Figure 3
The role of membrane transporter expression for intracellular Hg content following exposure to MeHg. (A) Synthetic siRNA-mediated knockdown of methionine transporter Lat1, Lat3, and Snat2. NS, non-silencing. RT-qPCR data for each methionine transporter was shown. The histogram depicts the indicated mRNA normalized to Actb mRNA. Values shown are the means ± SE of 3 separate experiments. (B) Effect of knockdown of methionine transporters on intracellular Hg content. Cell lysates were prepared 3 h after the exposure to 0.5 μM MeHg. Averaged Hg content of NS siRNA-transfectants was regarded as 100%. Values represent the means ± SE (n = 4). #, ##Significantly different from NS siRNA-transfectants by a one-way Welch’s t-test (#p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01). (C) Effect of the ABCC4 inhibitor Ceefourin 1 on intracellular Hg content. At 5 min prior to MeHg treatment, 2 μM Ceefourin 1 was added followed by 0.5 μM MeHg. ##, ###Significantly different from Ceefourin 1-untreated cells by a one-way Welch’s t-test (##p < 0.01, ###p < 0.001).
