Associations between medication use and phthalate metabolites in urine and follicular fluid among women undergoing in vitro fertilization.

BACKGROUND: Phthalates, which are used as excipients of drugs, have been related to adverse reproductive outcomes. However, the relationships between medication use and phthalate exposure among women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) have not been studied. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the associations between the medication intake and phthalate metabolites in urine and follicular fluid (FF). METHOD: Eight phthalate metabolites were measured in urine and FF samples from 274 women undergoing IVF using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Information on recent medication intake was obtained via interview by trained staff. We constructed generalized linear regression models to examine the associations of medication intake with phthalate metabolite concentrations and dose-response relationships between the number of medicines used and metabolite concentrations in two matrices. RESULTS: Four of 10 drugs were used by more than 10% of the participants, including vitamins (23.0%), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM, 22.3%), antioxidants (12.4%) and amoxicillin (10.2%). Participants who had used TCM had 26.0% (95% CI: 0.0, 58.8%), 32.6% (95% CI: 4.2, 68.8%) and 32.3% (95% CI: 2.6, 70.6%) higher urinary mono-n-butyl phthalate (MBP), mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP) and mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP) concentrations, respectively, than those who had not. Antioxidant intake was associated with a 30.6% (95% CI: -48.5, -6.6%) decrease in the urinary MBP concentration. Compared with non-users, women who reported the use of medicines had 53.2% (95% CI: 2.7, 128.5%) higher concentrations of MMP and a 37.7% (95% CI: -60.7, -1.5%) lower level of MBP in FF, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the intake of some medications may increase phthalate exposure among women undergoing IVF.

[Research progress on hepatotoxicity of traditional Chinese medicine based on metabonomics].

With the continuous development of Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has been widely used in the treatment of diseases and health care. At the same time, the toxic and side effects of TCM have been gradually concerned. The liver, as an important place for drug metabolism, is a major target organ for drug toxicity. Clinical reports on liver injury caused by TCM are common, and the problem of liver toxicity of TCM has become an important reason to limit the internationalization of TCM. Metabono-mics is a newly booming subject to study the metabolic pathway of biological system. It shows integrity and systematicness in the study of hepatotoxicity of TCM, which provides a new technical method for finding the early biomarkers of liver injury of TCM and exploring the mechanism of hepatotoxicity of TCM. In this paper, the methods of metabonomics in the study of hepatotoxicity of TCM, as well as the research progress of hepatotoxicity monomer, extract and attenuation of hepatotoxic TCM based on metabonomics were reviewed in order to provide reference for the further study of hepatotoxicity of TCM.