The Pragmatic Strategy to Detect Endocrine-Disrupting Activity of Xenobiotics in Food

Endocrine-disrupting activity induced by xenobiotics might pose a possible health threat. Facing so many chemicals, there is an issue on how we detect them precisely and effectively. The whole embryo culture (WEC) test, an ex vivo exposure lasting 48 hours with rat embryos of 10.5 days old, is used to detect prenatal developmental toxicity. We extended the WEC function to detect the endocrine-disrupting activity induced by environmental chemicals. Results showed that in the development of rat embryo, basically 17ß-estradiol, triiodothyronine, triadimefon, penconazole, and propiconazole exhibited no significant effect on yolk sac circulatory system, allantois, flexion, heart caudal neural tube, hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain, otic system, optic system, olfactory system, maxillary process, forelimb, hind limb, yolk sac diameter, crown-rump length, head length, and developmental score. In the immunohistochemistry, the positive control of 17ß-estradiol showed positive effect for its receptor expressions. These three triazoles induced expressions of ERα and ERß in WEC. This result basically meets the mode of action that triazoles were designed to disrupt the synthesis of steroid hormone. Here we gave a strategy to detect possible endocrine-disrupting activity induced by xenobiotics in food. This strategy is quick to initiate the whole rat embryo culture with 10.5 days to detect the hormone receptors such as androgen, estrogen, thyroid, aromatase activity and its related receptors

Deltamethrin Alters Thyroid Hormones and Delays Pubertal Development in Male and Female Rats

Pyrethroid insecticides are suspected endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Deltamethrin has been reported to antagonize thyroid hormone receptor activity in a reporter assay. We hypothesized that deltamethrin alters thyroid function. Male and female rats were administered daily oral gavages with 0, 0.3, 1, or 3 mg/kg/day deltamethrin on postnatal days 23–53 and 22–42, respectively. Results showed that deltamethrin decreased the relative thyroid weight in 0.3 and 1 mg/kg/day in female but not in male rats. Although the histology and several parameters of thyroid were not affected, the decreased relative weight exhibited underlying meaning. Deltamethrin delayed the age of vaginal opening (VO) and increased body weight upon VO in 3 mg/kg/day. Deltamethrin failed to delay the age of preputial separation in male rats. In the respective of serum hormone concentration, deltamethrin increased 17β-estradiol (E2) with dose-dependent manner in female rats. The novel finding is that deltamethrin decreased thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in the female rats. In contrast, deltamethrin increased T3 and TSH but not in T4 in male rats. We inferred that deltamethrin disrupts thyroid hormone and might be related to estrogen receptor agonist. The future work is to investigate if deltamethrin disrupts the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis

Ginseng essence, a medicinal and edible herbal formulation, ameliorates carbon tetrachloride-induced oxidative stress and liver injury in rats

AbstractBackgroundGinseng essence (GE) is a formulation comprising four medicinal and edible herbs including ginseng (Panax ginseng), American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), lotus seed (Nelumbo nucifera), and lily bulb (Lilium longiflorum). This study was aimed at investigating the hepatoprotective effect of GE against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver injury in rats.MethodsWe treated Wistar rats daily with low, medium, and high [0.625 g/kg body weight (bw), 1.25 g/kg bw, and 3.125 g/kg bw, respectively] doses of GE for 9 wk. After the 1st wk of treatment, rats were administered 20% CCl4 (1.5 mL/kg bw) two times a week to induce liver damage until the treatment ended.ResultsSerum biochemical analysis indicated that GE ameliorated the elevation of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase and albumin decline in CCl4-treated rats. Moreover, CCl4-induced accumulation of hepatic total cholesterol and triglyceride was inhibited. The hepatoprotective effects of GE involved enhancing the hepatic antioxidant defense system including glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase. In addition, histological analysis using hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome staining showed that GE inhibited CCl4-induced hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. Furthermore, immunohistochemical staining of alpha-smooth muscle actin indicated that CCl4-triggered activation of hepatic stellate cells was reduced.ConclusionThese findings demonstrate that GE improves CCl4-induced liver inflammation and fibrosis by attenuating oxidative stress. Therefore, GE could be a promising hepatoprotective herbal formulation for future development of phytotherapy

(μ-6-Oxido-4-oxo-1,2-dihydro­pyrimidine-5-carboxyl­ato-κ4 O 5,O 6:O 2,N 3)bis­[aquabis­(4-oxido-2-oxo-1,2-dihydro­pyrimidin-3-ium-5-carboxyl­ato-κ2 O 4,O 5)­(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)neodymium(III)] hexa­hydrate

The water-coordinated neodymium(III) atom in the centrosymmetric title compound, [Nd2(C5H2N2O4)(C5H3N2O4)4(C12H8N2)2(H2O)2]·6H2O is chelated by a 1,10-phenanthroline heterocycle and two 2,4-dihydroxy­pyrimidine-5-carboxyl­ate dianions. Two tris-chelated water-coordinated units are bridged by a 2,4-dihydroxy­pyrimidine-5-carboxyl­ate dianion, which is disordered about a center of inversion. The metal center has a monocapped square-anti­prismatic coordination