Epigenetic effect of long-term bisphenol A exposure on human breast adenocarcinoma cells

In this research, epigenetic effects of bisphenol A (BPA) on human breast cancer MCF-7 cells were analyzed. Genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression were analyzed in MCF-7 cells exposed to BPA (10^?5 and 10^?6 mol/L for 5 weeks). No significant changes in the global level of 5-methyl-2′-deoxycytidine and 5-hydroxymethyl-2′-deoxycytidine were observed. DNA methylation profiling analysis indicated that BPA exposure resulted in the hypermethylation of FOXK2, LKB1, LMX1A and CUGBP2 and the hypomethylation of PTPRN2, TRIM27, BCAS3 and ZNF423. Decreased expression of apoptosis genes (P38 and BCL2L1) and increased expression of chemokine (Cxcl2 and ccl20) were detected. Changes of these genes were speculated to affect the ERα-related cell growth as well as cell apoptosis.     

Comparative Toxicity of PCBs and PBDEs Using Human Cancer Cell Lines and Zebrafish Embryos

研究了6种多氯联苯(PCBs)3,3′,4,4′-四氯联苯(PCB77)、2,3,3′,4,4′-五氯联苯(PCB105)、2,3′,4,4′,5-五氯联苯(PCB118)、3,3′,4,4′,5-五氯联苯(PCB126)、2,3,3',4,4',5-六氯联苯(PCB156)和商业型混合多氯联苯Aroclor1254,两种多溴联苯醚(PBDEs)2,2′,4,4′-四溴二苯醚(PBDE47)、十溴二苯醚(PBDE209)对人类癌细胞生长和斑马鱼脱膜与不脱膜胚胎发育的影响.8种化合物均使用0.01、0.1、1.0、10μmol·L-14个浓度进行1~6d的暴露实验.结果表明,PBDE209在最高浓度10μmol·L-1下对结肠癌细胞HCT116(暴露3d后)和RKO(暴露5d后)具有显著的生长抑制作用,所有化合物均对乳腺癌细胞没有显著影响.相比之下,化合物对受精后5~6h(5~6hpf)的斑马鱼胚胎的毒性效应显得比较明显,而各化合物对胚胎的致畸和致死效应又不相同,其毒性强弱依次为PCB126≈PCB156>PCB1254(Aroclor1254)>PBDE47>PCB77>PCB105≈PCB118≈PBDE209.其中PBDE209在未脱膜暴毒后均无致畸与致死现象,脱膜暴毒后最高浓度才表现出显著意义的致畸作用,而PBDE47在最高浓度下可产生高达80%的致畸率,这说明胚胎绒毛膜具有有效阻挡大分子物质如PBDE209进入的作用.PCBs的毒性效应与其空间结构密切相关.如PCB126和PCB105具有相同的分子式,前者在1μmol·L-1下就引起了显著的致死和致畸效应,而后者即使在10μmol·L-1下也没有显著的效应.实验结果也说明不同类型的实验对象所展示的毒性效应并不相同,化合物对体外培养的细胞和发育中的胚胎具有不同的影响.     

Accounting for rate instability and spatial patterns in the boundary analysis of cancer mortality maps

Boundary analysis of cancer maps may highlight areas where causative exposures change through geographic space, the presence of local populations with distinct cancer incidences, or the impact of different cancer control methods. Too often, such analysis ignores the spatial pattern of incidence or mortality rates and overlooks the fact that rates computed from sparsely populated geographic entities can be very unreliable. This paper proposes a new methodology that accounts for the uncertainty and spatial correlation of rate data in the detection of significant edges between adjacent entities or polygons. Poisson kriging is first used to estimate the risk value and the associated standard error within each polygon, accounting for the population size and the risk semivariogram computed from raw rates. The boundary statistic is then defined as half the absolute difference between kriged risks. Its reference distribution, under the null hypothesis of no boundary, is derived through the generation of multiple realizations of the spatial distribution of cancer risk values. This paper presents three types of neutral models generated using methods of increasing complexity: the common random shuffle of estimated risk values, a spatial re-ordering of these risks, or p-field simulation that accounts for the population size within each polygon. The approach is illustrated using age-adjusted pancreatic cancer mortality rates for white females in 295 US counties of the Northeast (1970–1994). Simulation studies demonstrate that Poisson kriging yields more accurate estimates of the cancer risk and how its value changes between polygons (i.e., boundary statistic), relatively to the use of raw rates or local empirical Bayes smoother. When used in conjunction with spatial neutral models generated by p-field simulation, the boundary analysis based on Poisson kriging estimates minimizes the proportion of type I errors (i.e., edges wrongly declared significant) while the frequency of these errors is predicted well by the p-value of the statistical test.

