Toxicodynamics of promethryne herbicide in mouse spleen

U ekološkim sustavima antropogenim su djelovanjem unešeni raznoliki herbicidi, u pravilu štetni i za zdravlje ljudi. Prometrin se ubraja u metiltiotriazinske herbicide, malo je do umjereno toksičan spoj i selektivni pesticid opće namjene. Njegovi su imunotoksični učinci do sada nedovoljno istraženi, a toksikodinamika nejasna. Slezena je kao dio imunološkog sustava meta imunotoksičnog djelovanja pesticida i nekih karcinogena, i stoga često ciljni organ u toksikološkim studijama. Kako bi se utvrdila koncentracija prometrina, nakon žrtvovanja i razudbe tretiranih životinja uzorci slezene analizirani su metodom vezanog sustava plinske kromatografije-spektrometrije masa. Utvrđena je realna bioraspoloživa koncentracija prometrina kojoj su izloženi splenociti tijekom 1, 6, 24 i 48 sati. Zaključak je da slezena s obzirom na akutnu unešenu dozu od 375 mg kg-1 (1/10 LD50) nema bioakumulativni potencijal za prometrin. Razlike među spolovima nisu vidljive u svim kinetičkim fazama, no upućuju na razlike u metaboliziranju prometrina ovisno o spolu. Rezultati toksikodinamike prometrina u slezeni mogu se neposredno koristiti za procjenu rizika alometrijskim metodama usporedbom na drugim vrstama i čovjeku.A variety of herbicides is discharged into ecological systems as a consequence of human activity. Promethryne is one of the methiltiotriazine herbicides. This selective pesticide of common use is slightly to moderately toxic. It's immunotoxic effects and toxicodynamics have been poorely studied so far. Spleen is one of the target sites of immunotoxic effects caused by pesticides or some carcinogens. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry assay was applied to detect promethryne concentrations in spleen samples of acutely treated mice after 1st, 6th, 24th and 48th hour post exposure. Bioavailable concentrations of promethryne in spleen were indentified. The spleen bioaccumulation potential was not significant after single oral 375 mg kg-1 (1/10 LD50) dose. Sex differences could not be detected during each kinetic phase, but do indicate sex dependent differences in promethryne metabolic processing. Results of promethryne toxicodynamics analysis in spleen can be applied to risk assessment via alometric scaling from animal to humans

Toxicodynamics of promethryne herbicide in mouse spleen

U ekološkim sustavima antropogenim su djelovanjem unešeni raznoliki herbicidi, u pravilu štetni i za zdravlje ljudi. Prometrin se ubraja u metiltiotriazinske herbicide, malo je do umjereno toksičan spoj i selektivni pesticid opće namjene. Njegovi su imunotoksični učinci do sada nedovoljno istraženi, a toksikodinamika nejasna. Slezena je kao dio imunološkog sustava meta imunotoksičnog djelovanja pesticida i nekih karcinogena, i stoga često ciljni organ u toksikološkim studijama. Kako bi se utvrdila koncentracija prometrina, nakon žrtvovanja i razudbe tretiranih životinja uzorci slezene analizirani su metodom vezanog sustava plinske kromatografije-spektrometrije masa. Utvrđena je realna bioraspoloživa koncentracija prometrina kojoj su izloženi splenociti tijekom 1, 6, 24 i 48 sati. Zaključak je da slezena s obzirom na akutnu unešenu dozu od 375 mg kg-1 (1/10 LD50) nema bioakumulativni potencijal za prometrin. Razlike među spolovima nisu vidljive u svim kinetičkim fazama, no upućuju na razlike u metaboliziranju prometrina ovisno o spolu. Rezultati toksikodinamike prometrina u slezeni mogu se neposredno koristiti za procjenu rizika alometrijskim metodama usporedbom na drugim vrstama i čovjeku.A variety of herbicides is discharged into ecological systems as a consequence of human activity. Promethryne is one of the methiltiotriazine herbicides. This selective pesticide of common use is slightly to moderately toxic. It's immunotoxic effects and toxicodynamics have been poorely studied so far. Spleen is one of the target sites of immunotoxic effects caused by pesticides or some carcinogens. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry assay was applied to detect promethryne concentrations in spleen samples of acutely treated mice after 1st, 6th, 24th and 48th hour post exposure. Bioavailable concentrations of promethryne in spleen were indentified. The spleen bioaccumulation potential was not significant after single oral 375 mg kg-1 (1/10 LD50) dose. Sex differences could not be detected during each kinetic phase, but do indicate sex dependent differences in promethryne metabolic processing. Results of promethryne toxicodynamics analysis in spleen can be applied to risk assessment via alometric scaling from animal to humans

