Studies On Immunotoxicity Of Tributyltin

Tributyltin(TBT) has been widely used in protecting boats, fish nets and drilling platforms from contamination by fouling organisms. Because it releases into water continuously and subsides into seamud, TBT has seriously damaged to other non-target organisms such as human being through food chain. TBT has been thought one of the permanent toxic materials by the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency, and International Maritime Organization already forbad the usage of TBT in2008. Because of its stability, TBT can last long period in environment. The harmfulness of TBT will last very long, so it is very important to study its toxicity and create a method to judge its toxicity. TBT has toxicity of many aspects including imunnotoxicty, neurotoxicity and endocrine toxicity. The mechanism on cell level is to induce apoptosis.This research explored the immunotoxicity of TBT in mouse by testing the effect of TBT on mouse thymus and spleen exposed to different doses of TBT after96hours. The thymic tissue cell apoptosis is tested by TUNEL assay and the PP2A activity in spleen tissue is tested by PP2A activity assay. The results proved that apoptosis obviously observed in thymic tissue exposed to a TBT dose of60mg/kg after96hours. There is no apoptosis in thymic tissue exposed to low TBT dose. The PP2A activity in spleen tissue is lowed in each experimental group and is dependent to TBT dose. The PP2A activity is obviously different when TBT dose is60mg/kg.The research confirms that TBT can affect apoptosis in mouse thymic tissue exposed to TBT in a short time and the PP2A activity in mouse spleen tissue is inhibited obviously by TBT. The result confirms the immunotoxicity of TBT in one aspect, and also confirms the PP2A activity is very sensitive to TBT. PP2A is an important regulatory protein of many signal transduction pathways in immune system. PP2A is a potential novel biomarker.