Comparative analysis of cardiovascular effects of selenium nanoparticles and sodium selenite in zebrafish embryos

Abstract

Selenium acts as an important element in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases but their health-related effects have not been fully explored. As a novel attempt, zebrafish embryos were treated separately with SeNPs (5–25 μg/ml) and sodium selenite (5–25 μg/ml) starting at early blastula stage. Abnormalities were also observed in the morphology of the zebrafish embryos. The SeNPs-treated embryos exhibited concentration-dependent increased in mortality, pericardial edema, and cardiac arrhythmia. In contrast, sodium selenite showed no significant malformation effect in developing zebrafish embryos. The results of the present study conclude that the SeNPs were more toxic than sodium selenite. The results also suggest that lower concentrations of SeNPs and sodium selenite can be used as possible therapeutic agents for cardiovascular-related problems.

Keywords::

• cardiac arrhythmia
• cardiovascular
• pericardial edema
• selenium nanoparticles
• sodium selenite
• zebrafish embryos

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Erratum

Acknowledgments

The authors greatly thank ful to Kalasalingam University for the facilities provided. Mr. A. Raja of Karunya University, Coimbatore is acknowledged for his help with SEM and EDX analysis.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary Movies 1–2.