Concentration of cd, pb, hg, and se in different parts of human breast cancer tissues

The behavior of arsenic accumulation in onion (Allium cepa) structures by irrigation water: effect of phosphates and arsenic on the total bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity

The presence of arsenic (As) in irrigation water is a threat to agricultural crops as well as human health. The presence of arsenic and phosphorous in irrigation water influences the behavior of bioaccumulation, biotransfer, and total bioactive compounds in the distinct parts of the onion structure. The present work evaluates the behavior of the bioaccumulation and biotransfer of As in the structures of onion (Allium cepa) through a composite central design and response surface method. The factors employed include the concentration of arsenic (V) and phosphate (V) in the nutritive solution. Additionally, this study analyzes the behavior of the effect that the induced stress has on the total bioactive compounds (phenols and flavonoids) and antioxidant capacity (ABTS and DPPH) in the onion roots. The results showed that the physiological properties, bioaccumulation factors, As transference, and the total bioactive compounds in the onion structure are affected by the competition of As and phosphates (P(V)) in the irrigation water. For concentrations of As and phosphorous of 450 μg L-1 and 0.30 mg L-1 respectively in irrigation water, there are negative effects on the equatorial diameter of the bulb (DE), length, weight of the leaf, and weight of the bulb. Besides, the transference and bioaccumulation factors range from 0.02 to 0.22 and from 2.15 to 7.81, respectively, suggesting that the plant has the ability to accumulate As but exhibits a low translocation ability of As from the root to aerial organs. Besides, it is found for central concentrations of As and phosphorous (450 μg L-1 and 0.30 mg L-1, respectively) in irrigation water, a greater production occurs in total phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity (ABTS and DPPH) as a response to the stress generated by As.

Possible role of lead in breast cancer - a case-control study

Numerous risk factors have been associated with breast cancer (BC), exposure to metalloestrogen, like lead, being such. Since lead involvement in BC is still equivocal, we focused on lead levels in three compartments of BC patients, blood, healthy, and malignant tissues. Also, as the cholesterol role in cancer development was recognized at the beginning of the twentieth century and led to involvement in lipid profile impairment, we further extend our research on lipid profile and enzymes responsible for maintaining lipid balance in BC patients. Fifty-five women diagnosed with BC were enrolled in the study. Forty-one healthy women represented the control group. Lead levels in blood, healthy surrounding and malignant tissue, and lipid profile parameters in serum, were determined. Higher lead levels were obtained in surrounding healthy tissue samples compared to cancerous tissue samples, while blood lead levels of BC women did not differ significantly from the control group. The altered lipid profile scheme in women diagnosed with breast cancer contained significantly higher triglycerides levels (P < 0.001). Moreover, logistic regression analysis revealed triglycerides as a significant predictor of BC (OR = 2.6; P < 0.01). Although statistical significance was missing for lower paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) activities observed in BC women, multivariate logistic regression singled out PON-1 activities as significant BC predictors. The result of the present study further indicated oxidative status imbalance and tissue levels bioelements perturbation. Obtained results in the present study propose possible lead involvement in BC onset accompanied with bioelements redistribution and oxidative stress occurrence.

Risk assessment of heavy metals consumption through onion on human health in Iran

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Onions have medicational features such as anti-cancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, and antifungal.

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Onions are rich in edible flavonoids.

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Due to their physiology and ecosystem, onions have the property of accumulating heavy metals.

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Onion consumption per capita in Iran is higher than in neighboring countries.

Considering the importance of onions consumption in the household diet, controlling of heavy elements' concentration in foodstuffs is important to ensure the safety of an individual's health. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of heavy metals through onion consumption on human health. In this cross-sectional experimental study, 22 onion samples with varieties red, yellow, and white in the two autumn and winter seasons in 2020 were randomly collected from the different provinces of Kurdistan, Hamedan, and Kermanshah. The concentrations of heavy metals were evaluated with an atomic absorption spectrometer. The risks of human health were evaluated by the hazard quotient (HQ) and the obtained results were analyzed with one-way ANOVA and one sample t-test. The obtained findings demonstrated that all collected samples contained heavy metals. For example, the cadmium (Cd) concentration in onion samples in the province of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Hormozgan, Isfahan, and Zanjan was 526.49, 274.49, 69.77, 67.39, 65.69 µg kg⁻¹, respectively. While the standard specified in Iran for the concentration of Cd in onions is 50 μg kg⁻¹. However, the rate of lead (Pb) contamination in samples collected from Isfahan, Hormozgan, Zanjan Khuzestan, Tehran (Varamin) was 296.50, 266.71, 261.49, 215.64, 106.19 µg kg⁻¹, respectively, which less than maximum allowable limit recommended by WHO-FAO (300 µg kg⁻¹). The HQ for non-cancerous diseases for Cd and Pb were 8.6 × 10⁻² and 1.6 × 10⁻¹, respectively, and the probability of carcinogenic risk for Pb (8.1 × 10⁻⁴) was at the level of acceptable. There is no concern about the non-carcinogenic diseases and carcinogenic risk of consuming heavy metals in onion. Therefore, for optimal management and prevention of further pollution, it is recommended to study the origin and determine the amounts of heavy metals for their potential contamination of foodstuffs from the region's soil, water, and dust.

