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ABSTRACT Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a plasticizer of synthetic polymers, is a well-known endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) and reproductive toxicant. Addressing the unclear mechanism of DEHP-induced reproductive dysfunction, this study used GC-2spd cells to investigate the molecular mechanism involved in the DEHP-induced toxicity in the male reproductive system. The results indicated that the apoptotic cell death was significantly induced by DEHP exposure over 100 μM. Furthermore, DEHP treatment could induce oxidative stress in GC-2spd cells involving in the decrease of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity (200 μM) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity (50 and 100 μM). In addition, DEHP induction also caused the elevated ratios of Bax/Bcl-2, release of cytochrome c and decomposition of procaspase-3 and procaspase-9 in GC-2spd cells. Taken together, our work provided the evidence that DEHP exposure might induce apoptosis of GC-2spd cells via mitochondria pathway mediated by oxidative stress. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 32: 1055-1064, 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To establish the method to determine S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) in human urine, and the method was actually applied to determine S-PMA concentrations in the human urine from subjects occupationally exposed to benzene., Methods: After the urine samples are hydrolyzed by acidification, and modulated to suitable pH value. S-PMA is obtained by liquid-liquid extraction and separated by HPLC. Use negative ion mode electric spray ion source MS to measure, and select the molecular ion peak m/z 238 and quantitative analysis is performed by peak area., Results: This method has good linear in the range of 5-320 microg/L, and r = 0.9994 +/- 0.0003, and the detection limit is 1.2 microg/L (S/N = 3), recovery percentage is 86.8%-94.2%. Both the intra- and inter-day precisions are less than 7%. Use this method to measure the S-PMA in the end-of-shift urine of 55 workers occupationally exposed to benzene and perform the regression analysis for the S-PMA concentration and the benzene concentration in air (r = 0.8035, P < 0.05)., Conclusion: The method established by this research is rapid, sensitive and selective, and the results are accurate and reliable.

Background: Survivin, expressed in almost all types of human malignancies, functions as a key factor in radioresistance primarily by inhibiting apoptosis. This study was conducted to investigate whether survivin plays a role in the DNA repair process in the KB human squamous cell carcinoma cell line., Materials and Methods: A stable KB cell line overexpressing survivin was established through the use of pIRES2-EGFP vector containing the coding region of survivin. Cells were then irradiated with X-rays and evaluated for DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by comet assay and flow cytometry for phospho-histone gammaH2AX. The protein levels of some DSB repair genes were detected by Western blotting analysis., Results: Comet assay and flow cytometry for phospho-histone gammaH2AX showed that overexpression of survivin resulted in significantly fewer DSBs in irradiated cells. Among the DSB repair genes detected, the protein level of Ku70 was up-regulated in survivin-overexpressing KB cells., Conclusion: This finding suggests that survivin may enhance DSB repair capability in KB cells by up-regulating Ku70.

Since urinary S-phenylmercapturic acid concentration could be well related to benzene exposure, it could be a sensitive and specific biomarker of low-level benzene exposure. SPMA may be determined by HPLC, LC/MS, GC/MS and ELISA methods. The abroad methods of determination of urinary SPMA were reviewed in detail in recently years and the validation and application of urinary SPMA as a biomarker for occupation benzene exposure were evaluated.

Human MTH1, an oxidized purine nucleoside triphosphatase, hydrolyzes 8-oxo-dGTP thereby preventing its misincorporation into DNA. The present study was designed to investigate a possible link between the MTH1 Ile45Thr polymorphism and the development of sporadic Parkinson disease (PD). This case-control study consisted of 106 PD patients and 135 unrelated controls. MTH1 polymorphism was detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The results showed that Ile45/Thr45 heterozygote and Thr45 allele tended to be more frequent in sporadic PD, although statistically not significant (0.085 vs. 0.044, corrected p = 0.591 and 0.052 vs. 0.022, p = 0.080, respectively). Stratification analysis by gender showed that Ile45/Thr45 heterozygote tended to be more frequent in male PD patients than in male controls (0.113 vs. 0.038, corrected p = 0.480). The male PD patients exhibited a borderline statistically significant higher frequency of the Thr45 allele than the controls (0.073 vs. 0.019, corrected p = 0.050). These results suggested to us that the Thr45 allele of MTH1 might be associated with sporadic PD in the Chinese male population., ((c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel)

A method for the determination of urinary trans, trans-muconic acid (tt-MA) (benzene metabolite) by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed. The separation was carried out on a C18 column (Spherisorb C18, 150 mm x 4.6 mm i. d. , 5 microm) at 25 degrees C with glacial acetic acid-tetrahydrofuran-methanol-water (1 : 2 : 10: 87, v/v) as mobile phase. Urinary sample was acidified by 2 mol/L hydrochloric acid and pretreated by liquid-liquid extraction using diethyl ether. After removal of diethyl ether with a stream of nitrogen, the residue was re-dissolved in 1 mL of mobile phase for HPLC injection. Good linearity was observed within the range from 0.10 mg/L to 10.00 mg/L (r =0.9999) and the detection limit was 0.10 mg/L. The average recoveries for tt-MA were 95.1%-100.5%. Relative standard deviations (RSD) for intra-day and inter-day determinations were 4.0%-9.0% and 6.2%-8.8%, respectively. The method was applied to 56 benzene-exposed workers and 24 controll workers. Urinary tt-MA in benzen-exposed workers were significantly higher than that in the control group. They can be correlated with benzene exposure concentrations (P <0.01). This analytical method for tt-MA is sensitive, rapid, and convenient. It is suitable for monitoring of occupational exposure to benzene and toxic kinetics studies.