SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol Transmission Through Vertical Sanitary Drains in High-Rise Buildings - Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, March 2022.

What is already known about this topic?: Aerosol transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via sanitary pipelines in high-rise buildings is possible, however, there is a lack of experimental evidence. What is added by this report?: The field simulation experiment confirmed the existence of a vertical aerosol transmission pathway from toilet flush-soil stack-floor drains without water seal. This report provided experimental evidence for vertical aerosol transmission of clustered outbreaks on 18 floors of a 33-story residential building. What are the implications for public health practice?: The water seal on floor drains is a necessary barrier to prevent the risk of vertical aerosol transmission of infectious disease pathogens in buildings. It is necessary not only to have a U-shaped trap in the drainage pipe, but also to be filled with water regularly.

Associations of plasma multiple metals with risk of hyperuricemia: A cross-sectional study in a mid-aged and older population of China.

BACKGROUND: Metal exposures are suspected to associate with the risk of hyperuricemia (HUA), but the current results are still conflicting. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the associations between multiple plasma metal exposures and HUA risk. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 1406 Chinese Han adults who underwent routine physical examination in the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University in Shenzhen. The plasma levels of 13 metals were measured by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Multivariable logistic, linear regression models, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalized regression analysis, and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were applied to assess the associations. RESULTS: The median plasma uric acid concentration in HUA group (434 µmol/L) was significantly higher than that in non-HUA group (305 µmol/L). The multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of HUA were 1.62(1.08-2.43) for magnesium, 1.61(1.05-2.47) for copper, 1.62(1.06-2.49) for zinc, 1.87(1.26-2.81) for arsenic, 1.50(1.01-2.23) for selenium, and 1.70(1.16-2.49) for thallium based on the single-metal logistic regression models, comparing the highest versus the lowest quartile of metal levels. Further multi-metal logistic, linear regression models and the LASSO analysis all indicated positive associations of zinc, arsenic with HUA risk or uric acid levels. RCS model indicated an inverted V-shaped positive association between zinc levels and HUA risk (p for non-linearity = 0.048, p for overall association = 0.022), while arsenic levels showed a positive and linear dose-response relationship with HUA risk (p for non-linearity = 0.892, p for overall association<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Higher plasma levels of zinc and arsenic might increase HUA risk and showed positive dose-response relationships. Further cohort studies in larger population are required to testify our findings.

Association between PM2.5 Exposure and All-Cause, Non-Accidental, Accidental, Different Respiratory Diseases, Sex and Age Mortality in Shenzhen, China.

Background: China is at its most important stage of air pollution control. Research on the association between air pollutants and human health is very important and necessary. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between PM2.5 concentrations and residents' mortality and to compare the effect of PM2.5 on the different diseases, accidental deaths, sex or age of residents from high polluted areas with less polluted areas. Methods: The semi-parametric generalized additive model (GAM) with Poisson distribution of time series analysis was used. The excess risk (ER) of mortality with the incremental increase of 10 µg/m³ in PM2.5 concentration was calculated. Concentration-response relationship curves and autocorrelation between different lags of PM2.5 were also evaluated. Results: PM2.5 exposure was significantly associated with the mortality of residents. The strongest ERs per 10 µg/m³ increase in PM2.5 were 0.74% (95% CI: 0.11⁻1.38%) for all-cause, 0.67% (95% CI: 0.01⁻1.33%) for non-accidental, 1.81% (95% CI: 0.22⁻3.42%) for accidental, 3.04% (95% CI: 0.60⁻5.55%) for total respiratory disease, 6.38% (95% CI: 2.78⁻10.11%) for chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD), 8.24% (95% CI: 3.53⁻13.17%) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 1.04% (95% CI: 0.25⁻1.84%) for male and 1.32% (95% CI: 0.46⁻2.19%) for elderly. Furthermore, important information on the concentration-response relationship curves was provided. Conclusions: PM2.5 can increase the risk of residents' mortality, even in places with less air pollution and developed economy in China.

The relationship between extreme temperature and emergency incidences: a time series analysis in Shenzhen, China.

