Table 1.

Effects of metal-ions on aquaporin-4 (AQP4) expression in the brain.

Metal Ion	Experimental approach	AQP4 expression	Water permeability	References
Mercury	in vivo
	Rat brain	↑mRNA ↑protein	–	Yukutake et al., 2008
	in vitro
	Xenopus oocytes	–	↓	Shi and Verkman, 1996
	AQP4 cystein-residue mutants			Yukutake et al., 2008
	AQP4 reconstituted in proteoliposomes	–	↓
Lead	in vivo
	Rat brain	no changes mRNA	–	Gunnarson et al., 2005
	in vitro
	Cultured astrocytes	–	↑	Gunnarson et al., 2005
Manganese	in vitro
	cultured astrocytes	↑protein in plasma membrane	↑	Rao et al., 2010
		no changes mRNA
Zinc	in vitro
	AQP4.M23 proteolipossomes	–	↓	Yukutake et al., 2009
Iron	in vivo
	Rat brain	↑protein	↑	Qing et al., 2009
	in vitro
	cultured astrocytes	↑protein	–	Wang et al., 2015

↑, Increased; ↓, Decreased.