Table 9.

Toxic effects of mercury on various cell lines.

Organisms and species	Cell types	Mercury effects	Ref.
Bacteria Escherichia coli	Strains devoid of R plasmids	Growth inhibition: MIC = 11.5 μM HgCl2.	[45]
Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Strain W303B	Growth inhibition: MIC = 2 μM MeHgCl at 24 h.	[46]
Clam Mya arenaria	Hemocytes	Phagocytosis inhibition: IC50 = 0.44 μM MeHgCl at 18 h.	[47]
Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris	Coelomocytes	Phagocytosis inhibition: IC50 = 0.1 μM MeHgCl and 0.5 μM HgCl2 at 18 h.	[48]
Mosquito Aedes albopictus	Cell line C6/36	Cell viability: for serum deprived cultures, LD50 = 2.1 μM MeHgCl and 2.5 μM HgCl2 at 24 h; for cultures with fetal calf serum, LD50 = 5.5 μM MeHgCl and 12 μM HgCl2 at 24 h. Cell growth inhibition: IC50 = 1 μM MeHgCl and 18.4 μM HgCl2 at 18 days.	[49]
Chicken	Retinal cells	Cell viability: 49% cell death with 10 μM MeHgCl at 6 h.	[50]
Fish fathead minnow	CCL-42	Cell viability: EC50 = 1.55 μM MeHgOH at 96 h.	[51]
Rabbit	Renal proximal tubule cells	Cell viability: LC50 = 6.1 μM MeHgCl and 34.2 μM HgCl2 at 24 h.	[52]
Rat	Cerebellar granule cells	50% apoptotic cells with 1 μM MeHgCl for 9 h; 30% apoptotic cells and 60% reduction in mitochondrial dehydrogenases with 2.5 μM MeHgCl for 1 h.	[31]
Rat	Embryonic neural stem cells	90% cell death with 0.5 μM MeHgCl for 24 h; 37% apoptotic cells with 0.1 μM MeHgCl for 24 h.	[53]
Rat	Splenocytes Leukocytes	Cytolethality: 8 μM MeHgCl for 24 h.	[54]
Mouse	Cerebellar neurons	50% reduction in mitochondrial activity with 5 μM MeHgCl for 1 h.	[32]
	Cerebellar astrocytes	40% reduction in mitochondrial activity with 5 μM MeHgCl for 1 h.
Mouse	Macrophages	Cell death: 20 μM MeHgCl for a few days.	[55]
Mouse	Peritoneal neutrophils	Necrotic cell death: 15 μM MeHgCl for 13 min.	[56]
Mouse	Multipotent neural stem cell line C17.2	45% cell death with 2 μM MeHgCl at 24 h; 20% apoptotic cells with 0.5 μM at 24 h.	[53]
Man	YAC-1 murine Moloney virus transformed lymphoma cell line	50% cell death with 25 μM MeHgCl at 4 h.	[57]
Man	T lymphocytes	Cell viability: 8 μM MeHgCl at 24 h.	[58]
	Monocytes	Cell viability: 8 μM MeHgCl at 4 h.
Man	Neurons	Cell viability: LC50 = 6.5 μM MeHgCl at 24 h.	[59]
	Astrocytes	Cell viability: LC50 = 8.1 μM MeHgCl at 24 h.
	Neuroblastoma cells	Cell viability: LC50 = 6.9 μM MeHgCl at 24 h.

Ref.: references; EC₅₀ : median effective concentration; HgCl₂ : mercury chloride; IC₅₀ : median inhibitory concentration; LC₅₀ : median lethal concentration; LD₅₀ : median lethal dose; MeHgCl: methylmercury chloride; MeHgOH: methylmercury hydroxide; MIC: minimal inhibitory concentration.