Extreme temperature has been reported to be associated with an increase in acute disease incidence in several cities. However, few similar studies were carried out in Shenzhen, which is a subtropical city located in the southern China. This study explored the relationship between the emergency incidences and extreme temperatures, and investigated the role of air pollutants played in the temperature-related effects on human health in Shenzhen. We conducted a distributed lag nonlinear model study on the effect of extreme temperatures on emergency incidences in Shenzhen city during 2013-2017. Here, only the total emergency incidences, emergency incidences for respiratory diseases, and cardiovascular diseases were taken into consideration. Air pollution, subgroups, and seasons were adjusted to investigate the impacts of extreme temperatures on emergency incidences. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated with the R software. From lag 0 to 21 days, the RR of temperature-total emergency department visits, temperature-cardiovascular, and temperature-respiratory diseases was 1.09 (95% CI: 0.98-1.20), 1.22 (95% CI: 0.96-1.56), and 1.06 (95% CI: 0.70-1.60) at extremely low temperature (first percent of temperature, 10 °C), respectively. During the same lag days, the RR was 1.02 (95 % CI: 0.92-1.14), 0.64 (95% CI: 0.49-0.86), and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.56-1.53) between extremely high temperature and total emergency department visits, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases, respectively. The cumulative effects gradually went up with time for all types of emergency incidences in warm seasons (5 days moving average of temperature < 22 °C). However, the cumulative effects of total emergency incidences and Cvd emergency incidences were increased within the first lag 5 days, and then decreased until lag 21 in hot seasons (5 days moving average of temperature ≥ 22 °C). The cumulative effects of Res emergency incidences showed a declined trend from lag 0 to lag 21. The elderly (≥ 65, P1: RR = 1.49, 95% CI (1.30, 1.71); P99: RR = 0.86, 95% CI (0.71, 1.04)) and men (P1: RR = 1.27, 95% CI (1.14, 1.42)) seemed to be more vulnerable to extreme temperature than the younger (≤ 64, P1: RR = 1.19, 95% CI (1.08, 1.32); P99: RR = 1.00, 95% CI (0.89, 1.12)) and women (P1: RR = 1.17, 95%CI (1.06, 1.30)). The effects of extremely low temperature on all types of emergency incidences were stronger than those of extremely high temperature in the whole year. In addition, impacts of cold weather lasted about several days while those of hot weather were acute and rapid. An increased frequency of emergency incidences is predicted by rising temperatures variations. These results have clinical and public health implications for the management of emergency incidences.

Association between Airborne Fine Particulate Matter and Residents' Cardiovascular Diseases, Ischemic Heart Disease and Cerebral Vascular Disease Mortality in Areas with Lighter Air Pollution in China.

BACKGROUND: China began to carry out fine particulate matter (PM2.5) monitoring in 2013 and the amount of related research is low, especially in areas with lighter air pollution. This study aims to explore the association between PM2.5 and cardiovascular disease (CVD), ischemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebral vascular disease (EVD) mortality in areas with lighter air pollution. METHODS: Data on resident mortality, air pollution and meteorology in Shenzhen during 2013⁻2015 were collected and analyzed using semi-parametric generalized additive models (GAM) with Poisson distribution of time series analysis. RESULTS: Six pollutants were measured at seven air quality monitoring sites, including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3. The PM2.5 daily average concentration was 35.0 ± 21.9 µg/m³; the daily average concentration range was from 7.1 µg/m³ to 137.1 µg/m³. PM2.5 concentration had significant effects on CVD, IHD and EVD mortality. While PM2.5 concentration of lag5 and lag02 rose by 10 µg/m³, the excess risk (ER) of CVD mortality were 1.50% (95% CI: 0.51⁻2.50%) and 2.09% (95% CI: 0.79⁻3.41%), respectively. While PM2.5 concentration of lag2 and lag02 rose by 10 µg/m³, the ER of IHD mortality were 2.87% (95% CI: 0.71⁻5.07%) and 3.86% (95% CI: 1.17⁻6.63%), respectively. While PM2.5 concentration of lag4 and lag04 rose by 10 µg/m³, the ER of EVD mortality were 2.09% (95% CI: 2.28⁻3.92%) and 3.08% (95% CI: 0.68⁻5.53%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: PM2.5 increased CVD mortality. The government needs to strengthen the governance of air pollution in areas with a slight pollution.

