• Toxicological Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2016

We determined the toxicity of mixtures of ethyl acetate (EA), isopropyl alcohol (IPA), methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), toluene (TOL) and xylene (XYL) with half-maximal effective concentration ($EC_{50}$) values obtained using human hepatocytes cells. According to these data, quantitative property-activity relationships (QPAR) models were successfully proposed to predict the toxicity of mixtures by multiple linear regressions (MLR). The leave-one-out cross validation method was used to find the best subsets of descriptors in the learning methods. Significant differences in physico-chemical properties such as boiling point (BP), specific gravity (SG), Reid vapor pressure (rVP) and flash point (FP) were observed between the single substances and the mixtures. The $EC_{50}$ of the mixture of EA and IPA was significantly lower than that of contained TOL and XYL. The mixture toxicity was related to the mixing ratio of MEK, TOL and XYL (MLR equation $EC_{50}=3.3081-2.5018{\times}TOL-3.2595{\times}XYL-12.6596{\times}MEK{\times}XYL$), as well as to BP, SG, VP and FP (MLR equation $EC_{50}=1.3424+6.2250{\times}FP-7.1198{\times}SG{\times}FP-0.03013{\times}rVP{\times}FP$). These results suggest that QPAR-based models could accurately predict the toxicity of polar and nonpolar mixtures used in rotogravure printing industries.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.315-320
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• 2008

Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) is a glycoprotein and hematopoietic growth factors that regulates the proliferation of myeloid precursor cells and activates mature granulocytes and macrophages. In a previous study, we reported that hGM-CSF could be produced in transgenic rice cell suspension culture, termed rhGM-CSF. In the present study, we examined the repeated dose toxicity of rhGM-CSF in SD rats. The repeated dose toxicity study was performed at each dose of 50 and 200 ${\mu}g/kg$ subcutaneous administration of rhGM-CSF everyday for 28-days period. The results did not show any changes in food and water intake. There were also no significant changes in both body and organ weights between the control and the tested groups. The hematological and blood biochemical parameters were statistically not different in all groups. These results suggest that rhGM-CSF may show no repeated dose toxicity in SD rats under the conditions.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.318-327
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• 2017

Background: A typical sewage treatment plant is designed for organic and nutrient removal from municipal sewage water and not targeted to eliminate micropollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and nano-sized metals which become a big concern for sustainable human and ecological system and are mainly discharged from sewage treatment plant. Therefore, despite contaminant removal by wastewater treatment processes, there are still remaining environmental risks by untreated pollutants in STP (sewage treatment plant) effluents. This study performed aquatic toxicity tests of raw wastewater and treated effluents in two sewage treatment plants to evaluate toxicity reduction by wastewater treatment process and analyze concentration of contaminants to reveal potential toxic factors in STP effluents. Methods: Water samples were collected from each treatment steps of two STPs, and acute and chronic toxicity tests were conducted following USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) guidelines. Endpoints were immobility for mortality and reproduction effect for estrogenicity. Results: Acute $EC_{50}s$ (median effective concentration) of influents for Seungki (SK) and Jungnang (JN) STPs are $54.13{\pm}32.64%$ and $30.38{\pm}24.96%$, respectively, and reduced to $96.49{\pm}7.84%$ and 100%. Acute toxicity reduction was clearly correlated with SS (suspended solids) concentration because of filter feeding characteristics of test organisms. Chronic toxicity tests revealed that lethal effect was reduced and low concentration of influents showed higher number of neonates. However, toxicity reduction was not related to nutrient removal. Fecundity effect positively increased in treated wastewater compared to that in raw wastewater, and no significant differences were observed compared to the control group in JN final effluent implying potential effects of estrogenic compounds in the STP effluents. Conclusions: Conventional wastewater treatment process reduced some organics and nutritional compounds from wastewater, and it results in toxicity reduction in lethal effect and positive reproductive effect but not showing correlation. Unknown estrogenic compounds could be a reason causing the increase of brood size. This study suggests that pharmaceutical residues and nanoparticles in STP effluents are one of the major micropollutants and underline as one of estrogenic effect factors.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.569-578
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• 2007

