Survivorship of early life stages is key for the well-being of sea turtle populations, yet studies on animals that distribute around oceanic areas are very challenging. So far, the information on green turtles (Chelonia mydas) that use the open NE Atlantic as feeding grounds is scarce. Strandings occurring in oceanic archipelagos can provide relevant information about the biology, ecology and current anthropogenic pressures for megafauna inhabiting the open ocean. In this study, we analysed stranding events of green turtles found in the Azores archipelago to investigate interactions with marine litter. In addition, we quantified and characterized litter items stranded on beaches to provide a direct comparison between the ingested items with the debris found in the environment. A total of 21 juvenile green turtles were found stranded in the region between 2000 and 2020 (size range: 12–49 cm, CCL). Overall, 14% of the animals were entangled in marine litter and 86% of the turtles necropsied had ingested plastic. The mean abundance of items ingested was 27.86 ± 23.40 and 98% were white/transparent. Hard plastic fragments between 1 and 25 mm were the most common shape recovered in the turtles, similarly to what was found on the coastline. All of the litter items analysed with pyrolysis GC-MS revealed to be polyethylene (PE). This study provides the first baseline assessment of interactions of plastic litter with juvenile green turtles found at the east edge of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. The combination of these results supports the hypothesis that migratory megafauna that use remote oceanic islands as a feeding ground are exposed to anthropogenic litter contamination dominated by plastics, even when these regions are located far away from big industrial centers or populated cities.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, mainly from the manufacture and use of plastics. The use of BPA is restricted, and its new analogs (including bisphenol AF, BPAF) are being produced to replace it. However, the effect of BPAF on the male reproductive system remains unclear. Here, we report the effect of BPAF on Leydig cell regeneration in rats. Leydig cells were eliminated by ethane dimethane sulfonate (EDS, i.p., 75 mg/kg) and the regeneration began 14 days after its treatment. We gavaged 0, 10, 100, and 200 mg/kg BPAF to rats on post-EDS day 7–28. BPAF significantly reduced serum testosterone and progesterone levels at ≧10 mg/kg. It markedly reduced serum levels of estradiol, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone at 100 and 200 mg/kg. BPAF significantly reduced Leydig cell number at 200 mg/kg. BPAF significantly down-regulated the expression of Cyp17a1 at doses of 10 mg/kg and higher and the expression of Insl3, Star, Hsd17b3, Hsd11b1 in Leydig cells at 100 and 200 mg/kg, while it induced a significant up-regulation of Fshr, Dhh, and Sox9 in Sertoli cells at 200 mg/kg. BPAF induced oxidative stress and reduced the level of SOD2 at 200 mg/kg. It induced apoptosis and autophagy by increasing the levels of BAX, LC3B, and BECLIN1 and lowering the levels of BCL2 and p62 at 100 and 200 mg/kg. It induced autophagy possibly via decreasing the phosphorylation of AKT1 and mTOR. BPAF also significantly induced ROS production and apoptosis at a concentration of 10 μM, and reduced testosterone synthesis in rat R2C Leydig cells at a concentration of 10 μM in vitro, but did not affect cell viability after 24 h of treatment. In conclusion, BPAF is a novel endocrine disruptor, inhibiting the regeneration of Leydig cells.

To improve the accuracy of dietary risk assessment of arsenic (As) from aquatic products, toxic As species (As(III), As(V), monomethylarsonic acid [MMA], and dimethylarsinic acid [DMA]) and total As were analyzed in 124 marketed aquatic products from eight coastal cities in China. Distribution characteristics of Toxic As (the sum of the four toxic As species) in the samples and associated risk of human dietary exposure were emphatically investigated. The impact of cooccurrence of As and other chemical elements in the aquatic products was assessed based on our former results of mercury (Hg) and selenium (Se). Toxic As contents (maximum value 0.358 mg kg⁻¹ wet weight) in the samples accounted for at most 14.1% of total As. DMA was the major component (mean proportion 50.8% for shellfish, 100% for fish) of Toxic As in aquatic products. Shellfish contained more Toxic As than fish did. Mean estimated daily intakes of Toxic As for the residents with aquatic product consumption rates of 46.1–235 g day⁻¹ ranged from 0.034 to 0.290 μg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹. Potential health risk was indicated among those who greatly consumed aquatic products, as their target hazard quotient (THQ) and target cancer risk (TR) values exceeded safety thresholds (1 for THQ, 10⁻⁴ for TR). DMA and MMA exposure contributed to 3.42–7.72% of the THQTₒₓᵢc Aₛ. Positive correlations between concentrations of As and Hg (Fish: r = 0.47, p < 0.01; Shellfish: r = 0.60, p < 0.01), as well as between that of As and Se (Fish: r = 0.69, p < 0.01; Shellfish: r = 0.37, p < 0.01) were found in the samples. It requires attentions urgently that As and Hg coexposure through aquatic product consumption rose the sum THQ of Toxic As and methylmercury (MeHg) to approximately two to eight times as high as the THQTₒₓᵢc Aₛ.

