Toxic Effects of Food Colorants Erythrosine and Tartrazine on Zebrafish Embryo Development

Abstract

Erythrosine and tartrazine are common artificial food additives which have become a part of daily human consumption. Advised daily intake values for these agents are set strictly, however, the actual intake is much higher than the recommended ADI. A higher intake of erythrosine and tartrazine is shown to exhibit adverse effects in mammalian models, and is thus a matter of public health concern. In this study we have assessed and compared the dose-dependent effects of erythrosine and tartrazine on inducing oxidative stress in zebrafish embryos. We performed the superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity assay to test the effect of the two food colorants on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Erythrosine and tartrazine treated embryos showed significantly increased SOD activity in an enzyme assay. Additionally SOD mRNA transcripts in the treated embryos were found to be upregulated. Erythrosine and tartrazine treatment specifically altered SOD1 mRNA transcript levels while it had no effect on SOD2 mRNA, the other isoform found in zebrafish. Our study shows that erythrosine at a concentration of 0.05% is embryotoxic in a dose and time dependent manner. Tartrazine treated embryos exhibit similar toxicity at a concentration of 0.5%. Erythrosine treated zebrafish embryos hatch much slower when compared to tartrazine treated embryos and control embryos. While erythrosine affects the yolk utilization, tartrazine exhibits teratogenic effects on early zebrafish embryos. The mRNA expression as well as biochemical analysis indicates that exposure to food colorants induces cytoplasmic SOD transcription to combat the ROS toxicity in zebrafish embryos.

Effects of the food colorant carmoisine on zebrafish embryos at a wide range of concentrations

“…Another explanation for difficulty hatching is neuromuscular deficiencies that cause weakening of spontaneous muscle movements (De la Paz et al 2017). As a matter of fact, a decrease in hatching rate was observed in zebrafish embryos exposed to different toxicants including azo dyes (Gupta et al 2019;Joshi and Katti 2018;Li et al 2017;Suvarchala and Philip 2016).…”

Toxicological and ecotoxicological aspects of tartrazine yellow food dye: a literature review

“…Jiang et al (2020) found the CL (I) 50, 96 h value of 47.10 mM (25.1 g.L -1 ). Of these papers, those of Gupta et al (2019) and Silva and Fracácio (2020) described deformities that were found in the embryonic and larval development of D. rerio, suggesting that the tartrazine dye, once released into the aquatic environment, compromises aquatic life (Table 2).…”

“…Therefore, for this value to be considered safe, other stages of the species' development must be tested. The literature also reports that the chorion can be impervious to a good number of pollutants; however, studies have proven that the tartrazine yellow dye has overcome this protective barrier (JOSHI; KATTI, 2017;GUPTA et al, 2019;FRACÁCIO, 2020), and the dye also accelerated the embryo hatch rates (from 72 hpf to 48 hpf).…”

“…Some papers were performed with the D. rerio organism, a model organism widely used in various biological, biomedical, toxicological, and ecotoxicological research, due to its 70% genetic homology with humans and to the advantages provided by its transparent embryos that permit detailed analyses of its development. These studies showed that the dye is harmful to embryos and larvae, for which development was negatively affected KATTI, 2017;GUPTA et al, 2019;JI-ANG et al, 2020;FRACÁCIO, 2020).…”

Toxicity of Sunset Yellow FCF and Tartrazine Dyes on Dna and Cell Cycle of Liver and Kidneys of the Chick Embryo: The Alleviative Effects of Curcumin

“…In addition, skeletal and morphological malformations were also noticed in the chick embryos-treated with SY and Tz [6] . Also, Gupta et al [7] found that erythrosine and Tz were teratogenic to zebrafish embryos. Moreover, some of food additives were proved to induce DNA damage in bacteria, fungi, insects, and mammalian cells in vivo and in vitro.…”