Spatial Distribution and Risk Assessment of Antibiotics in 15 Pharmaceutical Plants in the Pearl River Delta.

Pharmaceutical plants are an essential source of antibiotics emitted into the aqueous environment. The monitoring of target antibiotics in pharmaceutical plants through various regions is vital to optimize contaminant release. The occurrence, distribution, removal, and ecological risk of 30 kinds of selected antibiotics in 15 pharmaceutical plants in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) were investigated in this study. Lincomycin (LIN) showed the highest concentration (up to 56,258.3 ng/L) in the pharmaceutical plant influents from Zhongshan city. Norfloxacin (NFX) showed a higher detection frequency than other antibiotics. In addition, the spatial distribution of antibiotics in pharmaceutical plants showed significant differences, with higher concentrations of total antibiotics found in pharmaceutical plant influents in Shenzhen City than those of different regions in PRD. The treatment processes adopted by pharmaceutical plants were commonly ineffective in removing antibiotics, with only 26.7% of antibiotics being effectively removed (average removal greater than 70%), while 55.6% of antibiotics had removal rates of below 60%. The anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (AAO)-membrane bioreactor (MBR) combined process exhibited better treatment performance than the single treatment process. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX), ofloxacin (OFL), erythromycin-H2O (ETM-H2O), sulfadiazine (SDZ), sulfamethazine (SMZ), norfloxacin (NFX), and ciprofloxacin (CIP) in pharmaceutical plant effluents posed high or moderate ecological risk and deserve particular attention.

Taurine inhibits neuron apoptosis in hippocampus of diabetic rats and high glucose exposed HT-22 cells via the NGF-Akt/Bad pathway.

Type 2 Diabetes causes learning and memory deficits that might be mediated by hippocampus neuron apoptosis. Studies found that taurine might improve cognitive deficits under diabetic condition because of its ability to prevent hippocampus neuron apoptosis. However, the effect and mechanism is not clear. In this study, we explore the effect and mechanism of taurine on inhibiting hippocampus neuron apoptosis. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control, T2D, taurine treatment (giving 0.5%, 1%, and 2% taurine in drinking water) groups. Streptozotocin was used to establish the diabetes model. HT-22 cell (hippocampus neurons line) was used for in vitro experiments. Morris Water Maze test was used to check the learning and memory ability, TUNEL assay was used to measure apoptosis and nerve growth factor (NGF); Akt/Bad pathway relevant protein was detected by western blot. Taurine improved learning and memory ability and significantly decreased apoptosis of the hippocampus neurons in T2D rats. Moreover, taurine supplement also inhibited high glucose-induced apoptosis in HT-22 cell in vitro. Mechanistically, taurine increased the expression of NGF, phosphorylation of Trka, Akt, and Bad, as well as reduced cytochrome c release from mitochondria to cytosol. However, beneficial effects of taurine were blocked in the presence of anti-NGF antibody or Akt inhibitor. Taurine could inhibit hippocampus neuron apoptosis via NGF-Akt/Bad pathway. These results provide some clues that taurine might be efficient and feasible candidate for improvement of learning and memory ability in T2D rats.

Taurine Promotes Neuritic Growth of Dorsal Root Ganglion Cells Exposed to High Glucose in Vitro.

Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is the most common chronic complication of DM and its major pathological changes show axonal dysfunction, atrophy and loss. However, there are few reports that taurine promotes neurite growth of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells. In current study, DRG neurons were exposed to high glucose (HG) with or without taurine. The neurite outgrowth of DRG neurons was observed by fluorescent immunohistochemistry method. Expression of Gap-43, Akt, phosphorylated Akt, mTOR and phosphorylated mTOR was determined by Western blot assay. Our results showed that HG significantly decreased the neurite outgrowth and expression of Gap-43 in DRG neurons. Moreover, phosphorylated levels of Akt and mTOR were downregulated in DRG neurons exposed to HG. On the contrary, taurine supplementation significantly reversed the decreased neurite outgrowth and Gap-43 expression, and the downregulated phosphorylated levels of Akt and mTOR. However, the protective effects of taurine were blocked in the presence of PI3K antagonists LY294002 or Akt antagonists Perifosine. These results indicate that taurine promotes neurite outgrowth of DRG neurons exposed to HG via activating Akt/mTOR signal pathway.

Taurine protects against myelin damage of sciatic nerve in diabetic peripheral neuropathy rats by controlling apoptosis of schwann cells via NGF/Akt/GSK3ß pathway.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is a common complications of Type 2 Diabetes and its main pathological feature is myelin sheath damage of peripheral nerve that was induced by Schwann cells (SCs) apoptosis. Increasing evidence suggested that taurine might play a role in improving DPN because of its ability to prevent SCs apoptosis. In this study, we explore the effect of taurine on preventing SCs apoptosis and its underlying mechanism. Sprague Dawley rats were treated with streptozotocin to establish the diabetes model. Rats were randomly divided into control, diabetes, taurine treatment (as giving 0.5%, 1% and 2% taurine in drinking water) groups. RSC96 cell (a rat SCs line) was used for intervention experiments in vitro. Results showed that taurine significantly corrected morphology of damaged myelin sheath and inhibited SCs apoptosis in sciatic nerve of diabetic rats. Moreover, taurine prevented apoptosis of RSC96 cells exposed to high glucose. Mechanistically, taurine up-regulated NGF expression and phosphorylation levels of Akt and GSK3ß, while, blocking activation of NGF and phosphorylation of Akt and GSK3ß increased apoptosis of high glucose-exposed RSC96 cells with taurine supplement. These results revealed taurine improved the myelin sheath damage of sciatic nerve in diabetic rats by controlling SCs apoptosis via NGF/Akt/GSK3ß signaling pathways, which provides some clues that taurine might be effective and feasible candidate for the treatment of DPN.

Combination of Astragali Polysaccharide and Curcumin Improves the Morphological Structure of Tumor Vessels and Induces Tumor Vascular Normalization to Inhibit the Growth of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Normalizing the disordered tumor vasculature, rather than blocking it, is a novel method for anticancer therapy. Astragali polysaccharide (APS) and curcumin were reported to be active against carcinomas. However, the effect and mechanism of the combination of APS and curcumin on vascular normalization in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was not clear. In the present study, effects of combined APS and curcumin on tumor vascular normalization were evaluated in HepG2 tumor-bearing mice. Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) was performed to observe the morphological structure of tumor vessels in vivo. The microstructure of the tumor vessels was also analyzed through scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, the expression of CD31 and NG2 was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining. Tumor vessels of HepG2 tumor-bearing mice treated with the combination were sparse with uniform growth, morphology rules, and complete vascular walls, which had fewer branches and sprouts. ECs of tumor vessels were arranged regularly and were tightly connected, tending toward normalization. The expression of CD31 was reduced while NG2 was increased significantly by the combination of APS and curcumin. The results indicated that APS and curcumin in combination showed a better effect on inhibiting tumor growth in an orthotopic nude-mouse model of HCC. More important, the combination induced normalization of tumor vascular better than APS or curcumin administration alone, improving the morphological structure of tumor vessels and promoting maturation of tumor vessels. The results of the present study provided a reasonable possibility for combination therapy of APS and curcumin in the treatment of HCC via tumor vascular normalization.

Effects of high zinc levels on the lipid synthesis in rat hepatocytes.

Zinc deficiency impairs the hepatic lipid metabolism. Previous studies were focused on the negative effects of zinc deficiency on the hepatic lipid metabolism. A few studies investigated the effects of high zinc levels on the lipid metabolism in hepatocytes. In this study, rat hepatocytes were cultured and treated with different and high concentrations of zinc to investigate the effects of high zinc levels on the lipid synthesis in hepatocytes in vitro. The levels of hepatocytes functional markers, including alkaline phosphatase, lactate dehydrogenase, and albumin, were significantly higher in the zinc treatment groups than in the control group (p < 0.05, p < 0.01). The mRNA and protein levels of sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c) were significantly higher in the zinc treatment groups than in the control group (p < 0.05, p < 0.01). Furthermore, the mRNA expression levels of acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACC1) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) were significantly higher in the medium- and high-dose zinc treatment groups than in the control group (p < 0.01). The mRNA levels of stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD-1) were significantly higher in the high-dose group (p < 0.01). These results indicate that high levels of zinc increase hepatocytes activity and SREBP-1c expression, which upregulate the expression of ACC1, FAS, and SCD-1, thereby improving the lipid metabolism in the hepatocytes.

High lever dietary copper promote ghrelin gene expression in the fundic gland of growing pigs.

This experiment was conducted to examine the effect of dietary copper supplementation on ghrelin mRNA expression level in the fundic gland of growing pigs. A total of 45 crossbred pigs were randomly assigned to three groups of 15 pigs, five replicates of three animals comprised each group. Pigs were allocated to diets that contained 5 mg/kg copper (as the control group), 125 mg/kg copper sulfate, or 125 mg/kg copper methionine. At the end of the experiment, five pigs were selected at random from each group, slaughtered, and collected the fundic gland for determination of ghrelin mRNA expression level. The results showed that average daily gain, average daily feed intake, absolute weight, serum growth hormone (GH) concentration, and ghrelin mRNA level were higher in pigs fed the diets with 125 mg/kg copper methionine and 125 mg/kg copper sulfate (P < 0.05), than in pigs fed a diet with 5 mg/kg copper. These data suggest that high dietary copper (125 mg/kg) appears to increase feed intake and promote weight gain by enhancing the secretion of GH and ghrelin mRNA level in growing pigs.

Effect of copper on the expression of IGF-1 from chondrocytes in newborn piglets in vitro.

The experiment was performed to evaluate the influence of copper supplementation on insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) mRNA expression in chondrocytes of newborn pigs. Chondrocytes were isolated and cultured in media containing 15% fetal calf serum supplemented with 0, 15.6, 31.2, and 62.5 µmol/L copper in 90-mm culture plate. After 0, 12, 24, and 48 h, total RNA was isolated from chondrocytes. Then, IGF-1 mRNA expression was determined by semiquantitative RT-PCR. The results showed that the expression of IGF-1 mRNA, adjusted for ß-actin expression, was increased in the culture media added to 15.6, 31.2, and 62.5 µmol/L copper, respectively. In the present experiment, the optimal copper concentration and optimal culture time for the expression of IGF-1 mRNA were 31.2 µmol/L and 48 h, respectively.

[Study on quality standard of Mucuna pruriens var. utilis].

OBJECTIVE: To provide scientific basis for the utilization and development of Mucuna pruriens var. utilis by establishing its quality control standard. METHODS: The bioactive constituents were analyzed by TLC and HPLC. Moisture, ash and the extracts of Mucuna pruriens var. utilis were all determined. RESULTS: The TLC spots of levodopa had similar color with the control group at the same position. The results of HPLC quantitative analysis showed that the linear range of levodopa was 26.45 to approximately 132.25 microg/mL, r = 0.9992, and the average recovery rate was 103.8%, RSD = 1.85%. CONCLUSIONS: This method is convenient, accurate, reliable with good reproducibility, so it can be used to establish quality standard for the medicinal material.