Non targeted and targeted LC-MS/MS insights into the composition and concentration of atmospheric microplastics and additives: Impacts and regional changes of sandstorms in Shanghai and Hohhot, China.

Increasing dust storms impact ecosystems and human health by resuspending dust and microplastics. Plastic pollution is a major global concern. This study examines the molecular composition and concentration of atmospheric microplastics and additives in Hohhot and Shanghai, China during dust and non-dust days using non-target and target LC-MS/MS analysis with Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) methodology and a self-established plastic monomers database. In Hohhot, 98 microplastics and additives types were identified on dust days (41 unique) and 70 on non-dust days (10 unique), mainly PEG, HTPE, PET, PPG, and Nylon. The types fluctuate ranging from 35 to 65 due to dusty conditions. In Shanghai, 50 types were identified (no unique), with 25 to 30 types consistently present. Hohhot's microplastics concentration during dust days peaked at 3531.59 ng/m3, about three times higher than non-dust days (1669.17 ng/m3) and significantly higher than Shanghai's maximum of 589.85 ng/m3. Overall, microplastic monomers in both cities were mostly compounds with low unsaturation, indicating potential for long-term atmospheric persistence. Highly reactive monomers like HTPE, PEG, thrive on dust days in Hohhot due to insufficient light and strong winds. These conditions reduce photochemical reactivity, accelerate microplastic aging through collisions, and resuspend more microplastics from the soil, resulting in a wider variety of microplastics with different m/z and carbon contents during sandstorms. On non-dust days, microplastics have more concentrated m/z values, indicating that substances with similar chemical properties disperse more under normal conditions. These findings highlight the significant impact of dust storms on microplastics characteristics. SYNOPSIS: This study indicates that dust storms and regional differences can have significant impacts on the diversity and abundance of atmospheric microplastics.

Trimetazidine improves angiogenesis and tissue perfusion in ischemic rat skeletal muscle.

Introduction: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is an increasingly common disease, causing significant complications for patients. Trimetazidine (TMZ) not only improves clinical symptoms in PAD patients but also facilitates angiogenesis in ischemic hind limbs. Our aim was to find the function of TMZ in promoting angiogenesis and tissue perfusion in ischemic rat skeletal muscle. Methods: The rats underwent femoral artery ligation (FAL) and then treated with TMZ and saline. Hematoxylin-eosin and Masson's trichrome stain in the ischemic gastrocnemius muscle to analyze muscle morphology and atrophy. To identify angiogenesis and the tissue perfusion, CD31 immunohistochemical staining and laser speckle contrast imaging was conducted. Additionally, hind limb motor ability was measured. Finally, qRT-PCR and Western blotting were used to statistically analyze the expression levels of HIF-1α and VEGF. Results: Our study demonstrated significant enhancement in angiogenesis and tissue perfusion after FAL when treated with TMZ compared to the saline group. Histologically, it mitigates ischemia-induced muscle atrophy and inflammation, as well as reduces fibrosis progression in the TMZ group. Additionally, hind limb motor ability improved in rats treated with TMZ during motor experiments. Discussion: It suggests that TMZ can promote angiogenesis and improve tissue perfusion in ischemic skeletal muscle of rats by activating the HIF-1α/VEGF signaling pathway. Additionally, it leads to significant improvement in ischemia-induced motor limitations in the hind limbs of rats.

Unraveling Cross-Organ Impacts of Airborne Pollutants: A Multiomics Study on Respiratory Exposure and Gastrointestinal Health.

Poor air quality is increasingly linked to gastrointestinal diseases, suggesting a potential correlation with human intestine health. However, this relationship remains largely unexplored due to limited research. This study used a controlled mouse model exposed to cooking oil fumes (COFs) and metagenomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to elucidate interactions between intestine microbiota and host metabolism under environmental stress. Our findings reveal that short-term COF inhalation induces pulmonary inflammation within 3 days and leads to gastrointestinal disturbances, elucidating a pathway connecting respiratory exposure to intestinal dysfunction. The exposure intensity significantly correlates with changes in intestinal tissue integrity, microbial composition, and metabolic function. Extended exposure of 7 days disrupts intestine microbiota and alters tryptophan metabolism, with further changes observed after 14 days, highlighting an adaptive response. These results highlight the vulnerability of intestinal health to airborne pollutants and suggest a pathway through which inhaled pollutants may affect distant organ systems.

Chemical characterization and influencing factors of gaseous and particulate components in cooking oil fume (COF) from traditional Chinese dishes: Insights from high-resolution mass spectrometry.

Cooking oil fumes (COF) are known to emit a wide range of organic compounds with significant impacts on human health and urban air quality. This study used HPLC-QToF-MS and Vocus PTR-TOF to explore the chemical constituents and influencing factors of the COF generated from eight typical Chinese dishes representing different areas in a laboratory kitchen. The results revealed that both CHO and CHON compounds exhibited strong reducibility and saturability, with CHO compounds being the dominant and CHON compounds showing greater diversity. 24 among 168 CHO compounds were identical with those generated from heating soybean oil, representing 72.4%-92.3% in abundance and 22.2%-29.2% in quantity. That was 5 among 113 CHON compounds, accounting for 7.8%-10% in abundance and 4.7%-6.7% in quantity. These findings suggest that the major CHO compounds from heating soybean oil continued to dominate the abundances in dishes. The diversity of CHO compounds and the presence of CHON compounds were influenced by the food ingredients. The VOC analysis indicated that oxygen-containing organics were the major components. 6 identical VOC species between cooking dishes and heating soybean oil were identified, comprising 36.02%-67.84% of the total VOCs mass. Notably, poor ventilation could result in even higher COF concentrations in the connected room compared to the kitchen itself.

