Elucidating the physiological mechanisms underlying enhanced arsenic hyperaccumulation by glutathione modified superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in Isatis cappadocica.

Widespread arsenic (As) contamination is a severe environmental and public health concern. Isatis cappadocica, an arsenic hyperaccumulator, holds great potential to clean up As-contaminated soil and groundwater. Iron oxide is one of the most common metal oxides in the natural environment and its nanoparticulate form has been previously utilized for the removal of heavy metals/metalloids from wastewater. However, there is a paucity of information on the impact of iron oxide nanoparticles on the growth and physiological properties of I. cappadocica and its effectiveness on As removal. Current study reports for the first time the impact of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and glutathione (GSH) modified superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (nFe3O4 and nFe3O4@GSH) on the physiological characteristic of I. cappadocica and its accumulation of As under hydroponic condition. nFe3O4@GSH alleviated the harmful impact of As and significantly increased the shoot biomass of I. cappadocica by enhancing the plant defense mechanisms. The application of GSH, nFe3O4 and nFe3O4@GSH all lowered the As concentration in plant shoots as a protective mechanism. However, the substantial shoot biomass increase due to nFe3O4@GSH resulted in a 56% higher As accumulation in plant shoots than in plants exposed to As alone, indicating the strong effectiveness of nFe3O4@GSH as a novel enhancer of the As phytoremediation by I. cappadocica. Our data further showed that the beneficial effect of nFe3O4@GSH on As phytoremediation is due to the enhancement of activities of several enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants.

Protective effect of vitamin E against diabetes-induced oxidized LDL and aorta cell wall proliferation in rat.

UNLABELLED: Hyperlipidemia and oxidized-low-density lipoproteins (Ox-LDL) are important independent cardiovascular risk factors that have been shown to stimulate vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of vitamin E on Ox-LDL, lipid profile, C-reactive protein (CRP), and VSMC proliferation of rat aorta. METHODS: Male Wistar rats (n = 32) were divided into four groups namely: sham (SH), control (C), non-treated diabetic, and vitamin E-treated diabetic (VETD) groups. Ox-LDL, lipid profile, CRP and VSMC proliferation of aorta were measured after 42 days. RESULTS: The results revealed that along with a significant increase in VSMC proliferation, the amount of CRP, Ox-LDL, and lipid profiles in diabetic rats. VSMC proliferation was significantly ameliorated, and elevated CRP, Ox-LDL, and lipid profiles were also restored to those of shams in VETD. CONCLUSIONS: These findings strongly support the idea that diabetes induces Ox-LDL-mediated oxidative stress and VSMC proliferation in aorta of rat and imply that vitamin E has a strong protective effect as an antioxidant.

The Protective Effect of Vitamin E on Morphological and Biochemical Alteration Induced by Pre and Postnatal Ethanol Administration in the Testis of Male Rat Offspring: A Three Months Follow-up Study.

BACKGROUND: Dysmorphology and dysfunction caused by prenatal ethanol consumption in different organs of the offspring are wellknown phenomena. The objective of the present study was to explore the antioxidant effect of vitamin E supplementation on testis damage induced by maternal ethanol consumption during pregnancy and early postnatal days. METHODS: Pregnant Wistar rats on gestation day 7 were assigned to 3 groups, namely, control, ethanol and ethanol-vitamin E groups. Ethanol-treated rats received 4.5 g/kg BW ethanol once per day from day 7 and the procedure continued through postnatal day 21. Vitamin E group received 300 mg of vitamin E and the same amount of ethanol. The male offspring from each group were anesthetized by 10% chloral hydrate (0.5 ml/kg body weight) on day 21 and 90 (n=8 offspring form each group on day 21 and day 90). The results were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. A p<0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: The results revealed significant (p<0.05) changes in oxidative stress parameters, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone, as well as testis structural alteration in offspring of ethanol group after 21 and 90 days of birth as compared to the control. Significant amelioration of changes in testis structure, along with restoration of the elevated level of oxidative stress parameters were found in vitamin E-treated animals. CONCLUSION: The findings revealed that prenatal and postnatal ethanol-induced toxicity in testis was exerted through oxidative stress and implied that these effects could be alleviated by vitamin E as an antioxidant.

Vasoprotective effect of vitamin E: rescue of ethanol-induced atherosclerosis and inflammatory stress in rat vascular wall.

Chronic ethanol consumption increases the incidence of cardiovascular disease. The mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced susceptibility to cardiovascular disease continue to be defined. This study examines the hypothesis that chronic ethanol consumption plausibly induces vascular wall abnormalities via inflammatory reactions. In addition, it intends to find out whether vitamin E inhibits the abnormalities induced by ethanol in rats' vascular wall. Twenty four male Wistar rats were divided into three groups (n=8): Control ©, ethanol (E), and vitamin E treated ethanol (VETE) group. After 6weeks, the aortic and coronary wall changes, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), alpha-1 glycoprotein and haptoglobin amounts in plasma, C-reactive protein levels(CRP), as well as the amount of aortic IL-6 were evaluated. The results revealed the elevation of polymorphonuclear (PMN) leukocyte in the vascular wall, disorganization of endothelium with ballooning of cells, proliferation of vasa-vasorum with an increase in the IL-6, CRP, as well as a decrease in VEGF and an increase in alpha-1 glycoprotein and haptoglobin in the ethanol group compared to the control group. Significant amelioration of aortic and coronary wall changes, along with the restoration of elevated level of IL6, CRP, and the decreased level of VEGF compared to that of the controls were found in vitamin E-treated animals. These findings strongly support the idea that heavy and chronic ethanol consumption initiates atherosclerosis by inflammatory stress, and that these effects can be alleviated by vitamin E as an anti-inflammatory agent.

Kinetic study on the Cs(x)H(3-x)PW12O40/Fe-SiO2 nanocatalyst for biodiesel production.

The kinetic of the transesterification reaction over the Cs(x)H(3-x)PW12O40/Fe-SiO2 catalyst prepared using sol-gel and impregnation procedures was investigated in different operational conditions. Experimental conditions were varied as follows: reaction temperature 323-333 K, methanol/oil molar ratio = 12/1, and the reaction time 0-240 min. The H3PW12O40 heteropolyacid has recently attracted significant attention due to its potential for application in the production of biodiesel, in either homogeneous or heterogeneous catalytic conditions. Although fatty acids esterification reaction has been known for some time, data is still scarce regarding kinetic and thermodynamic parameters, especially when catalyzed by nonconventional compounds such as H3PW12O40. Herein, a kinetic study utilizing Gc-Mas in situ allows for evaluating the effects of operation conditions on reaction rate and determining the activation energy along with thermodynamic constants including ΔG, ΔS, and ΔH. It indicated that the Cs(x)H(3-x)PW12O40/Fe-SiO2 magnetic nanocatalyst can be easily recycled with a little loss by magnetic field and can maintain higher catalytic activity and higher recovery even after being used 5 times. Characterization of catalyst was carried out by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), N2 adsorption-desorption measurements methods, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).