrastructural findings in the murine nonciliated bronchiolar cells (NCBC) after subacute inhalation of lead acetate. Acta Veterinaria Brunensis68, 51-56.
13.
Horio, T., Uzawa, S., Jung, M. K.et al.1991: The fission yeast g-tubulin is essential for mitosis and is localized at two different microtubule organizing centers. Journal of Cell Science99, 693-700.
14.
Ivancsits, S., Pilger, A., Diem, E.et al.2002: Vanadate induces DNA strand breaks in cultured human fibroblasts at doses relevant to occupational exposure. Mutation Research519, 25-35.
15.
Joshi, H. C., Palacios, M. J., McNamara, L. and Cleveland, D. W.1992: Gamma tubulin is a centrosomal protein required for cell cycle-dependent microtubule nucleation. Nature365, 80-83.
16.
Kirazov, E. P. and Weiss, D. G.1986: Effects of vanadate on assembly and disassembly of purified tubulin. Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton6, 314-323.
17.
Leguy, R., Melki, R., Pantaloni, D., and Carlier, M-F.2000: Monomeric g-tubulin nucleates microtubules. The Journal of Biological Chemistry275, 21975-21980.
18.
Leonard, A. and Gerber, G. B.1994: Mutagenicity, carcinogenicity and teratogenicity of vanadium compounds. Mutation Research317, 81-88.
19.
Llobet, J. M., Colomina, M. T., Sirvient, J. J.et al.1993: Reproductive toxicity evaluation of vanadium in male mice. Toxicology80, 199-206.
20.
Mayer, F., Stoop, H., Sen, S., et al.2003: Aneuploidy of human testicular germ cell tumors is associated with amplification of centrosome. Oncogene22, 3859-3866.
21.
Melki, R., Vainberg, I., Chow, R. L. and Cowan, N. J.1993: Chaperonin-mediated folding of vertebrate actin-related protein and g-tubulin. Journal of Cell Biology122, 1301-1310.
22.
Meraldi, P. and Nigg, E. A.2002: The centrosome cycle. FEBS Letters521, 9-13.
23.
Migliore, L., Bocciardi, R., Macri, C. and Lo Jacono, F. 1993: Cytogenetic damage induced in human lymphocytes by four vanadium compounds and micronucleus analysis by fluorescence in situ hybridization with a centromeric probe. Mutation Research319, 205-213.
24.
Morinville, A., Maysinger, D. and Shaver, A.1998: From Vanadis to Atropos: vanadium compounds as pharmacological tools in cell death signalling. TIPS19, 452-459.
25.
Mukherjee, B., Patra, B., Mahapatra, S.et al.2004: Vanadiuman element of atypical biological significance. Toxicology Letters150, 135-143.
26.
Navara, C. S., Benyumov, A., Vassilev, A.et al.2001: Vanadocenes as potent anti-proliferative agents disrupting mitotic spindle formation in cancer cells. Anti-Cancer Drugs12, 369-376.
27.
Nechay, B. R.1984: Mechanisms of action of vanadium. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology24, 501-524.
28.
Oakley, B. R. and Akkari, N. Y.1999: g-Tubulin at ten: progress and prospects. Cell Structure and Function24, 365-372.
29.
Oakley, B. R., Oakley, C. E., Yoon, Y. and Jung, M. K.1990: Gamma-tubulin is a component of the spindle pole body that is essential for microtubule function in Aspergillus Nidulans. Cell61, 1289-1301.
30.
Oakley, B. R.1992: g-Tubulin: the microtubule organizer?Trends in Cell Biology2, 1-5.
31.
Parker, R. D., Sharma, R. P. and Oberg, S. G.1980: Distribution and accumulation of vanadium in mice tissues. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology9, 393-403.
32.
Ramirez, P., Eastmond, D. A., Laclette, J. P. and Ostrosky-Wegman, P.1997: Disruption of microtubule assembly and spindle formation as a mechanism for the induction of aneuploid cells by sodium arsenic and vanadium pent-oxide. Mutation Research386, 291-298.
33.
Rodríguez-Mercado, J. J., Roldán-Reyes, E. and Altamirano-Lozano, M.2003: Genotoxic effects of vanadium (IV) in human peripheral blood cells. Toxicology Letters144, 359-369.
34.
Roldán, R. E. and Altamirano, L. M.1990: Chromosomal aberrations, sister-chromatid exchanges, cell-cycle kinetics and associations in human lymphocyte cultures exposed to vanadium pentoxide. Mutation Research245, 61-65.
35.
Sharma, A. and Talukder, G.1987: Effects of metals on chromosomes of higher organisms. Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis9, 191-226.
36.
Shi, Q. and Martin, R. H.2000: Spontaneous frequencies of aneuploid and diploid sperm in 10 normal Chinese men: assessed by multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization. Cytogenetics & Cell Genetics90, 79-83.
37.
Slaughter, R. G., Needleman, S. D. and Means, R. A.1987: Developmental regulation of calmodulin, actin, and tubulin RNAs during rat testes differentiation. Biology of Reproduction37, 1259-1270.
38.
Statsoft. STATISTICA for Windows. Manual version 6.0. Statsoft, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, 1998.
39.
Stearns, T., Evans, L. and Kirschner, M.1991: g-Tubulin is a highly conserved component of the centrosome. Cell65, 825-836.
40.
Stern, A., Yin, X., Tsang, S. S.et al.1993: Vanadium as a modulator of cellular regulatory cascades and oncogene expression. Biochemistry and Cell Biology71, 103-112.
41.
Sun, M.1987: Toxicity of vanadium and its environmental health standard. Chengdu, China: West China University of Medical Sciences, p. 20-20.
42.
Thier, R., Bonacker, D., Stoiber, T.et al.2003: Interaction of metals salts with cytoskeletal motor protein systems. Toxicology Letters140, 75-81.
43.
Van Dyk, Q., Lanzendorf, S., Kolm, P.et al.2000: Andrology. Incidence of aneuploid spermatozoa from subfertile men: selected with motility versus hemizona-bound. Human Reproduction15, 1529-1536.
44.
Vinh, D. B. N., Kern, J. W., Hancock, W. O.et al.2002: Reconstruction and characterization of budding yeast g-Tubulin Complex. Molecular Biology of the Cell13, 1144-1157.
45.
Weil, C. F., Oakley, C. E. and Oakley, B. R.1986: Isolation of mip (Microtubule-Interacting Protein) mutations of Aspergillus nidulans. Molecular and Cellular Biology6, 2963-2968.
46.
Yang, X., Wang, K., Lu, J. and Crans, D.2003: Membrane transport of vanadium compounds and the interaction with the erythrocyte membrane. Coordination Chemistry Reviews237, 103-111.
47.
Zar, J. H.1999: Biostatistical analysis, fourth edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA: Prentice-Hall, 718-718.
48.
Zheng, Y., Jung, M. K. and Oakley, B. R.1991: Gamma-tubulin is present in Drosophila melanogaster and Homo sapiens and is associated with the centrosome. Cell65, 817-823.
