[Characteristics of Microplastic Pollution in Sediment of Silty Coast in Culture Bay].

Microplastic pollution is a central issue of great concern in the current environmental field. Microplastic pollution in marine environmental media is widely reported, but the characteristics of microplastic pollution in deep sediments are rarely reported. Based on this, three sampling points were set up on the muddy coast near the Haizhou Bay, a typical aquaculture sea area, to analyze the characteristics of microplastic pollution in sediment column samples. The study showed that the abundance of microplastics in the sediments of the study area was(0.12 ± 0.07)n·g-1, which was at the medium pollution level. The total amount of microplastics in the sediment column was 3.43-6.00 times the abundance of microplastics in the surface sediment (5 cm). The abundance of microplastics in the sediment column samples showed regional differences. There was no significant difference in the abundance of microplastics in the sediment at different depths, but the index decreased with the increase in depth. The relationship between sediment moisture content, depth, and microplastics indicated that the abundance of microplastics in sediment was related to the physical properties of the sediment. Transparent and black microplastics accounted for the highest proportion in each station. Fiber was the most common form of microplastics in the sediment, and microplastics with small particle size accounted for the majority. The density of microplastics did not prevent its appearance in the sediment. The pollution characteristics of microplastics varied greatly in different depths of sediments.

The eisosomes contribute to acid tolerance of yeast by maintaining cell membrane integrity.

Microbes have evolved multiple mechanisms to resist environmental stresses, which are regulated in complex and delicate ways. Though the role of cell membranes in acid resistance from the perspective of physicochemical properties and membrane proteins has been deeply studied, the function of eisosomes is still in its infancy. In this study, we firstly reported the dynamic changes of eisosomes under acid stress and the decreased acid tolerance of yeasts caused by eisosome disruption. Physiological indicators and non-targeted lipid profiling revealed that eisosome disruption caused changes in multiple lipids and imbalances in lipid homeostasis, which are responsible for membrane integrity damage. Thus the increased infiltration of carboxylic acids and the raised ROS levels were detected in strains with disrupted eisosome assembly, resulting in decreased cellular tolerance. The results here provide novel insights into the acid-resistant mechanism of yeasts from the perspective of the cell membrane subdomain, which has practical impacts on green biological manufacturing and food preservation.

Hepatoprotective effects of ethanol extracts from Folium Syringae against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in vitro and in vivo.

BACKGROUND: The leaves of Folium Syringae (FS) have been long used as a traditional Chinese folk medicine for their anti-inflammatory effect, utilized as an antibacterial and antiviral treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential hepatoprotective effects of FS on acetaminophen-induced hepatic injury in primary hepatocytes and mice. METHODS: Hepatocytes obtained by the inverse perfusion method were divided randomly into five groups. Prior to acetaminophen exposure, 3 different doses of FS ethanol extracts were given to hepatocytes and mice, respectively. Thereafter, transaminases, glutathione S-transferase A1 (GSTA1) and some hepatic indices were determined. RESULTS: FS ethanol extracts (200 µg/mL) pretreatment prevented all of the alterations, returning their levels to nearly those levels observed in the control group in vitro. Treatment with FS ethanol extracts (200 mg/kg) significantly reduced the toxicity induced by acetaminophen in vivo, which manifested as a decrease in transaminases, and the hepatoprotective effects of FS were similar to Silymarin (positive group). GSTA1 represented the same change trend as transaminases and hepatic indices, and at a dose of 100 µg/mL FS ethanol extracts in vitro and 100 mg/kg in vivo, GSTA1 content changed significantly (p < 0.01), but transaminases were insignificant (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of our investigation suggested that FS ethanol extracts possess significant protective effects against hepatotoxicity induced by acetaminophen both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, GSTA1 could be used as an indicator assessing the extents of hepatic injury, which is more sensitive than transaminases.

Hepatoprotective effects of Solanum nigrum against ethanol-induced injury in primary hepatocytes and mice with analysis of glutathione S-transferase A1.