This study investigated the effects of chitosan on cadmium(Cd) toxicity and mineral metabolism in rats exposed to cadmium by oral administration. Six week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into eight groups. Four groups were fed AIN-93G based 3% ${\alpha}$-cellulose diets while the others were fed 3% chitosan diets for four weeks with oral administration of 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg Cd/2ml distilled water three times a week, respectively. Cd contents in the serum, liver, kidney, testis and bone, and the excretion of cadmium in feces were determined. There was no significant difference in weight gain and food intake among groups. Cadmium contents in the serum, liver, kidney, testis, femur and lumbar were significantly increased in proportion to the administration level of Cd (p<0.05). A protective effect of chitosan on cadmium toxicity in tissue was shown only in the high level cadmium-intake group. The fecal excretion, absorption of Cd were increased by the administration levels of cadmium. These results suggest that Cd administration may facilitate the accumulation of Cd in the blood and tissue in proportion to the amount of administration, and also, that chitosan may be effective in lowering the accumulation of cadmium.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.194-194
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Food Hygiene and Safety Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.261-261
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• 2004

• Carbon letters
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2016

The attachment of 2-aminobenzamide to carboxylated multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-COOH was achieved through the formation of amide bonds. Then, the functionalized MWCNTs, MWCNT-amide, were treated by phosphoryl chloride to produce MWCNT-quin. The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, derivative thermogravimetric, steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy, and solubility testing. MWCNT-quin showed photo-electronic properties, which is due to the attachment of the 4-hydroxyquinazoline groups to them as proved by steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy. This suggests intramolecular interactions between the tubes and the attached 4-hydroxyquinazoline. The toxicity of the samples was evaluated in human embryonic kidney HEK293 and human breast cancer SKBR3 cell lines, and the viable cell numbers were measured by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) after the cells were cultured for 24 h. Cellular investigations showed that the modified MWCNTs, particularly MWCNT-quin, have considerably significant toxic impact on SKBR3 as compared to HEK293 at the concentration of 5 µg/mL.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.305-308
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• 1996

The acute toxicity of rHu-EPO, newly developed recombinant erythropoietin, was tested in beagle dogs. rHu-EPO, when administered intravenously at 25, 000 IU/kg, did not cause any death. Also, rHu-EPO did not induce any change of body weight, food intake and clinical signs compared to controls. There were no significant changes in hematological, urine analysis and pathological examination. These results showed that rHu-EPO did not induce any remarkable toxic response and the $LD_50$ was greater than 25, 000 IU/kg in beagle dogs.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.199-204
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• 2014

The aim of this research was to improve our understanding of human toxicity due to exposure to DMF, MEK, or TOL individually as compared to exposure to DMF-MEK or DMF-TOL mixtures, by comparing $EC_{50}$ values as well as the morphological changes in HepG2 cells treated with these substances. We found that there was marked cell necrosis in the groups treated with mixtures than in those treated with the compounds alone, and that the amount of cell death and the $EC_{50}$ value were more dependent on MEK and TOL than on DMF. Moreover, analysis of the changes in effective concentration curves revealed that MEK had an antagonistic effect on the human toxicity of DMF, whereas TOL had a synergistic effect. Accordingly, these results suggest that in workplaces involved in the manufacture of synthetic leather, mixtures of DMF and TOL should be avoided as much as possible in order to minimize environmental toxicity and protect the health of the workers.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

To enhance our understanding of toxicity mediated through the pathway by which TCDD stimulates gene expression, we have investigated genes whose expressions are changed after treatment with TCDD and/or MNNG in human Chang liver cell. First, we treated with MNNG and TCDD for two weeks to transform human Chang liver cell. We obtained cell looks like to be transformed and compared the differential gene expression by using cDNA chip (Macrogen) which carrys genes related with signal transduction pathways, oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, etc. We found that TCDD up- or down-regulated 203 and 111 genes including oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in human Chang liver cell two fold or more, respectively. Second, we compared the differential gene expression after treatment with TCDD only by using cDNA chip (Superarray) which carrys genes related with cell cycle regulations, and found that TCDD up regulated genes related with cell proliferation as well as cell growth inhibition in human Chang liver cell two fold or more, respectively. These results suggest that toxicity induced by TCDD may reflect sustained alterations in the expression of many genes and that the changes reflect both direct and indirect effects of TCDD.