The Acute Toxicity and Cardiotoxic Effects of Levofloxacin on Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

作者：Yixiao Wu, Wenjing Yu, Zhenyan Song, Jiawei He, Ze Li, Qi Chen, Shiwei Wang, Ping Li, Shaowu Cheng · 发表于：Toxics · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/toxics13020122 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications、Fish Ecology and Management Studies、Antibiotics Pharmacokinetics and Efficacy

Emerging contaminants refer to chemical substances that have not been widely regulated but possess the potential to cause adverse effects on both the environment and human health. Antibiotics, as emerging contaminants, pose significant threats to ecosystems and human health due to their widespread use and persistence in the environment. Levofloxacin, a broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone antibiotic, is commonly employed in the treatment of bacterial infections, and has been frequently detected in environmental matrices and freshwater systems. In this study, we assessed the effects of levofloxacin on hatchability, mortality rates, malformations, behavioral changes, and cardiac development in zebrafish embryos by exposing them to varying concentrations of levofloxacin (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 mM). Our results demonstrate that levofloxacin exposure significantly impaired the growth and development of zebrafish larvae, particularly at higher concentrations. Notable effects included reduced body length, abnormal yolk sac and swim bladder development, pericardial edema, prolonged distances between the sinus venosus and arteriolar bulb (SV-BA), and disruptions in heart rate. Quantitative PCR analysis further revealed that levofloxacin exposure significantly upregulated the expression of key cardiac development genes in zebrafish larvae, including nppa, myh6, cacna1ab, myl7, gata4, nkx2.5, tbx2b, and tbx5b. These findings indicate that levofloxacin exposure exerts significant toxic effects...