BACKGROUND: Solanum nigrum is a herbaceous perennial plant, which is widely used in traditional medicine systems for its antioxidant, antiulcerogenic, antitumorigenic, and anti-inflammatory characteristics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective effects of S. nigrum against alcoholic liver damage in primary hepatocytes and mice, using glutathione S-transferase alpha 1 (GSTA1) as an indicator. METHODS: Primary hepatocytes were obtained by the inverse perfusion method improved on Seglen two-step perfusion in situ. RESULTS: In the presence of S. nigrum aqueous extracts (100 µg/mL), no hepatocytic damage was observed in cells treated with ethanol, compared with the model group, and GSTA1 (p < 0.01) was more sensitive than alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase (p < 0.05). Mice that received S. nigrum aqueous extracts (150 mg/kg) with ethanol showed marked attenuation of ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity, as evidenced by significant reductions of serum transaminases (p < 0.01), and variation of hepatic oxidative indices (p < 0.05) and GSTA1 (p < 0.05), compared with the model group and mice that received S. nigrum aqueous extracts (200 mg/kg). All the detection indexes were significantly different (p < 0.01) from those of the model group, and the protective effects were almost the same as that of the positive drug group. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that S. nigrum has hepatoprotective effects against ethanol-induced injury both in vitro and in vivo, and can protect the integrity of hepatocytes and thus reduce the release of liver GSTA1, which contributes to improved liver detoxification.

[SVM-based qualitative analysis of Muscat Hamburg wine produced in Tianjin region].

The purpose was to achieve the identification of Muscat Hamburg wines produced in Tianjin region through scanning and analyzing dry white wine samples of different grape varieties and regions by infrared spectroscopy technology. A support vector machine (SVM) based method was introduced to analyze infrared spectra of dry white wines. The pretreatment processes of the IR spectra were also elaborated, including baseline adjustment, noise Elimination, standard normalization and eliminating the main component of abnormal sample points. The authors selected great quantity of dry white wine samples of different grape regions including 511 Muscat Hamburg wine samples, 438 Italian Riesling wine samples, 307 Chardonnay wine samples, 29 Ugni Blanc wine samples, 44 Rkatsiteli wine samples, 31 longan wine samples and 79 ZeHong wine samples. According to different classification problems, 80% of IR spectra of the wine samples were used to establish discrimination models with SVM-based method, and the remaining 20% of IR spectra were used for the validation of the discrimination models. Experimental results showed that the proposed method is effective, since high classification accuracy, identification rate and rejecting rate were achieved: over 97% for the white wine samples of different grape varieties, meanwhile over 98% for the Muscat Hamburg wine samples produced in different regions. So the method developed in this paper played a good role in the qualitative classification and discrimination of Muscat Hamburg wines produced in Tianjin region. This novel method has a considerable potential and a rosy application future due to the expeditiousness, stability and easy-operation of FTIR method, as well as the veracity and credibility of SVM method.

[Analysis of liquor flavor spectra and pattern recognition computation].

Chinese liquor is a complex mixture and contains a large amount of microconstituents, which affects the quality and flavor of liquor. In order to discriminate liquor flavors rapidly, the spectra of liquors were obtained by FTIR and employed as the input patterns of pattern classification algorithms, then liquor flavor discrimination models were built. This paper introduces liquor flavor pattern recognition algorithms comprehensively and systematically for the first time, and the algorithms contain statistical classifications (linear discriminant function, quadratic discriminant function, regularized discriminant analysis, and K nearest neighbor), prototype learning algorithm (learning vector quantization), support vector machine and adaboost algorithm. Experimental results show that the liquor flavor classification algorithms demonstrate good performance and achieve high accuracy, recognition rate and rejection rate.

[Study on the animal model for severe acute respiratory syndrome].

To screen small animals susceptible to SARS-CoV, five species of animals, including guinea pig, hamster, albino hamster, chicken and rat, were experimentally infected with SARS-CoV strain BJ-01 by different routes. On the basis of this, further cynomolgus and rhesus macaques were selected and experimentally inoculated SARS-CoV, the quality they serve as animal model for SARS was evaluated. The results showed that, all five species of small animals chosed were not susceptible to SARS-CoV, no characterized changes in clinical sign and histopathology were observed after infection, but from the lung samples of large rat and pig guinea, the genomic RNA of SARS-CoV could be detected by RT-PCR at day 14 post infection, this suggested that SARS-CoV could replicate in these animals. After inoculated with SARS-CoV, all inoculated cynomolgus and rhesus macaques had developed interstitial pneumonia of differing severity. These changes on histopathology were similar to that seen in SARS patients, but the pathological lesions were less severe than that of human. Except interstitial pneumonia, no other characterized pathological changes were observed. This suggested cynomolgus and rhesus macaques were not the ideal animal model for SARS in fact, but they could serve as animal model for SARS when a more ideal animal model is absent.