Journal of Applied Toxicology

Autophagy is a critical cellular process that orchestrates the lysosomal degradation of cellular components in order to maintain cellular homeostasis and to respond to environmental stress. This review will highlight the importance of autophagy, its role in environmental stress response, and the importance of autophagy to the field of toxicology.

Acute toxic effects induced by ingestion or injection of different ionic (cationic, amphoteric, anionic and nonionic) surfactants and disinfectants (chlorhexidine, CHX) in rats were investigated comparatively. The results revealed that the toxic effects varied from one type of surfactant or disinfectant to another, and with the route of administration. Different kinetic properties between benzalkonium chloride, cationic surfactant used as disinfectant, and CHX were observed. The overall toxic ranks could be: cationic surfactant/ CHX> anionic/ amphoteric surfactant> nonionic surfactant.

Wistar rats were nose-only exposed to pigment-sized iron oxide dust (Fe₃O₄, magnetite) in a subchronic 13-week inhalation study at concentrations of 0, 4.7, 16.6, and 52.1 mg/m³ (MMAD»1.3 mm, GSD 2). Iron oxide particle-induced pulmonary inflammation was demonstrated best by increased neutrophils in BAL and changes in the retention kinetics of iron oxide particles. Findings were typical for poorly soluble particles at lung burdens causing overload with an empirical and benchmark NOAEL of 4.7 and 4.4 mg/m³, respectively.

For the discovery of common biomarkers for carbon tetrachloride, acetaminophen and methotrexate induced hepatotoxicity; metabolomics (global and targeted) techniques were used. Metabolites identified at global metabolomic analysis, were confirmed by targeted analysis. The discovered metabolite biomarkers which belong to three different metabolic pathways (steroids, bile acids and amino acids) to check for liver toxicity with mass spectrometry from a metabolomics study that could be used to evaluate hepatotoxicity induced by drugs or other toxic compounds.

This paper describes the evaluation of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and its precursor (N-terminal fragment of atrial natriuretic peptide, NT-proANP) in the healthy population of Han Wistar and Sprague–Dawley rats and in a rodent model of hypertension (Spontaneously Hypertensive rats). Results obtained demonstrated that NT-proANP and ANP can be accurately measured in the different rat strains and that both correlated well with cardiac hypertrophy evaluated by means of heart weight and histopathological examination.

The present study aims to investigate reproductive toxicity of chlorpyrifos exposure and the possible mechanism using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Accompanied by decreased brood size, the morphology of sperm and oocyte were altered and sperm motility and oocyte quality were reduced. Moreover, genes involved in spermatogenesis and oogenesis were altered to some degree. Therefore, chlorpyrifos exposure may lead to adverse effects on the fertility of nematodes by influencing both the spermatogenesis and the oogenesis.