Wastewater and stormwater are both considered as critical pathways contributing microplastics (MPs) to the aquatic environment. However, there is little information in the literature about the potential influence of constructed wetlands (CWs), a commonly used wastewater and stormwater treatment system. This study was conducted to investigate the abundance and distribution of MPs in water and sediment at five CWs with different influent sources, namely stormwater and wastewater. The MP abundance in the water samples ranged between 0.4 ± 0.3 and 3.8 ± 2.3 MP/L at the inlet and from 0.1 ± 0.0 to 1.3 ± 1.0 MP/L at the outlet. In the sediment, abundance of MPs was generally higher at the inlet, ranging from 736 ± 335 to 3480 ± 4330 MP/kg dry sediment and decreased to between 19.0 ± 16.4 and 1060 ± 326 MP/kg dry sediment at the outlet. Although no significant differences were observed in sediment cores at different depth across the five CWs, more MPs were recorded in silt compared to sandy sediment which indicated sediment grain size could be an environmental factor contributing to the distribution of MPs. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres were the dominant polymer type found in the water samples while polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) fragments were predominantly recorded in the sediment. While the size of MPs in water varied across the studied CWs, between 51% and 64% of MPs in the sediment were smaller than 300 μm, which raises concerns about the bioavailability of MPs to a wider range of wetland biota and their potential ecotoxicological effects. This study shows that CWs can not only retain MPs in the treated water, but also become sinks accumulating MPs over time.

DEHP is commonly found in the environment, biota, food, and humans, raising significant health concerns. Whether developmental stage and exposure duration modify the obesogenic effects of DEHP is unclear, especially the underlying mechanisms by which chronic exposure to DEHP as well as its metabolites remain largely unknown. This study investigated the obesogenic effects of chronic DEHP exposure, with levels below environmentally-relevant amounts and provide the mechanism in Caenorhabditis elegans. We show that early-life DEHP exposure resulted in an increased lipid and triglyceride (TG) accumulation mainly attributed to DEHP itself, not its metabolite mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP). In addition, developmental stage and exposure timing influence DEHP-induced TG accumulation and chronic DEHP exposure resulted in the most significant effect. Analysis of fatty acid composition shows that chronic DEHP exposure altered fatty acid composition and TG, resulting in an increased ω-6/ω-3 ratio. The increased TG content by chronic DEHP exposure required lipogenic genes fat-6, fat-7, pod-2, fasn-1, and sbp-1. Moreover, chronic DEHP exposure induced XBP-1-mediated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress which might lead to up-regulation of sbp-1. This study suggests the possible involvement of ER stress and SBP-1/SREBP-mediated lipogenesis in chronic DEHP-induced obesogenic effects. Results from this study implies that chronic exposure to DEHP disrupts lipid metabolism, which is likely conserved across species due to evolutionary conservation of molecular mechanisms, raising concerns in ecological and human health.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been found to be widely present in soil. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in soil are supposed to greatly affect the bioavailability of PFASs in soil. Herein, hydroponic experiments were conducted to understand the impacts of two kinds of typical DOM, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and humic acid (HA), on the uptake and translocation of legacy PFASs and their emerging alternatives, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctane acid (PFOA), perfluorohexane sulfonic (PFHxS) and 6:2 chlorinated polyfluoroalkyl ether sulfonate (6:2 Cl-PFESA) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The results indicated that both HA and BSA significantly inhibited the bioaccumulation and translocation of PFASs in the roots and shoots of wheat, and the impacts of BSA were greater than HA. This difference was explained by the greater binding affinities of the four PFASs with BSA than with HA, as evidenced by the equilibrium dialysis and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) analyses. It was noting that inhibition impacts of the BSA-HA mixture (1:1) were lower than BSA alone. The results of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy suggested that HA could bind with the fluorescent tryptophan residues in BSA greatly, competing the binding sites with PFASs and forming a cover on the surface of BSA. As a result, the binding of PFASs with BSA-HA complex was much lower than that with BSA, but close to HA. The results of this study shed light on the impacts of DOM in soil on the bioaccumulation and translocation of PFASs in plants.