Procjena rizika za nastanak karcinoma zbog izloženosti malim dozama ionizirajućeg zračenja

Although ionising radiation has proven beneficial in the diagnosis and therapy of a number of diseases, one should keep in mind that irradiating healthy tissue may increase the risk of cancer. In order to justify an exposure to radiation, both the benefits and the risks must be evaluated and compared. The deleterious effects of medium and high doses are well known, but it is much less clear what effects arise from low doses (below 0.1 Gy), which is why such risk estimates are extremely important. This review presents the current state, important assumptions and steps being made in deriving cancer risk estimates for low dose exposures.Unatoč velikoj važnosti i koristi ionizirajućeg zračenja u dijagnosticiranju i liječenju mnogih bolesti, treba imati na umu da se ozračivanjem zdravog tkiva može povećati rizik od karcinoma. Stoga je vrlo važno znati kakve rizike možemo očekivati ovisno o primljenoj dozi zračenja. Za razliku od područja srednjih i velikih doza za koje su štetni učinci dobro poznati, područje malih doza (ispod 0,1 Gy) puno je nejasnoća, a procjena rizika vrlo je važna. U ovom radu prikazane su osnovne pretpostavke i koraci u procjeni rizika od karcinoma uzrokovanih zračenjem u području malih doza

Habitat productivity constrains the distribution of social spiders across continents – case study of the genus Stegodyphus

INTRODUCTION: Sociality has evolved independently multiple times across the spider phylogeny, and despite wide taxonomic and geographical breadth the social species are characterized by a common geographical constrain to tropical and subtropical areas. Here we investigate the environmental factors that drive macro-ecological patterns in social and solitary species in a genus that shows a Mediterranean–Afro-Oriental distribution (Stegodyphus). Both selected drivers (productivity and seasonality) may affect the abundance of potential prey insects, but seasonality may further directly affect survival due to mortality caused by extreme climatic events. Based on a comprehensive dataset including information about the distribution of three independently derived social species and 13 solitary congeners we tested the hypotheses that the distribution of social Stegodyphus species relative to solitary congeners is: (1) restricted to habitats of high vegetation productivity and (2) constrained to areas with a stable climate (low precipitation seasonality). RESULTS: Using spatial logistic regression modelling and information-theoretic model selection, we show that social species occur at higher vegetation productivity than solitary, while precipitation seasonality received limited support as a predictor of social spider occurrence. An analysis of insect biomass data across the Stegodyphus distribution range confirmed that vegetation productivity is positively correlated to potential insect prey biomass. CONCLUSIONS: Habitat productivity constrains the distribution of social spiders across continents compared to their solitary congeners, with group-living in spiders being restricted to areas with relatively high vegetation productivity and insect prey biomass. As known for other taxa, permanent sociality likely evolves in response to high predation pressure and imposes within-group competition for resources. Our results suggest that group living is contingent upon productive environmental conditions where elevated prey abundance meet the increased demand for food of social groups

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY MASS INDEX AND ASTHMA

Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. Obesity is the most common comorbidity of asthma and is connected to incidence and course of the disease. Obesity is associated with non-allergic asthma phenotype, but t his relation could be influenced by gender. The aim of our study was to determine the relationship between BMI and asthma and to explore possible gender differences. Subjects and methods: Study included 149 patients with asthma (examined group) and 153 healthy blood donors (control group). Data from the medical records of patients with asthma were used, and all included subjects had their BMI calculated usi ng standard formula. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics methods. Data with non-parametric distribution were analysed with Mann-Whitney U test and showed through medians with corresponding interquartile ranges. Statistical significance of BMI differences between non-allergic asthma, allergic asthma and control groups were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance - ANOVA. The results were interpreted at a significance level of P<0.05. Results: The comparison between median BMI values of two groups shows that examined group of patients with astma has significantly higher median BMI value in comparison with control group (P=0.035). Correlation was stronger for women than men (P=0.002 vs P=0.898). Incresed BMI of the examined group of patients with asthma was not asociated with non-allergic asthma (P=0.085). However, when stratified according to gender, there was a strong association of increased BMI with non-allergic asth ma in women (P<0.001). Conclusion: Patients with asthma in our study have higher BMI in comparison to healthy individuals, which contributes to hypothesis that BMI is a risk factor for development of asthma. We found that possible effect that BMI has on asthma is stronge r in women, since there was a strong association between increased BMI and non-allergic asthma only in women

