Motoneuron axon pathfinding errors in zebrafish: differential effects related to concentration and timing of nicotine exposure.

ABSTRACT: Nicotine exposure during embryonic stages of development can affect many neurodevelopmental processes. In the developing zebrafish, exposure to nicotine was reported to cause axonal pathfinding errors in the later born secondary motoneurons (SMNs). These alterations in SMN axon morphology coincided with muscle degeneration at high nicotine concentrations (15-30 μM). Previous work showed that the paralytic mutant zebrafish known as sofa potato exhibited nicotine-induced effects onto SMN axons at these high concentrations but in the absence of any muscle deficits, indicating that pathfinding errors could occur independent of muscle effects. In this study, we used varying concentrations of nicotine at different developmental windows of exposure to specifically isolate its effects onto subpopu

SUBMITTER: Menelaou E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4567840 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature