[Influencing factors for reproductive health of female workers in petrochemical industry].

Objective: To investigate the reproductive health status of female workers in petrochemical industry, and to provide a reference for improving reproductive health status and developing preventive and control measures for female workers in petrochemical industry. Methods: A face-to-face questionnaire survey was performed from January to October, 2016. The Questionnaire on Women's Reproductive Health was used to investigate the reproductive health of female workers in petrochemical industry. The multivariate logistic regression model was used to identify the influencing factors for reproductive health of female workers in petrochemical industry. Results: Among the 7485 female workers, 1 268 (40.9%) had abnormal menstrual period, 1 437 (46.4%) had abnormal menstrual volume, 177 (28.5%) had hyperplasia of mammary glands, and 1 807 (24.6%) had gynecological inflammation. The reproductive system diseases in female workers in petrochemical industry were associated with the factors including age, marital status, education level, unhealthy living habits, abortion, overtime work, work shift, workload, video operation, occupational exposure, positive events, and negative events, and among these factors, negative events (odds ratio[OR]= 1.856) , unhealthy living habits (OR=1.542) , and positive events (OR=1.516) had greater impact on reproductive system diseases. Conclusion: Many chemical substances in the occupational environment of petrochemical industry can cause damage to the reproductive system, which not only affects the health of the female workers, but also poses potential threats to the health of their offspring. Occupational exposure, unhealthy living habits, overtime work, and work shift have great influence on reproductive system diseases in female workers.

Leaf defense system of Robinia pseudoacacia L. seedlings exposed to 3years of elevated atmospheric CO2 and Cd-contaminated soils.

Short-term exposure to elevated CO2 increases cadmium (Cd) uptake in some plant species (wheat, poplars, and willows), which triggers an increase in antioxidative system activity to deal with additional reactive oxygen species that are generated. Here, we examined leaf defenses in Robinia pseudoacacia L. seedlings exposed to elevated CO2+Cd for 3years. Three years of elevated CO2 decreased Cd uptake into leaves and the Cd content in soils and increased the pH of rhizosphere soil relative to ambient CO2. In plants exposed to Cd stress, leaf chlorophyll content was greater under elevated CO2 than under ambient CO2. Superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase activity increased, glutathione content increased, and malondialdehyde and phytochelatins contents decreased under elevated CO2+Cd relative to Cd alone. Proline, soluble sugars, flavonoids, saponins, and phenolic acids contents were greater under elevated CO2+Cd than under Cd alone, and condensed tannin content was lower. Overall, long-term elevation of CO2 enhanced the leaf defense system of R. pseudoacacia exposed to Cd by stimulating antioxidant enzyme activity, osmotic adjustment, and the production of glutathione, flavonoids and phenolic acids. Future research should focus on understanding the mechanisms involved in the decrease in Cd uptake into leaves and Cd content in soils and the increase in rhizosphere soil pH under long-term exposure to elevated CO2.

Reduced prostate cancer risk with green tea and epigallocatechin 3-gallate intake among Hong Kong Chinese men.

BACKGROUND: In vitro and in vivo studies suggested that polyphenol epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG) in tea may have anti-carcinogenic effect on prostate cells, but this protective effect has less been examined in epidemiology studies. We aimed to investigate the association between prostate cancer (PCA) risk and habitual green tea intake among Chinese men in Hong Kong; meanwhile, the relationship with EGCG was also explored. METHODS: We consecutively recruited 404 PCA cases and 395 controls from the same hospital who had complete data on habitual tea consumption, including green, oolong, black and pu'er tea. We reconstructed the level of EGCG intake according to a standard questionnaire and the analytic values for EGCG extracted from the literature published by Lin et al. in 2003. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) for tea consumption and EGCG intake using unconditional multiple logistic regression, and examined their exposure--response relationships with PCA risk. RESULTS: A total of 32 cases and 50 controls reported habitual green tea drinking, showing an adjusted OR of 0.60 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.37, 0.98). A moderate excess risk was observed among the habitual pu'er tea drinkers (OR=1.44, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.91). A significantly lower intake of EGCG was observed among cases (54.4 mg) than the controls (72.5 mg), which resulted in an inverse gradient of PCA risk with the increasing intake of EGCG (test for trend, P=0.015). CONCLUSION: PCA risk among Chinese men in Hong Kong was inversely associated with green tea consumption and EGCG intake, but these results need to be replicated in larger studies.

Activation of PPARγ is required for hydroxysafflor yellow A of Carthamus tinctorius to attenuate hepatic fibrosis induced by oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress caused hepatic fibrosis by activating hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), which were implemented by depressing PPARγ activation. Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) as a nature active ingredient with antioxidant capacity was able to effectively attenuate oxidative stress mediated injury. So it will be very interesting to study effect of HSYA on HSCs activation and liver fibrosis, and reveal the role of PPARγ·CCl4 and H2O2 were used to mimic oxidative stress mediated hepatic injury in vitro and in vivo respectively. The anti-fibrosis effects of HSYA were evaluated and its mechanisms were disclosed by applying western blot, histopathological analysis, flow cytometry, RT-PCR and ELISA. Our results showed that HSCs activation and proliferation could be induced by oxidative stress, and the expressive levels of TGF-ß1 and TIMP-1, the serum levels of ALT, AST, HA, LN, III-C and IV-C were also enhanced by oxidative stress, which is correlated with liver fibrosis (p<0.05 or p<0.01). HSYA was able to effectively inhibit oxidative stress mediated hepatic injury by increasing the activities of antioxidant enzymes, up regulating the expression of PPARγ and MMP-2, and down regulating the expression of TGF-ß1 and TIMP-1, and reducing α-SMA level. The protective effect of HSYA can be significantly attenuated by GW9662 via blocking PPARγ (p<0.05 or p<0.01). Taken together, these results demonstrate that HSYA is able to significantly protect the liver from oxidative stress, which requires for HSYA to stimulate PPARγ activity, reduce cell proliferation and suppress ECM synthesis.

Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects of cherries on Freund's adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects of anthocyanins from cherries on Freund's adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) in rats. METHODS: Arthritis was induced intradermally by injection with 0.1 mL of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) into the right hind footpad of male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Anthocyanins at 40, 20 and 10 mg/kg (body weight) were administered orally to the treated rats for 28 days after the injection. Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) in serum and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in paws were assayed by radioimmunoassay (RIA), and anti-oxidative effects was assayed by measuring total anti-oxidative capacity (T-AOC), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum. RESULTS: Anthocyanins at 40 mg/kg significantly decreased the levels of TNFalpha in serum and PGE2 in paws, simultaneously improving the anti-oxidative status of AIA. We found that at this dosage T-AOC was potentized, the activity of SOD increased and the level of MDA in serum decreased. However, anthocyanins at 20 and 10 mg/kg had less effect on the inflammatory factors and anti-oxidative capacity of AIA. CONCLUSIONS: Anthocyanins have potential anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects on AIA.

Effect of stachyose supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and caecal fermentation characteristics in broilers.

1. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the oligosaccharide stachyose enhances gastrointestinal tract health by fermentation and proliferation of desirable bacteria species and thus affects growth performance and nutrient digestibility in broilers. 2. A total of 432 1-d-old male Arbor Acres (AA) broilers were randomly allocated to one of 6 treatments, with 12 replicate pens per treatment and 6 birds per pen. Chicks were fed a maize-hamlet protein 300 (HP300) basal diet with 0, 4.0, 8.0, 12.0 or 16.0 g/kg stachyose. A sixth diet contained no HP300 but soybean meal (SBM) and provided 8.7 g/kg stachyose and 3.1 g/kg raffinose. The duration of the study was 42 d. 3. Stachyose contents above 12.0 g/kg depressed group body weights, average daily gain and feed/gain but not feed intake during the whole experimental period. Broiler growth decreased linearly and quadratically with increasing stachyose content. No differences were detected between diets supplemented with 12.0 g/kg stachyose and SBM. 4. Nutrient digestibility tended to decrease but not significantly with increasing stachyose. 5. Stachyose content had no significant positive effects on caecal pH, microflora population and the resulting short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) metabolites during the 42 d experiment, with only butyrate differing significantly in the initial period.

Antiviral amentoflavone from Selaginella sinensis.

Amentoflavone and three other flavonoids were isolated from the ethanol extract of Selaginella sinensis. Amentoflavone showed potent antiviral activity against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), with an IC50 of 5.5 microg/ml. The contents of amentoflavone in nine species of Selaginella were determined by reversed-phase HPLC. S. sinensis showed a higher content of 1.13%.

[Chemical constituents from the fruit of Rosa bella Rehd. et Wils].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the chemical constituents from the fruit of Rosa bella and its bioactivity. METHOD: The compounds were isolated from the methanol extract by column chromatography, then identified by 1H, 13C NMR and by comparison with authentic samples. The unorganized hoptoad heart was used for testing the contracting force of cardiac muscle and enzymology for measuring the bloody lipid of serum in rats. RESULT: Seven compounds were isolated and identified as pomolic acid, tiliroside, euscaphic acid, daucosterol, quercetin, oleanolic acid and beta-sitosterol, respectively. In the concentration of 0.4-1.0 mg.ml-1, the methanol extract had obvious cardiotonic effect. While at 400 mg.kg-1, there are no obvious effect to the TC, HDL-ac and TG of serum in rats. CONCLUSION: The isolated compounds may be the active components of this plant.

[Significance on deformability of red blood cells and peripheral microcirculation analysis in "disease" and "syndrome" diagnosis].

Following the principle of Syndrome study in TCM, parallel control groups were set up according to "the same disease with different Syndromes" and "different disease with the same Syndrome", the significance on deformability of red blood cells and peripheral microcirculation analysis in "disease" and "Syndrome" diagnosis were explored. Results showed: the both parameters were not characteristics of "disease" diagnosis, but were characteristics of "Syndrome" diagnosis. It suggested that: both "disease" and "Syndrome" reflected pathophysiological state of human body in disorder, and "Syndrome" is a highly condensed expression of this status.

Green and black tea consumption by humans: impact on polyphenol concentrations in feces, blood and urine.

The objective of the study was to determine the effects of green tea, black tea and decaffeinated black tea consumption on urinary and fecal excretions and whole blood and blood serum concentrations of polyphenols. The 56 day study was divided into four randomly arranged experimental periods of 14 days each during which the 10 healthy adult subjects consumed a laboratory controlled, constant, measured diet based on ordinary foods. During separate periods, subjects received no tea, green tea, regular black tea or decaffeinated black tea beverages at the three daily meals. Subjects made complete collections of urine and stools throughout the study and fasting blood samples were drawn at the beginning of the study and at the end of each experimental period. Polyphenols contained in urine, feces, whole blood, blood serums, food and tea were analyzed by the spectrophotometry method of Wah Lau et al. (1989). Green tea consumption resulted in highest intakes in greatest fecal and urinary excretions, highest retentions, and high whole blood concentrations of polyphenols followed by effects of regular black tea, decaffeinated black tea and no tea treatments. These results indicate that polyphenols from tea are at least partly absorbable. Hence, both positive and negative effects of dietary polyphenol may occur internal to the body proper and not only as effects within the intestines.