Polychlorinated Biphenyls as a Cardiovascular Health Risk: A New Threat from an Old Enemy?
Abstract
A photo collage, from left to right, of an old electrical transformer, a painter mixing paint, and a crawfish on a riverbed
References9
Newest
BACKGROUND Xenobiotic metabolism is complex, and accounting for bioactivation and detoxification processes of chemicals remains among the most challenging aspects for decision making with in vitro new approach methods data. OBJECTIVES Considering the physiological relevance of human organotypic culture models and their utility for high-throughput screening, we hypothesized that multidimensional chemical-biological profiling of chemicals and their major metabolites is a sensible alternative for t...
For the past three decades, we have written on the history of occupational and environmental health, authoring books and articles on lead poisoning, silicosis, asbestosis, and angiosarcoma of the liver, among other diseases. One book, Deceit and Denial, focused specifically on the chemical and lead industries. Because of the rarity of historians who study this history, we have been asked to testify on behalf of workers who allege harm from these industrial materials and by state, county, and loc...
The environmental pollutant, polychlorinated biphenyls, and cardiovascular disease: a potential target for antioxidant nanotherapeutics
Despite production having stopped in the 1970s, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) represent persistent organic pollutants that continue to pose a serious human health risk. Exposure to PCBs has been linked to chronic inflammatory diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, as well as hepatic disorders, endocrine dysfunction, neurological deficits, and many others. This is further complicated by the PCB’s strong hydrophobicity, resulting in their ability to accumulate up th...
The pathology of cardiovascular disease is multi-faceted, with links to many modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Epidemiological evidence now implicates exposure to persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), with an increased risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, and obesity; all of which are clinically relevant to the onset and progression of cardiovascular disease. PCBs exert their cardiovascular toxicity either directly or indirectly via multiple mec...
AbstractThe metabolism of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is complex and has an impact on toxicity, and thereby on the assessment of PCB risks. A large number of reactive and stable metabolites are formed in the processes of biotransformation in biota in general, and in humans in particular. The aim of this document is to provide an overview of PCB metabolism, and to identify the metabolites of concern and their occurrence. Emphasis is given to mammalian metabolism of PCBs and their hydroxyl, m...
After the publication of the report titled Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century – A Vision and a Strategy, many initiatives started to foster a major paradigm shift for toxicity testing – from apical endpoints in animal-based tests to mechanistic endpoints through delineation of pathways of toxicity (PoT) in human cell based systems. The US EPA has funded an important project to develop new high throughput technologies based on human cell based in vitro technologies. These methods are currently ...
With the release of the landmark report Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, in 2007, precipitated a major change in the way toxicity testing is conducted. It envisions increased efficiency in toxicity testing and decreased animal usage by transitioning from current expensive and lengthy in vivo testing with qualitative endpoints to in vitro toxicity pathway assays on human cells or cell lines using robotic high-throughput screenin...
The polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are synthetic organochlorine chemicals that were useful industrial products in the past, but their production was ended because they persist in both the environment and living organisms. The PCBs are mixtures of up to 209 different components (congeners), depending on the number and position of chlorines around the biphenyl ring. The PCBs are fat-soluble substances to which everyone is exposed through ingesting animal fats, inhalation, or dermal contact. Expo...
The distribution and excretion of four 14 C-labeled polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), 4-chloro-, 4,49-dichloro-, 2,4,5,29,59-pentachloro-, and 2,4,5,29,49,59-hexachlorobiphenyl, were studied in the rat. Total radioactivity was determined in the major organs and tissues at times varying from 15 min up to 42 days after an intravenous injection of a single 0.6-mg dose of each of the PCB9s per kg. Each of the PCB9s was removed rapidly from the blood and initially stored largely in the liver and muscl...
Cited By0
Newest