Male reproductive toxicity of organophosphorous compounds: a review

Fertility is declining in many countries and there has been substantial interest in the potential adverse effects of exposure to environmental hazardous chemicals, including pesticides on male reproduction. Organophosphorous compounds (organophosphates, OP) constitute a heterogeneous category of chemicals specifically designed for the control of pests or plant diseases. OP are known to produce reproductive toxicity, resulting in a decrease in the fertility levels of humans and animals. This review article mainly focused on toxicity of some OP such as acephate, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dimethoate, fenitrothion, malathion, and monocrotophos especially dealing with reproductive toxicity in males. Furthermore, this review deals with mode of action and clinical syndromes of OP. Considerable lab studies on animals concluded that OP produce adverse effects on male reproductive system.     

Mutagenicity of diesel engine exhaust in the Ames / Salmonella assay using a direct exposure method

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential mutagenic activity of diesel engine exhaust in the Ames/Salmonella assay using a direct aerosol exposure system. So, TA 98 and TA 100 strains, with or without added S9 mix, were exposed to diesel emissions after varying degrees of filtration. Variants of these two strains, deficient in nitroreductase (TA 98NR and TA 100NR) or over-expressing O-Acetyl Transferase (YG 1024 and YG 1029), were also exposed to total (unfiltered) diesel exhaust to highlight the putative mutagenicity of any nitro-PAHs present in these emissions. Mutagenic activity of the diesel exhaust was demonstrated on Salmonella typhimurium, strains TA 100 and variants TA 100 NR and YG1029. The use of a particle filter did not modify the genotoxicity of the diesel emissions, indicating a major contribution of the gas phase to the mutagenicity of these diesel emissions. The prominent role of the particulate-associated nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nitro-PAHs) claimed by some authors working on diesel exhaust organic extracts was not confirmed by our results with native diesel exhaust exposure. Our results show that the gas phase is potentially more mutagenic than the particles alone.     

Electrochemical degradation of Acid Red I dye and its treatment by UV light

Degradation of Acid Red I (ARI) dye by electrochemical treatment and UV light irradiation was studied in this work. The effect of the current density and the concentration of NaCl and dye on the decoloration and degradation efficiency were studied and optimized. The UV irradiation was monitored by UV-Vis spectrophotometry and chemical oxygen demand. The kinetic constants for decoloration and degradation were calculated. Degradation of 86% was achieved in 160?min and the first-order kinetic constant was 0.013?min^?1. Degradation products were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The mechanism for the degradation of ARI was proposed.     

Environmental human silver exposure

Environmental exposure to silver (Ag) was assessed in occupationally non-exposed adult human population by analyzing Ag in the hair (H?·?Ag) and whole blood (WB?·?Ag). H?·?Ag was analyzed in 311 (123 men, M; 188 women, W); while WB?·?Ag was determined in 235 of these individuals (90 M, 145 W). Women had more H?·?Ag than men (M 0.05 vs. W 0.076), whereas WB?·?Ag concentrations in men and women were not significantly different. A natural distribution of the median derivatives was utilized to generate the dataset to fit the logistic sigmoid curve to assess the current human body burden of environmental Ag population exposure for M and W separately. The H?·?Ag (µg?g^?1) below 0.0105 for M and 0.0145 for W, reflects low level of environmental Ag exposure. The adaptive physiological saturation phase followed where H?·?Ag rose rapidly, first for M and then for W in parallel with biological assay. Both parallel saturation curves converged and plateaued at 0.215 for M and 0.965 for W (µg?g^?1). The current level of human environmental Ag exposure is low, but cases of high Ag exposure occurred sporadically. In conjunction with the medical histories overt clinical neural toxicity may be expected for H?·?Ag at 4?µg?g^?1and higher. There were no significant correlation between the H?·?Ag and WB?·?Ag.     

Polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides in amniotic fluids of pregnant women in south-central Turkey†

The concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were determined in amniotic fluid of 200 pregnant women from the Cukurova region of Turkey. The concentrations of OCPs [hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (p,p′-DDT), and various metabolites], and different PCB congeners (28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153, 180) were determined by gas chromatography with electron capture detection as follows: HCB 6.6 ± 4.7, ΣHCH 21.6 ± 14.2, ΣDDT 12.5 ± 7.5, and ΣPCBs 74.0 ± 54 ng mL^?1. Correlations of maternal or gestational age and levels of OCPs and PCBs were not significant. The levels of these organochlorine compounds (OCs) were below detection limit for 5% of the samples, 80% contained more than one OC. This study illustrates that prenatal exposure of a fetus to OCs is prevalent in the Cukurova region.     

中国浏阳农村地区人群暴露参数

以湖南省浏阳市农村地区人群为研究对象,采用问卷调查的方式对研究地区人群的暴露参数进行研究,结果表明:研究地区成人男性、女性的平均体质量分别为62.45和53.71kg,平均体表面积分别为1.710和1.546m2;成人日均饮水摄入量为1428 mL,P₉₅(第95百分位数)为3350mL,其中,日均直接饮水量为1035mL,P₉₅为2500mL;调查地区大米、面粉、鱼类、猪肉、鸡肉、蛋类(鸡蛋和鸭蛋合计)日均摄入量,成人男性为335.54、89.28、15.41、18.48、14.18和21.70g/d,成人女性为269.28、68.45、14.89、16.73、13.11和18.07g/d. 研究还发现,调查地区人群饮用水源以泉水和井水为主,分别占52.42%和36.31%,也有个别人群饮用河水和湖水等地表水. 研究结果与美国和日本暴露参数推荐值相比有较大差异,与我国同类研究相比也存在一定的差异,说明暴露参数具有区域性、种族性等特征.      

沿海和内陆地区居民汞暴露量对比

通过对沿海和内陆居民食用水产品消费情况调查以及居民头发汞含量的分析,对不同地区普通居民的汞暴露水平进行了对比研究.居民水产品的消费情况采用调查问卷的形式,对沿海地区大连和内陆地区河南两地普通居民进行了随机调查,并同时采集被调查者的头发作为汞暴露情况的生物样本.本次研究共收集到有效调查问卷及头发样本213份(大连112份;河南101份),两地居民水产品消费量分别为:大连104 g.d-1,河南74 g.d-1;收集到的头发样本采用DMA-80测汞仪(按美国EPA-7473的方法)进行总汞含量的测定.头发总汞含量分析结果显示,大连为(0.363±0.256)μg.g-1,河南地区为(0.192±0.167)μg.g-1.两地区对同一年龄段居民发汞水平比较发现,大连地区居民发汞水平明显高于河南地区.以美国环境保护署(EPA)参考剂量1μg.g-1作为发汞基准,大连地区的超出比例为3%,河南地区的超出比例为1%.该研究结果为了解我国普通居民的汞暴露情况以及后续的汞暴露风险的定量计算提供了基础数据.     

住宅室内降尘中邻苯二甲酸酯污染特征及暴露评价

利用CH2Cl2和超声对天津市13户家庭住宅冬季和夏季26个室内降尘样品中6种邻苯二甲酸酯(DMP、DEP、DBP、BBP、DEHP、DOP)进行提取分离,并采用气相色谱-质谱定量分析,研究了邻苯二甲酸酯污染变化特征和暴露风险.结果表明,冬夏两季,室内降尘样品均以DEHP 浓度最大,DBP第二,且DBP 和DEHP之和占ΣPAEs 的比例达到80.0%以上;冬季,各采样点6种邻苯二甲酸酯总含量(∑PAEs)浓度在1.498~32.587μg/g之间,平均浓度为(6.772±8.154)μg/g;夏季,∑PAEs浓度在1.981~40.041μg/g之间,平均浓度为(13.406±12.911) μg/g;PAEs浓度季节变化差异显著,夏季降尘样品中PAEs浓度高于冬季.暴露评价显示儿童和成人的夏季邻苯二甲酸酯总暴露量均大于冬季;经口暴露水平大于皮肤;平均儿童的暴露水平是成人的10倍左右;成人和儿童对4种物质(DBP、DEHP、DEP、BBP)的总暴露量最大值均出现在夏季;天津室内降尘暴露量与我国6城市室内降尘总暴露水平相当(除DEHP外),与德国和美国的暴露水平相比,天津儿童和成人的暴露量偏小.但是,室内环境中PAEs污染对人体健康的影响仍要引起重视,尤其是对低龄儿童的健康危害.     