The worldwide decline of pollinators is of growing concern and has been related to the use of insecticides. Solitary bees are potentially exposed to many insecticides through contaminated pollen and/or nectar. The kinetics of these compounds in solitary bees is, however, unknown, limiting the use of these important pollinators in pesticide regulations. Here, the toxicokinetics (TK) of chlorpyrifos (as Dursban 480 EC), cypermethrin (Sherpa 100 EC), and acetamiprid (Mospilan 20 SP) was studied for the first time in Osmia bicornis females at sublethal concentrations (near LC₂₀ₛ). The TK of the insecticides was analysed in bees continuously exposed to insecticide-contaminated food in the uptake phase followed by feeding with clean food in the decontamination phase. The TK models differed substantially between the insecticides. Acetamiprid followed the classic one-compartment model with gradual accumulation during the uptake phase followed by depuration during the decontamination phase. Cypermethrin accumulated rapidly in the first two days and then its concentration decreased slowly. Chlorpyrifos accumulated similarly rapidly but no substantial depuration was found until the end of the experiment. Our study demonstrates that some insecticides can harm solitary bees when exposed continuously even at trace concentrations in food because of their constant accumulation leading to time-reinforced toxicity.

Exposure to metals has been linked with the risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), but little is known about the potential effects of exposure to metal mixtures. Thus, our study aimed to investigated the impact of a complex mixture of metals on HDP, especially the interactions among metal mixtures. We did a population-based nested case-control study from October 2013 to October 2016 in Wuhan, China, including 146 HDP cases and 292 controls. Plasma concentrations of Aluminum (Al), Barium (Ba), Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Molybdenum (Mo), Nickel (Ni), Selenium (Se), Strontium (Sr), Thallium (Tl), and Vanadium (V) were measured and collected between 10 and 16 gestational weeks. We employed quantile g-computation, conditional logistic regression models, and Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) to assess the association of individual metals and metal mixtures with HDP risk. In the quantile g-computation, the OR for a joint tertile increase in plasma concentrations was 3.67 (95% CI: 1.70, 7.91). Hg contributed the largest positive weights and followed by Al, Ni, and V. In conditional logistic regression models, concentrations of Hg, Al, Ni, and V were significantly associated with the risk of HDP (p-FDR < 0.05). Compared to the lowest tertiles, the ORs (95% CI) for the highest tertiles of these four metals were 2.67 (1.44, 4.95), 3.09 (1.70, 5.64), 5.31 (2.68, 10.53), and 4.52 (2.26, 9.01), respectively. In the BKMR analysis, we observed a linear positive association between Hg, Al, V, and HDP, and a nonlinear relationship between Ni and HDP. A potential interaction between Al and V was also identified. We found that exposure to metal mixtures in early pregnancy, both individually and as a mixture, was associated with the risk of HDP. Potential interaction effects of Al and V on the risk of HDP may exist.

In this study, a new magnetic nanocomposite was developed as an efficient and fast-response fluorescence quenching sensor for determination of anticancer drug 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP). For this purpose, the needle-shape fluorescence metal-organic framework of cerium (Ce-MOF) were successfully synthesized on the surface of multiwalled carbon nanotubes using 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid ligand via a facile solvothermal assisted route and magnetized. The accuracy of the proposed synthesis was confirmed using the FT-IR, FE-SEM, XRD, and VSM methods. The obtained product as presented the fluorescence emission in 331 nm by excitation of 293 nm in excitation/emission slit widths of 10.0 nm. The operation of suggested method is based on quenching the fluorescence signal in accordance with increasing the 6-MP concentration. The proposed assay effectively detected the trace amount of 6-MP in the linear range of 1.0 × 10⁻⁶ to 7 × 10⁻⁵ M. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were obtained as 8.6 × 10⁻⁷ and 2.86 × 10⁻⁶ M, respectively. The analyte molecule was determined in real samples with satisfactory recoveries between 98.75 and 105.33.