Evaluation of oxidative stress biomarkers in patients with chronic renal failure: a case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Oxidative stress is related to several diseases, including chronic renal insufficiency. The disequilibrium in the oxidant-antioxidant balance is the result of several metabolic changes. The majority of studies to-date have evaluated the grade of oxidative stress with a single biomarker, or a very limited number of them.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The present study used several important biomarkers to establish a score relating to oxidative stress status (glutathione S-transferase, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, reduced and oxidized glutathione, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and hemolysis test). The score of oxidative stress (SOS) was then applied to a group of patients with renal insufficiency not on hemodialysis, and compared to healthy control individuals.</p> <p>The score for patients with chronic renal insufficiency was significantly different from that of the healthy control group (0.62 ± 1.41 vs. -0.05 ± 0.94; p < 0.001). The comparison between patients with chronic renal insufficiency and control individuals showed significant differences with respect to changes in the enzymatic antioxidant systems (glutathione S-transferase, glutathione reductase), non-enzymatic antioxidant system (oxidized glutathione) and oxidizability (hemolysis test) indicating significant oxidative stress associated with chronic renal insufficiency.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Patients with chronic renal insufficiency not on hemodialysis are susceptible to oxidative stress. The mechanisms that underlie this status are the consequence of changes in glutathione and related enzymes. The SOS scoring system is a useful biochemical parameter to evaluate the influence of oxidative stress on the clinical status of these patients.</p

Co-occurrence of aflatoxins, ochratoxin A and zearalenone in breakfast cereals from spanish market

Forty-six breakfast cereal samples from the Spanish market have been analyzed for the occurrence of aflatoxins (AFB1, AFG1, AFB2 and AFG2), ochratoxin A (OTA) and zearalenone (ZEA). According to the results, 9% of the samples were contaminated with AFB1 although no sample exceeded the LOQ (0.2 μg kg-1), and no sample presented detectable levels of the other aflatoxins (AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2). Zearalenone and OTA contaminated 48 and 39% of the samples, respectively, with mean values of the samples having quantification levels of 25.40 and 0.37 μg kg-1, respectively. The co23 occurrence of OTA and ZEA was observed in 28% of the samples. Aflatoxin B1 appeared only in the corn-based breakfast cereals, whereas ZEA and OTA showed the highest contamination rates in the samples containing wheat and wheat and rice, respectively. No sample of high-fiber content was contaminated with AFB1, whereas OTA and ZEA occurred with higher incidence in high-fiber content samples. Moreover, the daily exposure to AFB1, OTA and ZEA is discussed

A Review of Waste Management Decision Support Tools and Their Ability to Assess Circular Biowaste Management Systems

The circular economy concept offers a number of solutions to increasing amounts of biowaste and resource scarcity by valorising biowaste. However, it is necessary to consistently address the environmental benefits and impacts of circular biowaste management systems (CBWMS). Various decision support tools (DST) for environmental assessment of waste management systems (WMS) exist. This study provides a review of life cycle assessment based WMS-DSTs. Twenty-five WMS-DSTs were identified and analysed through a shortlisting procedure. Eight tools were shortlisted for the assessment of their applicability to deliver sustainability assessment of CBWMS. It was found that six tools model key properties that are necessary for assessing the environmental sustainability of CBWMSs, including waste-specific modelling of gaseous emissions, biogas generation or bioproduct composition. However, only two tools consider both waste-specific heavy metals content in bioproducts and the associated implications when applied on soil. Most of the shortlisted tools are flexible to simulate new technologies involved in CBWMS. Nevertheless, only two tools allow importing directly new background data, which is important when modelling substitution of new bioproducts developed in emerging biowaste refineries