Effect of nut consumption on vascular endothelial function: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE: nut consumption has consistently been found to be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and mortality in prospective studies. However, its effect on endothelial function, a prognostic marker of CVD, is still controversial in clinical trials. This meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) aimed to quantitatively assess the effect of nuts on vascular endothelial function. METHODS: Major electronic databases were searched for published RCTs that reported the effect of nuts on flow mediated dilation (FMD) as a measurement of endothelial function in the adult population (age eighteen years or over). We calculated the pooled estimates of weighted mean differences (WMDs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by using random-effects models. RESULTS: A total of nine papers (10 trials) involving 374 participants were included. The pooled estimates found that nut consumption significantly improved FMD (WMD: 0.41%; 95% CI: 0.18%, 0.63%; P = 0.001). Moderate and marginally significant heterogeneity was observed among the studies (I2 = 39.5%, P = 0.094). Subgroup analyses indicated that walnuts significantly improved FMD (WMD: 0.39%; 95% CI: 0.16%, 0.63%; P = 0.001). In addition, nut consumption had a significant effect on FMD in the trials with study duration <18 weeks, nut dose <67 g/d, or subjects with baseline FMD ≥8.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Nut consumption significantly improved endothelial function. However, the beneficial effect was limited to walnuts. More studies examining the effect of other nuts on endothelial function are needed in the future.

Circulating Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin Type 9 (PCSK9) Concentration and Risk of Cardiovascular Events　- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have not found a consistent association between circulating proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) and the risk of cardiovascular events. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate this association in prospective studies.Methods and Results:A systematic search of prospective studies published through October 2016 was carried out in order to identify studies that met pre-specified inclusion criteria. After independent data extraction, summary relative risks were calculated using random-effects models. On meta-analysis of 6 cohort and 1 nested case-control study, circulating PCSK9 concentration as a continuous variable was not significantly associated with the risk of cardiovascular events (overall RR, 1.12; 95% CI: 0.98-1.29; P=0.09), with significant heterogeneity (I2=55.1%, Pheterogeneity=0.038). The highest but not middle categories of circulating PCSK9 was significantly associated with the risk of cardiovascular events. On subgroup analysis of study design, mean age at baseline, sample size, follow-up time, and pre-existing disease, there was no significant association between PCSK9 and cardiovascular events. Sensitivity analysis with various exclusion and inclusion criteria did not materially change the results. CONCLUSIONS: Circulating PCSK9 concentration as a continuous variable was not significantly associated with the risk of cardiovascular events. More well-designed studies are needed to clarify the role of PCSK9 in cardiovascular risk.

Role of S-adenosylhomocysteine in cardiovascular disease and its potential epigenetic mechanism.

Transmethylation reactions utilize S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) as a methyl donor and are central to the regulation of many biological processes: more than fifty SAM-dependent methyltransferases methylate a broad spectrum of cellular compounds including DNA, histones, phospholipids and other small molecules. Common to all SAM-dependent transmethylation reactions is the release of the potent inhibitor S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) as a by-product. SAH is reversibly hydrolyzed to adenosine and homocysteine by SAH hydrolase. Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, a major unanswered question is if homocysteine is causally involved in disease pathogenesis or simply a passive and indirect indicator of a more complex mechanism. A chronic elevation in homocysteine levels results in a parallel increase in intracellular or plasma SAH, which is a more sensitive biomarker of cardiovascular disease than homocysteine and suggests that SAH is a critical pathological factor in homocysteine-associated disorders. Previous reports indicate that supplementation with folate and B vitamins efficiently lowers homocysteine levels but not plasma SAH levels, which possibly explains the failure of homocysteine-lowering vitamins to reduce vascular events in several recent clinical intervention studies. Furthermore, more studies are focusing on the role and mechanisms of SAH in different chronic diseases related to hyperhomocysteinemia, such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and obesity. This review summarizes the current role of SAH in cardiovascular disease and its effect on several related risk factors. It also explores possible the mechanisms, such as epigenetics and oxidative stress, of SAH. This article is part of a Directed Issue entitled: Epigenetic dynamics in development and disease.

Increased plasma S-adenosylhomocysteine-accelerated atherosclerosis is associated with epigenetic regulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress in apoE-/- mice.

OBJECTIVE: S-Adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) is a better predictor of cardiovascular disease than homocysteine is, and it has been implicated in mediating the pathogenicity of hyperhomocysteinemia in atherosclerosis via an epigenetic mechanism. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis whether the effect of SAH on atherosclerosis is involved in epigenetic regulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress. APPROACH AND RESULTS: A total of 48 apolipoprotein E-deficient mice at 8 weeks were randomly divided into 4 groups (n=12 for each group). The control group was fed a conventional diet, the adenosine dialdehyde group was fed a diet that was supplemented with the SAH hydrolase inhibitor adenosine dialdehyde, and the other 2 groups were intravenously injected with a retrovirus that expressed either SAH hydrolase short hairpin RNA or scrambled short hairpin RNA semiweekly for 16 weeks. Plasma SAH levels and atherosclerotic lesion size were significantly increased in adenosine dialdehyde and SAH hydrolase short hairpin RNA groups when compared with control group. Expression of endoplasmic reticulum stress markers glucose-regulated protein-78 and CEBP-homologous protein was significantly increased in the mice with elevated plasma SAH levels. Moreover, plasma SAH was negatively associated with a decrease in the expression of trimethylated histone H3 lysine 9 and histone methyltransferases. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed a significant decrease in trimethylated histone H3 lysine 9 occupancy at the glucose-regulated protein-78 and CEBP-homologous protein promoters in mice treated with adenosine dialdehyde and SAH hydrolase short hairpin RNA when compared with control mice. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that elevated plasma SAH levels-accelerated atherosclerosis was associated with the activation of endoplasmic reticulum stress via modulation of histone methylation.

