Reduced zinc cytotoxicity following differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells into neurons and glial cells is associated with upregulation of metallothioneins

•Neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) were more zinc-sensitive than their differentiated progeny.•The expression of metallothionein genes increased after differentiation of NSPCs into the progeny.•Cultured NSPCs worked as an assay for neuro-developmental cytotoxicity of zinc.

We investigated zinc cytotoxicity in mouse neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) and their differentiated progeny (neuronal/glial cells) in correlation with expression of metallothionein (MT) gene. Differentiated cells were less sensitive than NSPCs to ZnCl2 (IC50: 128 μM vs. 76 μM). Differentiation of immature NSPCs to the differentiated cells led to an increase in expression of MT family genes (Mt1, Mt2, Mt3, and Mt4). Zinc exposure induced a dose-dependent increase in expression level of Mt1 and that of Mt2 in both NSPCs and the differentiated cells. Our results showed that the reduced cytotoxicity of zinc associated with differentiation from NSPCs into their progeny was related to the upregulation of MTs.