FIG. 5.

Arsenic accumulates in adult zebrafish tissues and larvae. (A) In adults, specific tissues from five fish were pooled together as one sample, and totally three samples (15 fish) were used for statistical analysis after 4 days of exposure to 5 ppm sodium arsenate. The eye, intestine, liver, and kidney are adult tissues known to express NaPi-IIb1 and they experienced relatively high arsenate accumulation (0.87, 9.66, and 1.87 μg/g, respectively). The p-value (p < 0.001) was calculated in these tissues and labeled in the figure. Black bars represent arsenate-exposed zebrafish and white bars represent unexposed controls. Asterisk represents significance (p < 0.05). (B) Zebrafish larvae were exposed to 300 ppb sodium arsenate at different days postfertilization. Each experiment contained approximately 150 larvae. The arsenic accumulation was calculated using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Controls were applied to compare the arsenic accumulation in different early developmental stages. White bar: unexposed fish; black bar: exposed fish. (C) Expression of mRNA of NaPi-IIb1 in zebrafish. Tissues were isolated from adult zebrafish and homogenized, and cDNA was prepared. Zebrafish beta-actin was used as a positive control.