Association between high temperature and mortality in metropolitan areas of four cities in various climatic zones in China: a time-series study.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have reported on the associations between ambient temperatures and mortality. However, few multi-city studies have been conducted in developing countries including China. This study aimed to examine the association between high temperature and mortality outcomes in four cities with different climatic characteristics in China to identify the most vulnerable population, detect the threshold temperatures, and provide scientific evidence for public health policy implementations to respond to challenges from extreme heat. METHODS: A semi-parametric generalized additive model (GAM) with a Poisson distribution was used to analyze the impacts of the daily maximum temperature over the threshold on mortality after controlling for covariates including time trends, day of the week (DOW), humidity, daily temperature range, and outdoor air pollution. RESULTS: The temperature thresholds for all-cause mortality were 29°C, 35°C, 33°C and 34°C for Harbin, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Chongqing, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders including air pollution, strong associations between daily maximum temperature and daily mortality from all-cause, cardiovascular, endocrine and metabolic outcomes, and particularly diabetes, were observed in different geographical cities, with increases of 3.2-5.5%, 4.6-7.5% and 12.5-31.9% (with 14.7-29.2% in diabetes), respectively, with each 1°C increment in the daily maximum temperature over the threshold. A stronger temperature-associated mortality was detected in females compared to males. Additionally, both the population over 55 years and younger adults aged 30 to 54 years reported significant heat-mortality associations. CONCLUSIONS: Extreme heat is becoming a huge threat to public health and human welfare due to the strong temperature-mortality associations in China. Climate change with increasing temperatures may make the situation worse. Relevant public health strategies and an early extreme weather and health warning system should be developed and improved at an early stage to prevent and reduce the health risks due to extreme weather and climate change in China, given its huge population, diverse geographic distribution and unbalanced socioeconomic status with various climatic characteristics.

[Simultaneous determination of melamine and cyanuric acid residues in water and urine by solid phase extraction-hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry method].

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to establish a sensitive quantified method for the simultaneous determination of melamine and cyanuric acid residues in water and urine by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-ESI-MS/MS) with the pretreatment of hydrophilic functional silica gel and cation exchange resin mixed solid phase extraction column(MCT), and to investigate the melamine and cyanuric acid residues in 501 water and 216 urine from several province and city. METHODS: About 100 ml water (or 10 ml urine) was adjusted to pH 3.0 with concentrated hydrochloric acid, and then mixed with the internal standard solution((15)N3-melamine and (15)N3-(13)C3 -cyanuric acid) and 100 ml acetonitrile (10 ml for urine). The solution was cleaned with MCT solid-phase extraction column, and eluted once by 3 ml methanol and twice by 2.5 ml methanol (containing 5% ammonia water). The effluent was collected and dried by N2 flow at 40 °C, and then diluted to 2 mmol/L ammonium acetate containing 90% volume fraction acetonitrile. The completely dissolved solution was then filtered with 0.22 µm organic membrane; and the filtrate was detected by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and quantified with internal standards. The repeatability and sensitivity of the assay were evaluated. Then we detected the melamine and cyanuric acid residues in 501 water and 216 urine samples collected from several province and city. RESULTS: By the quantification of internal standard (15)N3-melamine and (15)N3-(13)C3-cyanuric acid, the melamine and cyanuric acid were linear in the range of 2.0-1000.0 µg/L with correlation coefficient of 0.9998 and 0.9997. The detection limits of the method were separately 0.4 ng/L (melamine) and 0.3 ng/L (cyanuric acid) for water, and 4.0 ng/L (melamine) and 3.0 ng/L (cyanuric acid) for urine. The average recovery rate was around 95.3%-100.1% with the relative standard deviation (RSD) was <4.02%. Out of the 501 water samples, melamine was detected out in 19.9% (100/501) and cyanuric acid was detected out in 5.2% (26/501). The content was around 0.03-5.00 g/L. Melamine or cyanuric acid was detected out in 24.5% of the urine samples (53/216), with the content around 0.01-1.00 g/L. CONCLUSION: The established method of solid phase extraction-hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry can satisfy the requirement for detection of melamine and cyanuric acid residues in all sorts of water and urine. Meanwhile, the two substances widely existed in water and Chinese population.

