Lipid Metabolic Disorder Induced by Pyrethroids in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease of Xenopus laevis.

Pyrethroids, an effective and widely used class of pesticides, have attracted considerable concerns considering their frequent detection in environmental matrices. However, their potential health risks to amphibians remain unclear. In our study, female Xenopus laevis were exposed to 0, 0.06, and 0.3 µg/L typical pyrethroid, cis-bifenthrin (cis-BF), for 3 months. Elevated activities of both aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were observed, indicating an ongoing liver injury. Furthermore, exposure to cis-BF led to hyperlipidemia and lipid accumulation in the liver of Xenopus. The targeted lipidomic analysis further revealed that treatment with cis-BF perturbed liver steroid homeostasis, as evidenced by the enriched lipids in the steroid biosynthesis pathway. Consistent with the targeted lipidomic result, treatment with cis-BF changed the liver transcriptome profile with induction of 808 and 1230 differentially expressed genes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis underlined the adverse effects of cis-BF exposure on steroid biosynthesis, primary bile acid biosynthesis, and the PPAR signaling pathway in the Xenopus liver. Taken together, our study revealed that exposure to cis-BF at environmentally relevant concentrations resulted in lipid metabolic disorder associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease of X. laevis, and our results provided new insight into the potential long-term hazards of pyrethroids.

Specific component comparison of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in flocs and granular sludge using EEM and SDS-PAGE.

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) plays an important role in the formation of bioaggregates such as flocs, biofilm and granular sludge. However, the role of their specific components in sludge flocculation and granulation is still unclear. Three sludge samples including the flocs, aerobic and anaerobic granular sludge were investigated in this study and the specific components in different EPS structures of loosely bound-EPS (LB-EPS) and tightly bound-EPS (TB-EPS) were analyzed. Results showed that the protein (PN) contents in LB-EPS and TB-EPS of the aerobic and anaerobic granular sludge were 33.6±9.7 and 96.8±11.9, 27.1±2.8 and 61.6±4.2 mg g(-1)VSS, respectively, which were both higher than the flocs of 8.5±1.5 and 43.1±2.7 mg g(-1)VSS. But the polysaccharide (PS) contents in the three sludges were all about 30 mg g(-1)VSS. The analysis of sludge surface charge indicated that they had a linear correlation with the PN content, which implied that PN significantly contributed to the formation of granular sludge. The results of sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) demonstrated that the molecular weight of PN in flocs was mainly distributed in 14.3-66.2 kDa, while it was 20.1-97.4 kDa in the granular sludge, which indicated that the proteins with high molecular weight favors the sludge granulation. According to the three-dimensional fluorescence (EEM) results, the aromatic protein-like and tryptophan protein-like substances were more abundant in the granular sludge than that in flocs, suggesting they are the key components in the structural stability of granular sludge.

Correlation analysis of major control factors for the formation and stabilization of aerobic granule.

In recent years, aerobic granular sludge technology has demonstrated significant advantages in areas such as the sludge-water separation, residual sludge minimization, simultaneous biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal, and toxic organic compounds degradation in biological wastewater treatment. However, the critical control factors and their relation during sludge granulation have not been revealed indeed, and the stability of aerobic granular sludge is still not good. The Gray's correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship of aerobic granular characteristics and control factors in the study. Results showed that the organic loading rate, hydraulic shear stress, and sludge settling time were the major factors affecting the aerobic sludge granulation, and the associated regulating strategy was important for the stabilization of granular sludge system. Based on above results, the mechanism of aerobic sludge granulation was proposed, and it was expected to favor the application of aerobic granular sludge technology.

The stability of aerobic granular sludge under 4-chloroaniline shock in a sequential air-lift bioreactor (SABR).

The aerobic granular sludge technology has a great potential in treatment of municipal wastewater and industrial wastewater containing toxic non-degradable pollutants. However, the formation and structural stability of aerobic granular sludge is susceptible to toxic shock. In the study, the effect of 4-chloroaniline (4-ClA) as a common toxic pollutant on the granular structure and performance was investigated, and the mechanism was revealed to provide more information on 4-ClA degradation with aerobic granular sludge process. The results showed that a 4-ClA shock at influent 200 mg L(-1) could cause the disintegration of aerobic granular sludge and decrease of the pollutant removal performance. The analysis of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) within the mature and disintegrated granular sludge showed that the decrease of protein content in EPS, especially the components like Amide I 3-turn helix and ß-sheet structures and aspartate, was not good for the stability of aerobic granular sludge. The microbial community results demonstrated that the disappearance of dominant bacteria like Kineosphaera limosa or appearance like Acinetobacter, might contribute to the reduction of EPS and disintegration of aerobic granular sludge.

Component analysis of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) during aerobic sludge granulation using FTIR and 3D-EEM technologies.

In recent years, lots of the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) related researches have focused on its role in the granulation and structural stability of aerobic sludge. Three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum (3D-EEM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) technologies were used to analyse the main components of sludge EPS during aerobic sludge granulation in this study. Results showed that the components of sludge EPS tended to be stable during aerobic sludge granulation. The peak F (Ex/Em=230/308.5) from 3D-EEM and the predominant spectral band at approximately 1517 cm(-1) from the FTIR spectra of the matured granular sludge indicated the importance of aromatic protein-like substances together, especially tyrosine in maintaining the stable structure of the granular sludge. Furthermore, the differences in the occurrence position and frequency of C-O bonds (1110-1047 cm(-1)) observed during aerobic sludge granulation showed that the transformations between the isomers and other forms of carbohydrates may be attributed to the formation of aerobic granule.

Role and significance of extracellular polymeric substances on the property of aerobic granule.

Because of the important role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in microbial aggregates, the relationship of the EPS and physico-chemical properties of aerobic granule was studied in two sequencing airlift bioreactors (SABR) using two kinds of substrates, acetate+glucose and 4-chloroaniline (4-ClA). Higher amounts of the exopolymeric protein (PN) and lower polysaccharides (PS) and DNA level were extracted from aerobic granules in the SABRs, and the variations in the PN and PN/PS of aerobic granules were higher (770% and 360%) in the SABR using 4-ClA as substrate than that in the other reactor. At the same time, suitable operating parameters (surface gas velocity at about 2.4 cm s(-1) and settling time at 5-10 min) favored EPS production and sludge granulation. Furthermore, the minimal settling velocity, hydrophobicity, surface charge increased in accordance with PN content increase, and a negative correlation between the sludge volume index (SVI) and PN content was observed.