Deciphering the Time Window of Caffeine Toxicity in the Development of Xenopus laevis Embryo
Board Location: #117
Discipline: Chemical Sciences
Subcategory: inorganic
Session: 1
Kylie Haas - Milligan University
Co-Author(s): Dr. Emmanuel Tadjuidje, Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama
Caffeine has been proven as a toxic substance to human embryonic development. Since the early development of Xenopus laevis has been found to have strong similarities to the embryonic developments of human fetuses, treating the Xenopus with caffeine can allow for further understanding of the effects of caffeine consumption during pregnancy. Previous data show that continuous treatment of Xenopus embryos with caffeine from up to the neurula stage (stage 20) leads to various deformities at the tadpole stage. In this project, we attempted to narrow down caffeine’s time window of sensitivity by performing different treatment regimens with concentrations of 500µg/ml and 250µg/ml. The embryos treated with more caffeine displayed greater amounts of phenotypes and higher death rates than those treated with a lesser amount of caffeine. Overall, our findings suggest that caffeine becomes toxic to embryos starting at stage twenty-five and beyond. This can be translated to the stage at which embryos begin organogenesis, which is roughly four weeks after conception or when they start to develop their heart, kidneys, and other key organs.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): This work was supported by NSF-REU(DBI-2050038) to Dr. Komal Vig (PI).
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Emmanuel Tadjuidje, etadjuidje@alasu.edu
Role: I was the primary researcher on this project. I performed to actual experiment and documented the findings.