Control of iodine-deficiency disorders following universal salt iodization in Shenzhen, China, 1997-2011.

BACKGROUND: Since universal salt iodization (USI) was implemented in Shenzhen, China, in 1996, evaluation of the time trend of USI to indicate the control of iodine-deficiency disorders has not been performed. OBJECTIVE: To assess the time trend of median urinary iodine and total goiter rates from 1997 to 2011. METHODS: Probability-proportionate-to-size sampling was employed in the surveillance of iodine-deficiency disorders, for which schoolchildren aged 8 to 10 years were randomly selected from five districts of the city during each iodine-deficiency disorders survey. Urinary iodine content and thyroid size were measured by ammonium persulfate oxidation and B ultrasound, respectively. RESULTS: The coverage of iodized salt increased from 73.2% in 1997 to more than 90% in 2011. The median urinary iodine of children aged 8 to 10 years varied between 207.1 and 278.8 microg/L; these levels were above the urinary iodine level in 1995. The proportion of urine samples with iodine content above 300 microg/L was 45.6% in 1997 and decreased to 20.8% in 2011, indicating excessive consumption of iodine by the children. The goiter rate among children dropped from 10.8% in 1997 to 1.3% in 2011; both values were lower than the goiter rate in 1995, indicating that the spread of endemic goiter was under control. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary elimination of iodine-deficiency disorders was achieved by USI in Shenzhen. Nevertheless, some problems still existed, such as over-iodization. To clarify the causes of excessive urinary iodine content, the various sources of iodine from the diet need to be investigated in the future.

Circulating fibroblast growth factor 23 is associated with angiographic severity and extent of coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVE: Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) is a circulating regulator of phosphate and vitamin D metabolism and is associated with coronary artery calcification, and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to determine whether circulating FGF23 concentration is independently associated with the severity and extent of coronary artery disease in patients undergoing coronary angiography. METHOD: A cross-sectional design was used to examine the relationship between serum FGF23 and the severity and extent of coronary artery stenosis in 2076 patients undergoing coronary angiography (1263 male and 813 female, mean aged 62.5 years). Subgroup analyses were performed to assess the associations between FGF23 and coronary arterial plaque characteristics evaluated by intravascular ultrasound and 12-month incidence of target vessel revascularization (TVR) and target lesion revascularization (TLR). FINDINGS: We found a stepwise increase of serum FGF23 concentrations in patients with mild, moderate, severe stenosis or with increased number of stenotic vessels compared with those without stenosis (P<0.001). Serum FGF23 concentration was positively correlated with stenosis scores as the global index of the severity and extent of coronary artery stenosis in both male and female (r = 0.315 and r = 0.291, P<0.001). In multiple regression analyses, serum FGF23 concentration was a significant determinant of the stenosis scores independent of other traditional risk factors (standardized ß = 0.326, P<0.001). Furthermore, subgroup analyses found FGF23 was significantly associated with plaque and dense calcium volumes. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that serum FGF23 levels were significantly independent predictors of TVR and TLR. CONCLUSIONS: We report an independent association between circulating FGF23 concentration and the severity and extent of coronary artery stenosis in the coronary angiographic patients. Future studies are needed to elucidate the potential biological mechanisms and whether FGF23 is a modifiable cardiovascular risk factor.

Study of cytoskeletal changes induced by okadaic acid in HL-7702 liver cells and development of a fluorimetric microplate assay for detecting diarrhetic shellfish poisoning.

Diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) is a gastrointestinal illness with symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache, chills and moderate to severe abdominal pain. DSP has been recognized as a worldwide public health problem, causing great concern to the shellfish industry. Accumulation of DSP in shellfish is an unpredictable phenomenon that necessitates the implementation of a widespread collection and thorough monitoring program for mollusk toxicity. Therefore, development of accurate analytical protocols for the rapid determination of toxicity levels would be necessary. In this study we investigated cytoskeletal changes induced by okadaic acid in HL-7702 Liver Cells and developed a new cytotoxicity assay for detection and quantitation of DSP. This assay is based on fluorometric of F-actin depolymerization induced by okadaic acid (OA) compounds in HL-7702 liver cell line. The measurable range of OA was 2.5 ∼ 40 nmol/L. The detection limit of the F-actin assay for OA was 2.01 µg/100 g muscles in shellfish extracts. The performance of this assay has been evaluated by comparative analysis of shellfish samples by the fluorescent assay, mouse bioassay, and ELISA assay. Comparison of the results by all three methods revealed excellent consistency, the results of fluorescent assay were in significant correlation with ELISA assay (R(2) = 0.830). Examination of F-actin assay is very convenient, rapid, and sensitive, which can be used to quantify the amount of OA in shellfish samples.

Proteomic analysis of trichloroethylene-induced alterations in expression, distribution, and interactions of SET/TAF-Iα and two SET/TAF-Iα-binding proteins, eEF1A1 and eEF1A2, in hepatic L-02 cells.

Emerging evidence indicates that trichloroethylene (TCE) exposure causes severe hepatotoxicity. However, the mechanisms of TCE hepatotoxicity remain unclear. Recently, we reported that TCE exposure up-regulated the expression of the oncoprotein SET/TAF-Iα and SET knockdown attenuated TCE-induced cytotoxicity in hepatic L-02 cells. To decipher the function of SET/TAF-Iα and its contributions to TCE-induced hepatotoxicity, we employed a proteomic analysis of SET/TAF-Iα with tandem affinity purification to identify SET/TAF-Iα-binding proteins. We identified 42 novel Gene Ontology co-annotated SET/TAF-Iα-binding proteins. The identifications of two of these proteins (eEF1A1, elongation factor 1-alpha 1; eEF1A2, elongation factor 1-alpha 2) were confirmed by Western blot analysis and co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP). Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of TCE on the expression, distribution and interactions of eEF1A1, eEF1A2 and SET in L-02 cells. Western blot analysis reveals a significant up-regulation of eEF1A1, eEF1A2 and two isoforms of SET, and immunocytochemical analysis reveals that eEF1A1 and SET is redistributed by TCE. SET is redistributed from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, while eFE1A1 is translocated from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Moreover, we find by Co-IP that TCE exposure significantly increases the interaction of SET with eEF1A2. Our data not only provide insights into the physiological functions of SET/TAF-Iα and complement the SET interaction networks, but also demonstrate that TCE exposure induces alterations in the expression, distribution and interactions of SET and its binding partners. These alterations may constitute the mechanisms of TCE cytotoxicity.

[Measuring diet quality of labor workers in Shenzhen using Chinese diet balance index].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the overall diet quality and diet model of labor workers in Shenzhen using Chinese Diet Balance Index (DBI). METHODS: In May 2009, 14 canteens from Baoan, Longgang and Nanshan districts were selected by stratified random sampling and 60 workers were randomly selected from each canteen by using random number method. Diet measurements were carried out among the 840 labor workers. Diet quality was evaluated by using DBI scoring and evaluating system. RESULTS: The median values of labor workers' food intakes of cereal and meat & poultry were 483.8 and 121.7 g/d, which were more than the recommended amounts of their intakes of Chinese residents (cereal: 250 - 400 g/d, meat & poultry: 50 -70 g/d). The median values of the labor workers' intakes of fruit, dairy and eggs were 37.3, 20.6 and 23.5 g/d,which were less than recommended amounts in fruits (200 - 400 g/d), dairy (300 g/d) and eggs (25 - 50 g/d). The DBI-HBS scores of males and females in Shenzhen migrant workers were 24.4 +/- 6.1 and 22.6 +/- 6.3, respectively with a statistically significant difference (t = 4.21, P < 0.01). DBI-HBS scores of < 20 age group, 20 - 29 age group, 30 - 39 age group and > or = 40 age group in labor workers were 12.7 +/- 5.9, 11.3 +/- 6.3, 12.8 +/- 6.4 and 11.2 +/- 5.6 respectively (F = 3.67, P = 0.01). There were 7 dietary patterns among labor workers in this survey. Nearly 8.2% (68/830) of them belonged to Pattern A. Pattern B and E were the main dietary patterns, which accounted for 37.3% (310/830) and 31.0% (257/830) of the total population. CONCLUSION: DBI can describe and evaluate the overall dietary quality and the major problem of the dietary patterns in labor workers. It is necessary to strength nutritional education to increase the intake of fruits, milk and eggs to improve nutritional status in labor workers in Shenzhen.