Transcription survey of hypoxia inducible factors (hif-1α, hif-2α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) in response to cadmium chloride in Persian Sturgeon (Acipenser persicus Borodin, 1897)

Cadmium is one of the most important contaminants whose level has increased in the Caspian Sea. Cadmium is an unessential metal that has no important role in biochemical reactions in the living organism. So this element has more side effects than other heavy metals and it would result in poisoning the aquatic organisms even in a low concentrations. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cadmium chloride on the genes expression of hypoxia inducible factors (hif-1&alpha¡ hif-2&alpha)¡ vegf (vascular endothelial growth factor) in Persian sturgeon. Using Real time PCR¡ the changes in the gene expression of hif-1&alpha¡ hif-2&alpha and vegf were investigated by using SYBR Green in gill tissue Persian sturgeon through exposure to different concentrations of cadmium chloride (200 and 800 µl/L).Results indicated that with the increase of the concentration of cadmium¡ the level of the target gene expression also increased. Thus it can be concluded that cadmium is of the factor effective on gene expression of the hypoxia inducible factors (hifs) and it can enhance angiogenesis mechanisms.