Diverse Metabolic Effects of Cooking Oil Fume from Four Edible Oils on Human BEAS-2B Cells: Implications for Health Guidelines.

The 2021 WHO guidelines stress the importance of measuring ultrafine particles using particle number concentration (PNC) for health assessments. However, commonly used particle metrics such as aerodynamic diameter and number concentrations do not fully capture the diverse chemical makeup of complex particles. To address this issue, our study used high-throughput mass spectrometry to analyze the properties of cooking oil fumes (COFs) in real time and evaluate their impact on BEAS-2B cell metabolism. Results showed insignificant differences in COF number size distributions between soybean oil and olive oil (peak concentrations of 5.20 × 105/cm3), as well as between corn oil and peanut oil (peak concentrations of 4.35 × 105/cm3). Despite the similar major chemical components among the four COFs, variations in metabolic damage were observed, indicating that the relatively small amount of chemical components of COFs can also influence particle behavior within the respiratory system, thereby impacting biological responses. Additionally, interactions between accompanying gaseous COFs and particles may alter their chemical composition through various mechanisms, introducing additional chemicals and modifying existing proportions. Hence, the chemical composition and gaseous components of COFs hold equal importance to the particle number concentration (PNC) when assessing their impact on human health. The absence of these considerations in the current guidelines underscores a research gap. It is imperative to acknowledge that for a more comprehensive approach to safeguarding public health, guidelines must be regularly updated to reflect new scientific findings and robust epidemiological evidence.

Artificial humic acid facilitates biological carbon sequestration under freezing-thawing conditions.

Freezing-thawing events contribute to the accumulation of soil organic matter and the formation of high fertility black soil. On this base, we explore the influence of the combination of liquid artificial humic acid (LA-HA) and freezing-thawing events on strengthening carbon sequestration in soils. The measurements of the total organic carbon (TOC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content illustrate that the applications of LA-HA indeed largely enhanced the persistent carbon reservoirs during freezing-thawing cycles, and the highest TOC net increment was found as up to 4000 mg/kg (0.36 wt% C with the control treatment versus 0.79 wt% C with 300 mL/kg LA-HA (3LA-HA) treatment after 10 freezing-thawing cycles). Spectral analysis reveals that LA-HA treatments accelerated the formation of additional humic substances under freezing-thawing events, i.e., the transformation of labile carbon to resistant carbon. Finally, the results of highthroughput sequencing corresponding to cbbL gene demonstrate that 3LA-HA functioned to optimizing the community structure of carbon sequestration bacteria and improving the dominant position of part bacteria with strong carbon fixation ability to reduce soil carbon loss after thawing, e.g., Mycolicibacterium gadium and Starkeya novella.

Toxicological effect assessment of aged biochar on Escherichia coli.

Biochar (BC) is a biomass material that has a wide range of applications on the remediating heavy metals. In this experiment, we prepared BC (300 ºC, 500 ºC, and 700 ºC) and applied them to adsorb lead ions (Pb2+) to simulate BC treatment of Pb2+-contaminated soil. The retention capacity of BC for heavy metals was altered by means of bacterial culture, and the heavy metals released by BC can have toxicological effects on bacteria. This approach was used to assess the effects of long-term application of BC in heavily contaminated land with heavy metals on soil microorganisms. The results show that Escherichia coli survived in the medium containing lower doses of Pb2+-aged BC prepared at 300 ºC and 500 ºC (25 mg/L and 50 mg/L), depending on its ability of tolerating a certain amount of Pb2+. The addition of 100 mg/L Pb2+-aged BC prepared at 700 ºC not only significantly inhibited the growth of E. coli, but also promoted the release of citric acid from E. coli, which in turn triggered BC releasing more Pb2+. It is hoped that this will provide foundation to support the long-term application of BC in the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils.

LncRNA RHPN1-AS1 accelerates proliferation, migration, and invasion via regulating miR-485-5p/BSG axis in hepatocellular carcinoma.

It is reported that long noncoding RNA RHPN1-AS1 (lncRNA RHPN1-AS1) functions as an oncogene among multiple types of cancers; however, the effect of lncRNA RHPN1-AS1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is left to be investigated. The main purpose of this work was to study the effects of lncRNA RHPN1-AS1/miR-485-5p system on proliferation, migration, and invasion in HCC and future investigate the latent mechanisms. Our work found that lncRNA RHPN1-AS1 was observably up-regulated in HCC tissues and cell lines, especially HCCLM3 and SMMC-7721 cells. LncRNA RHPN1-AS1 knockdown decreased the capacity of proliferation, invasion, and migration in HCCLM3 and SMMC-7721 cells, which could be crippled by miR-485-5p inhibitor. Besides, the expression of basigin (BSG) was decreased after lncRNA RHPN1-AS1 silence, indicating the function of lncRNA RHPN1-AS1/miR-485-5p/BSG axis in HCC progression. Our study opens novel insights to help understand the mechanisms of lncRNA RHPN1-AS1/miR-485-5p/BSG axis in HCC progression, which may provide a new therapeutic target for HCC treatment.