Biomonitoring of complex occupational exposures to carcinogens: The case of sewage workers in Paris

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sewage workers provide an essential service in the protection of public and environmental health. However, they are exposed to varied mixtures of chemicals; some are known or suspected to be genotoxics or carcinogens. Thus, trying to relate adverse outcomes to single toxicant is inappropriate. We aim to investigate if sewage workers are at increased carcinogenic risk as evaluated by biomarkers of exposure and early biological effects.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>This cross sectional study will compare exposed sewage workers to non-exposed office workers. Both are voluntaries from Paris municipality, males, aged (20–60) years, non-smokers since at least six months, with no history of chronic or recent illness, and have similar socioeconomic status. After at least 3 days of consecutive work, blood sample and a 24-hour urine will be collected. A caffeine test will be performed, by administering coffee and collecting urines three hours after. Subjects will fill in self-administered questionnaires; one covering the professional and lifestyle habits while the a second one is alimentary. The blood sample will be used to assess DNA adducts in peripheral lymphocytes. The 24-hour urine to assess urinary 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydro-2'-deoxy-Guanosine (8-oxo-dG), and the in vitro genotoxicity tests (comet and micronucleus) using HeLa S3 or HepG2 cells. In parallel, occupational air sampling will be conducted for some Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Volatile Organic Compounds. A weekly sampling chronology at the offices of occupational medicine in Paris city during the regular medical visits will be followed. This protocol has been accepted by the French Est III Ethical Comitee with the number 2007-A00685-48.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Biomarkers of exposure and of early biological effects may help overcome the limitations of environmental exposure assessment in very complex occupational or environmental settings.</p

WSES guidelines for management of Clostridium difficile infection in surgical patients

In the last two decades there have been dramatic changes in the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), with increases in incidence and severity of disease in many countries worldwide. The incidence of CDI has also increased in surgical patients. Optimization of management of C difficile, has therefore become increasingly urgent. An international multidisciplinary panel of experts prepared evidenced-based World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) guidelines for management of CDI in surgical patients.Peer reviewe

Fin modules: an evolutionary perspective on appendage disparity in basal vertebrates

Abstract Background Fishes are extremely speciose and also highly disparate in their fin configurations, more specifically in the number of fins present as well as their structure, shape, and size. How they achieved this remarkable disparity is difficult to explain in the absence of any comprehensive overview of the evolutionary history of fish appendages. Fin modularity could provide an explanation for both the observed disparity in fin configurations and the sequential appearance of new fins. Modularity is considered as an important prerequisite for the evolvability of living systems, enabling individual modules to be optimized without interfering with others. Similarities in developmental patterns between some of the fins already suggest that they form developmental modules during ontogeny. At a macroevolutionary scale, these developmental modules could act as evolutionary units of change and contribute to the disparity in fin configurations. This study addresses fin disparity in a phylogenetic perspective, while focusing on the presence/absence and number of each of the median and paired fins. Results Patterns of fin morphological disparity were assessed by mapping fin characters on a new phylogenetic supertree of fish orders. Among agnathans, disparity in fin configurations results from the sequential appearance of novel fins forming various combinations. Both median and paired fins would have appeared first as elongated ribbon-like structures, which were the precursors for more constricted appendages. Among chondrichthyans, disparity in fin configurations relates mostly to median fin losses. Among actinopterygians, fin disparity involves fin losses, the addition of novel fins (e.g., the adipose fin), and coordinated duplications of the dorsal and anal fins. Furthermore, some pairs of fins, notably the dorsal/anal and pectoral/pelvic fins, show non-independence in their character distribution, supporting expectations based on developmental and morphological evidence that these fin pairs form evolutionary modules. Conclusions Our results suggest that the pectoral/pelvic fins and the dorsal/anal fins form two distinct evolutionary modules, and that the latter is nested within a more inclusive median fins module. Because the modularity hypotheses that we are testing are also supported by developmental and variational data, this constitutes a striking example linking developmental, variational, and evolutionary modules.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136630/1/12915_2017_Article_370.pd