Toxicity of diuron in HepG2 cells and zebrafish embryos

Diuron is an herbicide, which is used to control a wide variety of annual and perennial broadleaf, grassy weeds, and mosses. However, the toxicity of diuron in HepG2 cells and zebrafish embryos was unclear. In this study, HpeG2 cells and zebrafish embryos were exposed to different concentrations of diuron for 24 h and 48 h, respectively. Results reveal the diuron caused cytotoxicity and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the treated HepG2 cells. The effects of diuron on the expression of catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD1 and SOD2), an antioxidant enzyme, were investigated. Results showed that only SOD1 was significantly induced after treated diuron 48 h, but the expression of catalase and SOD2 was unaffected. Additionally, the cytotoxicity of diuron was not attenuated in cells pretreated with of N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), a well-known antioxidant, indicating that oxidative stress could not contribute to cellular death in the treated HepG2 cells. In zebrafish embryos, results from proteomic analysis show that 332 differentially upregulated proteins and 199 down-regulated proteins were detected in the treated embryos (P < 0.05). In addition to the up-regulated antioxidant proteins (prdx3, cat, prdx4, txnrd1, prdx1, sod1, prdx2, and sod2), some decreased proteins were related to cytoskeleton formation, tight junction, and gap junction, which could be related to the malformation of the treated zebrafish embryos. In summary, diuron caused cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells, and the mechanisms of toxicity in zebrafish were addressed using the proteomic analysis.