Kuan-I Lee, Kai-Min Fang, Chun-Ying Kuo, Chun-Fa Huang, Shing-Hwa Liu, Jui-Ming Liu, Wei-Cheng Lai, Kai-Chih Chang, Chin-Chuan Su, Ya-Wen Chen
Paraquat (PQ), a toxic and nonselective bipyridyl herbicide, is one of the most extensively used pesticides in agricultural countries. In addition to pneumotoxicity, the liver is an important target organ for PQ poisoning in humans. However, the mechanism of PQ in hepatotoxicity remains unclear. In this study, we found that exposure of rat hepatic H4IIE cells to PQ (0.1-2 mM) induced significant cytotoxicity and apoptosis, which was accompanied by mitochondria-dependent apoptotic signals, including loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), cytosolic cytochrome c release, and changes in the Bcl-2/Bax mRNA ratio...
2024: Current research in toxicology