Review of the thermoluminescent dosimetry method for the environmental dose monitoring

Passive solid state dosimeters, such as thermoluminescence dosimeters, provide integrated measurement of the total dose and are widely used in environmental monitoring programs. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review on the use of thermoluminescent dosimetry methods for monitoring radiation dose in the environment. The article presents the part of the research results of the project PREPAREDNESS (EMPIR 2016 call for Metrology for Environment joint research project) with a particular objective to harmonize procedures used by dosimetry services, relevant authorities and Institutes across the Europe. To achieve this, different monitoring routines that are based on passive environ mental dosimetry methods are investigated. Differences in performing specific steps such as preheating, reading, annealing, minimizing fading, and others, are analyzed. The investigation was performed by means of qualitative literature review that showed the lack of information about specific steps. The conclusion of this work is that thermoluminescent dosimetry measurement system has to be type-tested even though the testing procedure is complicated. In addition to this, control dosimeters should be introduced, International Organization for Standardization protocols should be followed during calibration, and finally, parameters influencing the measurement uncertainty have to be identified and well understood in order to pro duce ac cu rate dose measurement results

Vremenska dinamika antioksidansa i lipidne peroksidacije u jetri kokošjeg embrija nakon izlaganja niskoj dozi gama-zračenja

The effects were measured of low-doses of gamma radiation within 24 hours after irradiation on the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and levels of glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxide concentrations (malondialdehyde, MDA) in embryonic chick liver. The chick embryos were irradiated with doses of gamma radiation of 0.05, 0.15, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.8 Gy at the dose rate of 0.0117 Gy/s on day 19 of incubation. All parameters were measured 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours after irradiation by spectrophotometry, apart from the level of lipid peroxidation, which was assessed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A versatile analysis of the data was made and it consisted of: 1) a comparison of the means of antioxidant enzyme activities and GSH and MDA concentrations for each radiation dose and the time after irradiation with the corresponding control samples; 2) research into the temporal dynamics of enzyme activities and concentrations a) for each value of radiation dose and b) when the data for radiation doses were merged, i.e. regardless of the radiation doses. A significant increase in GSH- Px activities in time after irradiation was found in dose intervals from 0.05 to 0.5 Gy, which was well described by linear function. This is a highly reliable result, because it was obtained as a result of all the analyses applied. For other parameters, we did not find any dependence of activities and concentrations on time. The analysis of comparison of means of the irradiated and control samples gave statistically significant results for some dose-time pairs.U ovom je radu istražen učinak malih doza gama-zračenja na aktivnost glutation-peroksidaze (GSH-Px), superoksid-dismutaze (SOD), katalaze (CAT) te koncentraciju glutationa (GSH) i malondialdehida (MDA) u jetri kokošjih zametaka. Kokošji su zametci ozračeni dozom od 0,05, 0,15, 0,3, 0,5 i 0,8 Gy gama-zračenja i brzinom doze od 0,0117 Gy/s 19. dana inkubacije. Aktivnost GSH-Px, SOD, CAT i GSH određena je spektrofotometrijski dok je koncentracija MDA određena tekućinskom kromatografijom visoke učinkovitosti (HPLC). Svi su pokazatelji određivani 1, 3, 6, 12 i 24 sata nakon ozračivanja a rezultati su obrađeni različitim statističkim metodama pri: 1) usporedbi prosječnih vrijednosti svih pokazatelja pokusne s odgovarajućom kontrolnom skupinom; 2) određivanju vremenske dinamike za sve vrijednosti promatranih pokazatelja kada su bile: a) ovisne o dozi zračenja i b) neovisne o dozi zračenja tj. kada su vrijednosti pokazatelja svih doza bile međusobno spojene. Aktivnost GSH-Px u ozračenih kokošijih zametaka bila je značajno povećana primjenom svih statističkih metoda u rasponu doza od 0,05 Gy do 0,5 Gy te je imala linearnu funkciju. Rezultati ostalih pokazatelja nisu pokazali promjene vrijednosti tijekom vremena promatranja