2. Academic Validation
  3. Embryotoxicity evaluation of Gentamicin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic added to human embryo culture medium, using the zebrafish (Danio rerio) model

Embryotoxicity evaluation of Gentamicin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic added to human embryo culture medium, using the zebrafish (Danio rerio) model

  • Toxicology. 2022 Nov 29;483:153386. doi: 10.1016/j.tox.2022.153386.
Feng Chen 1,  Wei Fan 2,  Ziyuan Lin 3,  Tang Deng 2,  Lina Zhang 2,  Wei Huang 4,  Huaqin Sun 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 SCU-CUHK Joint Laboratory for Reproductive Medicine, Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, Department of Pediatrics, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China; Institute of Basic Medicine and Forensic Medicine, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong 637000, People's Republic of China.
  • 2 Center for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Key Laboratory of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Pediatric Diseases and Birth Defects of Ministry of Education, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China.
  • 3 SCU-CUHK Joint Laboratory for Reproductive Medicine, Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, Department of Pediatrics, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China.
  • 4 Center for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Key Laboratory of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Pediatric Diseases and Birth Defects of Ministry of Education, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: weihuang64@163.com.
  • 5 SCU-CUHK Joint Laboratory for Reproductive Medicine, Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, Department of Pediatrics, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: sunhuaqin@scu.edu.cn.
PMID: 36460222 DOI: 10.1016/j.tox.2022.153386
Abstract

Infertility gives rise to a lot of social and psychological problems. At present, assisted reproductive technology (ART) is an important way to solve infertility. However, the live birth rate of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) is less than 50 %. Medium is essential for the culture of embryos in vitro. Therefore, we want to explore whether the composition of the culture medium affects the survival rate of embryos. Gentamicin (GM) is an Aminoglycoside antibiotic that is used to treat various Bacterial infections. It is widely used in IVF medium, but it is not known whether it has a toxicity effect on embryonic development. Here, we used zebrafish embryos to investigate the embryotoxicity of GM which is an ingredient in culture medium. Our results found that there was no significant effect on the zebrafish embryo development, including survival rate, malformation rate and developmental time course, while zebrafish embryos were treated with GM at the culture medium concentration (10 mg/L, 17.8 μM) compared with the control group. To research the potential embryotoxicity of GM, we treated zebrafish embryos with GM with high concentration (range from 17.8 μM to 3000 μM). The results showed that the lethal concentration of 50 % (LC50) at 48-h post-fertilization (hpf) value of zebrafish embryos for GM was 1150 μM; the survival rate and malformation rate of zebrafish embryos were significantly changed in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, transcriptomics, metabolomics and epigenomics (m6A-MeRIP-seq) were used to investigate the molecular mechanism of embryotoxicity, and results showed cell cycle, dorso-ventral axis formation and collecting duct acid secretion pathway were altered significantly in treated embryos. In conclusion, there are no adverse effects on embryonic development with the working concentration of GM in human culture medium, suggesting that GM is safe for embryo culture at working concentration.

Keywords

Embryotoxicity; Gentamicin; IVF-ET; Zebrafish.

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