Effects of chronic exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of waterborne depleted uranium on the digestive tract of zebrafish, Danio rerio

摘要

Uranium is a naturally occurring element, but activities linked to the nuclear fuel cycle can increase background levels in the surrounding waters. For this reason it is important to understand how this affects organisms residing in the water column. The objective of this study was to assess histopathological effects of uranium on the gut wall of a widely used model organism: zebrafish, Danio rerio. To this end we exposed zebrafish to 84 and 420 nM depleted uranium for over a month and then examined the histology of intestines of exposed individuals compared to controls.