Biomarkers Of Adverse Effects Research Articles

Assessment of violations of critical organs and systems in children with a high content of chromium in the blood

Introduction. Chromium (VI) is a common component of emissions from woodworking enterprises and an extremely dangerous polytropic toxic chemical substance that has a sensitizing, mutagenic and carcinogenic effect. The aim of the study was to assess disorders of critical organs and systems in children with an increased chromium content in the blood. Materials and methods. The content of chromium in the blood was investigated, the values of clinical and biochemical parameters were estimated, the statistical processing of the data was carried out using the Statistica 10 program. Results. The level of chromium in the blood of children from the observation group was 2.4 times higher than in the control group. In children with an increased concentration of chromium in the blood, compared with children in the control group, a significant increase in IgE of total, eosinophilic-lymphocytic index, total and direct bilirubin, low-density lipoprotein, α-amylase and LDH was found to be 1.2-3.1 times. TSH, and a 1.2-fold lowering of HDL cholesterol. Significant relationships were obtained between an increased concentration of chromium in the blood and an increased level of IgE total, eosinophilic-lymphocytic index, α-amylase and TSH (R2 = 0.20-0.31, p <0.05), lowered HDL cholesterol (R2 = 0.89; p <0.05). The dependence of the frequency of occurrence of allergic rhinitis, cardiomyopathy and diseases of the biliary tract (R2 = 0.20-0.96; p <0.05) on the increased level of chromium in the blood was established. Conclusion. It is advisable to use the obtained biomarkers of adverse effects to increase the efficiency and form medical and prophylactic programs to reduce the level of chromium in the blood and prevent the negative consequences of its impact on the population.

Residual Effects from Occupational Mercury Exposure Include a Proposed Mercury Tremor Biomarker or “Fingerprint”

The study investigated residual effects of high levels of occupational mercury exposure, 30 years after a cohort of women worked in public service dentistry. They had all used copper amalgam in a pellet form that required heating and handling, and silver amalgam before the encapsulated form was available. Mercury handling practices changed in the mid-1970 when the workforce was urine tested and mercury poisoning became apparent. The aim was to compare control group and exposed group scores on tasks from a neurobehavioural test battery; plus survey results from a composite health, work history and environmental influences survey. The findings showed that the exposed and control groups were equivalent not only on those variables that one would want to be matched (age, alcohol consumption), but also on many of the cognitive and psychomotor test scores. The present paper focuses on psychomotor skill and tremor patterns. Tremor patterns were seen as generating new evidence of long term effects of the historic mercury insult. Data also suggest that there may be a distinctive mercury “fingerprint”, in samples of sinusoidal waveforms that may have potential as a non-invasive sub-clinical biomarker for adverse effects of mercury exposure, in screening or workplace monitoring.

Acetylcholinesterase inhibition as a biomarker of adverse effect: A study of Mytilus edulis exposed to the priority pollutant chlorfenvinphos

The inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity has been used widely as a biomarker of exposure to organophosphorous pesticides (OPs). However, scientific uncertainty about the risk assessment implications of data describing inhibition of cholinesterases in diverse species and tissues has hampered the use of AChE activity as a biomarker of adverse effect. Here, haemolymph AChE activity was combined with biomarkers of cellular integrity, immunotoxicity and physiological status in order to measure exposure to and the effects of the priority pollutant chlorfenvinphos. Laboratory exposures of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis to commercial grade chlorfenvinphos (Sapecron ®) were conducted over 24, 48 and 96 h. AChE activity in haemolymph of M. edulis was highly variable and bore no relationship to either sublethal effects or lethality over the range 0.003–0.03 mg/l chlorfenvinphos. In comparison, concentration dependent inhibition was evident for each of the remaining biomarkers (phagocytic activity, spontaneous cytotoxicity, neutral red retention time, total haemolymph protein). Mussels at the highest exposure concentration showed visual signs of neurotoxicity (impaired neuromuscular control). Haemocyte phagocytic activity and spontaneous cytotoxicity responses were highly sensitive to chlorfenvinphos with significant modulation evident after 24 h exposure to environmentally realistic concentrations of 0.007 mg/l ( P=0.0003). Thus the immune function and well being of the mussels was significantly impacted in the absence of measurable inhibition of haemolymph AChE.

Effects of estrogen on the stress response in CuSO 4-exposed PLHC-1 cells

As part of an effort to validate the use of heat shock proteins (hsp) as a biomarker of adverse effect, we investigated the impact of estrogen (E 2), the hormone responsible for vitellogenisis in fish, on the induction of hsp 60 and 70. PLHC-1 ( Pociliopsis lucida hepatoma cell line) cells were cultured under standard conditions and treated with either 16 ppm copper; a known inducer of hsp 60 and 70, 1 μM estradiol, a combination of copper and estradiol, or media alone. Copper induced both hsp 60 and 70 two fold, while E 2 alone had no effect. The combination of the copper and E 2 inhibited the hsp 70 response, indicated by a 51% decrease in cellular hsp 70 compared to the copper treatment alone. In contrast, the expression of hsp 60 in the cells exposed to the copper–estradiol mixture was not significantly different than that in the copper-exposed cells. The results suggest that the use of hsp 70 induction in fish liver as a biomarker of effect may be limited by the gender and sexual maturity of the fish.

Stress-protein response in tributyltin-exposed clams.

The heat-shock proteins (HSPs) or stress proteins are a family of diverse proteins containing both constitutive and stress-induced members (Hightower, 1991). Under normal conditions, these proteins are involved in the transport, folding and assembly of newly synthesised proteins; under adverse environmental situations, their synthesis increases and they act to repair and protect cellular proteins and to minimise protein aggregation (Cheng et al. 1989; Chiang et al. 1989; Martin et al. 1992; Kim et al. 1993). The most abundant and best studied groups are the 70 kDa (HSP70) stress protein family and the 60 kDa (HSP60) family. Both of them are known to be induced in response to a wide variety of physical and chemical stressors, including UV light, salinity, temperature, anoxia, but also oxidizing agents, heavy metals, and organic xenobiotics (Sanders, 1990). Thus, over the past decade, an increasing number of studies have explored the possibility of using HSPs as biomarkers of adverse effects at the cellular level and some authors have proposed that the induction and subsequent accumulation of HSPs may be useful in environmental monitoring (Sanders, 1990; Sanders and Martin, 1993). The use of HSPs as biomarkers has been assessed in laboratory and field experiments, and their induction by metals and other environmental contaminants or physical parameters has been demonstrated in molluscs (Hightower, 1993; Roberts et al. 1997).