Stress proteins induced by cadmium in the abdominal muscle of the shrimp Crangon crangon [commun.]

Shrimps were exposed to various concentrations of CdCl2 under laboratory conditions for 96 h. Abdominal muscles were isolated from exposed and control animals. The induction of stress proteins (heat shock proteins of the Hsp70 family and metallothionein) was detected following polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of SDS (SDS-PAGE) and specific staining (Western blotting method in the case of the Hsp70 or Coomassie blue and silver staining in the case of metallothionein). The short-term cadmium poisoning in the shrimp Crangon crangon resulted in the induction, in a concentration-dependent manner, of metallothionein and a new protein with an approximate molecular weight of 70 kDa in abdominal muscle. This protein was immunologically cross-reactive with the 70 kDa heat shock protein of the mouse.