Dissolution of zinc oxide nanoparticles in exposure media of algae,daphnia, and fish embryos for nanotoxicological testing

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are being widely investigated in a bioassay due to potential negative effects to biological receptor. The dissolution of metal nanoparticles such as ZnO NPs is crucial to interpret nanotoxicity results because ZnO NPs can release toxic-free ions in exposure media. In the present study, dissolution of ZnO NPs was evaluated in three selected synthetic media for aquatic toxicological testing: Elendt M4 daphnia medium, OECD algal medium, and fish embryo rearing solution. Both media are currently recommended for OECD testing for daphnia and algae. Time-dependent dissolution of ZnO NPs has been investigated in terms of sonication time to be used for the preparation of aqueous NPs suspension, and dissolution time corresponding to exposure period in toxicity testing. Since sonication is widely applied for NPs dispersion in the most of nanotoxicological testing, the emphasis of this study was on the dissolution of NPs as a function of sonication time. We also investigated the concentration-dependent dissolution of ZnO NPs. Our results demonstrated that dissolution of ZnO NPs was significantly affected by sonication and dissolution time, as well as NPs concentration. This study showed that parameters affecting dissolution of ZnO NPs should be considered in nanotoxicological testing.     

北京不同污染天气PM_(2.5)和PM_(10)染毒对大鼠生理病理参数的影响

为探讨北京不同污染天气大气可吸入颗粒物PM_(10)和细颗粒物PM_(2.5)污染对雄性大鼠血常规、氧化损伤、炎症反应和肺组织的影响,将64只雄性8周龄Wistar大鼠随机分为8组,分别为2个对照组(空白组和生理盐水组)和6个染毒组(清洁、雾霾及沙尘暴3种不同天气的PM_(10)染毒组和PM_(2.5)染毒组),每组8只。用2015年3月—5月在北京南海子麋鹿苑采集的清洁、雾霾和沙尘暴3种不同天气的PM_(10)和PM_(2.5)制备悬液,分别采用气管滴入PM_(10)和PM_(2.5)悬液作为染毒组,空白对照组不做任何处理,生理盐水对照组采用气管滴注生理盐水。急性染毒24 h后处死大鼠。采集血液测定18个血常规指标,分析肺泡灌洗液(BALF)中转化生长因子-β1(TGF-β1)、乳酸脱氢酶(LDH)、总抗氧化能力(T-AOC)、白介素-6(IL-6)及肿瘤坏死因子-α(TNF-α)的含量,并在高倍显微镜下观察肺组织和气管病理形态变化。同时,对PM_(10)和PM_(2.5)中的水溶性离子、有机碳/元素碳、16种多环芳烃和7种重金属等元素进行了测定,并分析了各组分与大鼠生理病理指标的相关性。结果表明:清洁、沙尘暴天气的PM_(10)和雾霾天气的PM_(2.5)急性染毒导致大鼠白细胞系参数即免疫力显著下降。污染天气颗粒物染毒后大鼠BALF氧化炎症因子的改变表明呼吸系统受到感染:沙尘暴和清洁天的PM_(10)染毒均显著提高了TGF-β1,雾霾PM_(10)染毒后IL-6和LDH有一定程度升高。3种天气颗粒物染毒对肺和气管造成的组织病理伤害各有特点,但PM_(2.5)伤害程度普遍大于PM_(10)。染毒颗粒物粒径大小,其化学成分类别、浓度是造成大鼠血常规指标变化、氧化炎症反应和组织学病变的可能原因。