Methylmercury (MeHg) is a well-known environmental toxicant. With its
lipophilic nature and high reactivity to sulfhydryl groups, it is widely distributed and
accumulated in the body and causes cells damage. The present study aimed to
investigate the enhancing effect of L-Glutamate (L-Glu) on MeHg cytotoxicity in
HeLa S3 cells. The results showed that among 20 natural L-amino acids, only L-Glu
markedly enhanced the MeHg-induced toxicity. L-Glu. L-Glu exhibited concentrationdependent
enhancement in MeHg cytotoxicity. Furthermore, the effect of Glu-related
amino acid on the MeHg induced toxicity revealed that L-Glu and L-AAD were
similarly effective in enhancing MeHg toxicity, whereas D-Glu, L-Asp and D-Asp
were not effective in enhancing the MeHg toxicity. Thus, MeHg toxicity was
specifically enhanced by L-Glu. The molecular mechanism underlying the phenomena
was then investigated using DNA microarray analysis. Gene expression profile and
Gene Ontology (GO) analysis implicated that the induction of stress and apoptosis
were involved. We further showed that the enhancement of the toxicity was
accompanied by the enhanced apoptosis as indicated by the loss of mitochondrial
membrane potential (ΔΨm), the increases in externalized phosphatidylserine (PS) level
and activation of caspase-3 activity. Moreover, L-Glu also enhanced MeHg-induced
production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the depleted intracellular GSH
levels. Pretreatment with the anti-oxidant, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) greatly alleviated
the cytotoxicity, suggesting an enhanced oxidative stress associated with L-Gluelicited
increase of MeHg toxicity. The role of the transport system x-
C in the
enhancement of MeHg cytotoxicity by L-Glu was then studied, and the results found
that co-treatment with MeHg plus L-Glu increased the expression of xCT mRNA,
supporting the role of oxidative stress as the underlying mechanism in the
enhancement of toxicity. The activity of x-
C slightly increased by treating it with L-Glu
or MeHg, but greatly increased by co-treatment with MeHg plus L-Glu. In addition,
the increased [14C]L-cystine uptake in the cells treated with MeHg and/or L-Glu was
competitively inhibited by unlabeled cystine as well as by L-Glu and L-AAD but not
by L-Asp. The glutamate receptor agonists; NMDA, KA, and AMPA, failed to
enhance the MeHg toxicity, suggesting the inhibition of system x-
C by L-Glu
underlying its enhancement of MeHg cytotoxicity. The enhancement was highly
synergistic as MeHg and L-Glu alone exhibited little toxic effect on the conditions
used. This synergism also occurred in neural cells (neuroblastoma cell lines),
suggesting that the similar mechanisms may underlie the neural toxicity of MeHg.