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.