Reproductive toxicity of seafood contaminants: Prospective comparisons of Swedish east and west coast fishermen's families

Cohorts comprising fishermen's families on the east coast of Sweden have been found to have a high consumption of contaminated fish as well as high body burdens of persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs). Their west coast correspondents are socio-economically similar, but with considerably lower POP exposure since the fish caught on the west coast is far less contaminated. The rationale for this was that the cohorts residing on the east coast of Sweden have been found to have a high consumption of contaminated fish as well as high body burdens of POPs, whereas their west coast correspondents are socio-economically similar, but with considerably lower POP exposure since the fish caught on the west coast is far less contaminated. Among the reproductive outcomes investigated are included both male and female parameters, as well as couple fertility and effects on the fetus. A range of exposure measures, including both questionnaire assessments of fish consumption and biomarkers, have been used

The reaction between aluminium and dimethyl ether Comparative study of density functional theory and EPR results

Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs) offer an attractive solution to the problem of globally unique identifiers for digital objects in biology. However, I suggest that in the context of taxonomic names, the most compelling benefit of adopting these identifiers comes from the metadata associated with each LSID. By using existing vocabularies wherever possible, and using a simple vocabulary for taxonomy-specific concepts we can quickly capture the essential information about a taxonomic name in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) format. This opens up the prospect of using technologies developed for the Semantic Web to add ``taxonomic intelligence" to biodiversity databases. This essay explores some of these ideas in the context of providing a taxonomic framework for the phylogenetic database TreeBASE

Age and exposure to arsenic alter base excision repair transcript levels in mice

Arsenic (As) induces DNA-damaging reactive oxygen species. Most oxidative DNA damage is countered by base excision repair (BER), the capacity for which may be reduced in older animals. We examined whether age and consumption of As in lactational milk or drinking water influences BER gene transcript levels in mice. Lactating mothers and 24-week-old mice were exposed (24 h or 2 weeks) to As (2 or 50 p.p.m.) in drinking water. Lung tissue was harvested from adults, neonates (initially 1 week old) feeding from lactating mothers and untreated animals 1– 26 weeks old. Transcripts encoding BER proteins were quantified. BER transcript levels decreased precipitously with age in untreated mice but increased in neonates whose mothers were exposed to 50 p.p.m. As for 24 h or 2 weeks. Treatment of 24-week-old mice with 2 or 50 p.p.m. As for 2 weeks decreased all transcript levels measured. Exposure to As attenuated the age-related transcript level decline for only one BER gene. We conclude that aging is associated with a rapid reduction of BER transcript levels in mice, which may contribute to decreased BER activity in older animals. Levels of As that can alter gene expression are transmitted to neonatal mice in lactational milk produced by mothers drinking water containing As, raising concerns about breastfeeding in countries having As-contaminated groundwater. Reduction of BER transcript levels in 24- week-old mice exposed to As for 2 weeks suggests As may potentiate sensitivity to itself in older animals

Toxicological Effects of Three Polybromodiphenyl Ethers (BDE-47, BDE-99 and BDE-154) on Growth of Marine Algae Isochrysis galbana

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are highly persistent anthropogenic contaminants found in trace amounts in many environmental compartments far from their source areas, posing a risk to aquatic ecosystems. Our objective was to determine the relative toxicities of three BDEs, BDE-47, BDE- 99 and BDE-154 on marine phytoplankton algae Isochrysis galbana. For a highly sensitive endpoint: the 72-h inhibition of autotrophic growth rate was calculated according to standards methods. Actual PBDE concentration was measured by GC-MS and toxicity parameters were calculated on the basis of time-weighted mean actual concentrations. No observable effect concentration (NOEC) values were 2.53 μg L−1 for BDE-47, 3.48 μg L−1 for BDE-99 and 12.3 μg L−1 for BDE-154, and LOEC values were 5.06, 6.96 and 24.60 μg L−1 for BDE-47, BDE-99 and BDE- 154, respectively. The calculated IC10 (the concentration inhibiting growth rate by 10 %) corresponded to 9.3, 12.78 and 54.6 μg L−1 for BDE-47, BDE-99 and BDE- 154, respectively. The 50 % inhibitions of growth rate (IC50) values were: 25.7 μg L−1 BDE-47, 30.0 μg L−1 BDE-99 and 243.7 μg L−1 BDE-154. Therefore, the acute toxicity of PBDEs decreases as the degree of bromination increases, the order of toxicity is BDE-47>BDE-99> BDE-154. Significant (p<0.05) adverse effects were observed for all compounds at concentrations >15 μg L−1. Our results indicated that under laboratory conditions PBDEs inhibited the growth of marine phytoplankton at concentrations near 10 μg L−1. However, further work is required to investigate long-term effects in these and other aquatic organisms.MAE-PCI MCINN CTM2009-10908Versión del editor1,748