Origin of raised maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein levels in second-trimester oligohydramnios

Concanavalin A (Con A) subtyping of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) revealed higher concentrations of AFP non-reactive with Con A in sera of 12 pregnant women with second-trimester oligohydramnios and raised total serum AFP levels than in sera of 42 pregnant women with raised total serum AFP levels and a normal amniotic fluid volume. This suggests that in oligohydramnios the origin of excess AFP in the maternal compartment is amniotic fluid. It is proposed that oligohydramnios and the associated raised maternal serum AFP levels are caused by damage of the fetal membranes prior to 16 weeks of gestation resulting in leakage of amniotic fluid to the decidual tissue and resorption in the maternal circulation.     

Prenatal diagnosis of endocardial fibroelastosis

In a case of fetal heart failure caused by endocardial fibroelastosis, prenatal echocardiography clearly demonstrated; a thickened endocardium. We therefore suggest that an abnormal endocardium may be detected in utero by ultrasound, thus representing an important clue in the differential diagnosis of fetal nonimmune hydrops and in the evaluation of pregnancies at risk for endocardial fibroelastosis.     

江南Z市农村饮水有机污染物健康风险评估

应用化学法及吹扫捕集、气相色谱-质谱联用仪(GC-MS),检测Z市农村不同类型饮用水与癌症相关的有机污染物,对污染物的剂量与癌症标化死亡率进行Spearman等级相关分析。该市河水、池塘水、浅井水中部分样品的COD_Mn、BOD₅和NH₃-N指标超过地表水环境质量Ⅲ类标准,微生物指标超过生活饮用水卫生标准,检出NH₃-N及NO₃-N、NO₂-N合成致癌物NAD的2类前体物及NDMA等直接致癌物。Z市农村河水、池塘水、浅井水主要受生活排污和农业生产污染,不宜作生活饮用水。不同类型饮用水有机污染物丰水期高于枯水期(P值均小于0.05)。癌症标化死亡率与不同类型饮用水有机污染浓度呈等级正相关(P值均小于0.05),与NO₂-N、NDMA、NDEA含量呈剂量-效应关系。直接饮用污染的地表水是造成该市农村癌症高发聚集分布的主要原因之一。     

Cancer and Non-Cancer Health Risk from Eating Cassava Grown in Some Mining Communities in Ghana

Food crops such as cassava, cocoyam and other tuber crops grown in mining communities uptake toxic or hazardous chemicals such as arsenic, and cadmium, from the soil. Cassava is a stable food for Ghanaians. This study evaluated human health risk from eating cassava grown in some mining communities in Ghana such as Bogoso, Prestea, Tarkwa and Tamso, which are important mining towns in the Western Region of Ghana. The study evaluated cancer and non-cancer health effects from eating cassava grown in the study areas in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Assessment guidelines. The results of the study revealed the following: cancer health risk for Tamso, 0.098 (RME – Reasonable Maximum Exposure) and 0.082 (CTE – Central Tendency Exposure). This means that approximately 10 and 8 out of 100 resident adults are likely to suffer from cancer related cases by RME and CTE parameters respectively. For Prestea, we have 0.010 and 0.12, which also means that approximately 1 out of 100 and 10 resident adults out of 100 are also likely to suffer from cancer related diseases by RME and CTE parameters. The results of the study obtained were found to be above the acceptable cancer risk range of 1× 10⁻⁶ to 1× 10⁻⁴, i.e., 1 case of cancer out of 1 million or 100,000 people respectively.     

Indoor and outdoor air pollution and lung cancer in New Hampshire and Vermont

Indoor and outdoor air pollution is known to contribute to increased lung cancer incidence. This study is the first to address the contribution of home heating fuel and geographical course particulate matter (PM₁₀) concentrations to lung cancer rates in New Hampshire, USA. First, Pearson correlation analysis and geographically weighted regression were used to investigate spatial relationships between outdoor PM₁₀ and lung cancer rates. While the aforementioned analyses did not indicate a significant contribution of PM₁₀ to lung cancer in the state, there was a trend towards a significant association in the northern and southwestern regions of the state. Second, case-control data were used to estimate the contributions of indoor pollution and secondhand smoke to the risk of lung cancer with adjustment for confounders. Increased risk was found among those who used wood or coal to heat their homes for more than 10 winters before the age of 18, with a significant increase in risk per winter. Resulting data suggest that further investigation of the relationship between heating-related air pollution levels and lung cancer risk is needed.     

Maternal Serum CA 125 for aneuploidy detection in early pregnancy

Maternal serum CA 125 levels were determined at 9–11 menstrual weeks for 26 cases of trisomy 13 (n = 4), trisomy 18 (n = 7), trisomy 21 (n = 15), and appropriate controls. There were no statistically significant differences between groups.     

Gelatin embedding and diagnostic ultrasound in the examination of the fetal and neonatal brain

We describe a new method for the post-mortem examination of the fetal central nervous system. The brain is immobilized in gelatin prior to ultrasonic examination. Correlation with prenatal ultrasound is excellent and subsequent pathological examination is enhanced and facilitated.