Pollution characteristics and human health risk assessments of toxic metals and particle pollutants via soil and air using geoinformation in urbanized city of Pakistan

Toxic metals and particle pollutants in urbanized cities have significantly increased over the past few decades mainly due to rapid urbanization and unplanned infrastructure. This research aimed at estimating the concentration of toxic metals and particle pollutants and the associated risks to public health across different land-use settings including commercial area (CA), urban area (UA), residential area (RA), and industrial area (IA). A total of 47 samples for both soil and air were collected from different land-use settings of Faisalabad city in Pakistan. Mean concentrations of toxic metals such as Mn, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cr, Co, and Cd in all land-use settings were 92.68, 4.06, 1.34, 0.16, 0.07, 0.03, and 0.02 mg kg^-1, respectively. Mean values of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and Mn in all land-use settings were found 5.14, 1.34, and 1.9 times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Mn was found as the most hazardous metal in terms of pollution load index (PLI) and contamination factor (CF) in the studied area. Health risk analysis for particle pollutants using air quality index (AQI) and geoinformation was found in the range between good to very critical for all the land-use settings. The hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) were higher for children in comparison to adults, suggesting that children may be susceptible to potentially higher health risks. However, the cancer risk (CR) value for Pb ingestion (1.21 × 10^-6) in children was lower than the permissible limit (1 × 10^-4 to 1 × 10^-6). Nonetheless, for Cr inhalation, CR value (1.09 × 10^-8) was close to tolerable limits. Our findings can be of valuable assistance toward advancing our understanding of soil and air pollutions concerning public health in different land-use settings of the urbanized cities of Pakistan.

Assessment of heavy metal contamination in herbal medicinal products consumed in the Iranian market

Herbal medicines have been reported to contain many contaminants that are potential harmful to health. These include heavy metals, such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg). Therefore, this study aimed to measure the levels of Pb, Cd, As, and Hg in several orally administered herbal products available in the Iranian market. Fifteen products labeled (A-O) of different brands from three different production batches (n = 45) were purchased from traditional herbal medicine factories in Iran. Each sample was digested with nitric acid by the wet digestion method, and the resultant solutions were used to determine the concentrations of Pb, Cd, As, and Hg. These measurements were performed using flame atomic absorption spectrometry, graphite furnace atomic absorption, or cold vapor atomic absorption. The lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury contents in the investigated samples did not show significant levels that may be associated with toxicity. All four metals were present at concentrations below the limits recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization), American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), and Canadian standard, but in several herbal products, the concentrations of these trace elements exceeded the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The concentrations of Pb, Cd, As, and Hg in commercially available herbal remedies were well below the acceptable intake recommended by global recommendations. Our findings revealed that at present, the amount of heavy metals in medicinal herbs processed at the level of supply by pharmacies licensed is favorable.

The assessment of the usability of selected instrumental techniques for the elemental analysis of biomedical samples

The fundamental role of major, minor and trace elements in different physiological and pathological processes occurring in living organism makes that elemental analysis of biomedical samples becomes more and more popular issue. The most often used tools for analysis of the elemental composition of biological samples include Flame and Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (F-AAS and GF-AAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Each of these techniques has many advantages and limitations that should be considered in the first stage of planning the measurement procedure. Their reliability can be checked in the validation process and the precision, trueness and detection limits of elements belong to the most frequently determined validation parameters. The main purpose of this paper was the discussion of selected instrumental techniques (F-AAS, GF-AAS, ICP-OES and ICP-MS) in term of the achieved validation parameters and the usefulness in the analysis of biological samples. The focus in the detailed literature studies was also put on the methods of preparation of the biomedical samples. What is more based on the own data the usefulness of the total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy for the elemental analysis of animal tissues was examined. The detection limits of elements, precision and trueness for the technique were determined and compared with the literature data concerning other of the discussed techniques of elemental analysis. Reassuming, the following paper is to serve as a guide and comprehensive source of information concerning the validation parameters achievable in different instrumental techniques used for the elemental analysis of biomedical samples.

Premenopausal breast cancer is a health challenge: nutritional habits show potential to prevent this disease

Background:

The incidence of breast cancer had increased around the world. More premenopausal women suffer from this condition with great economic and social impact. The objective of this study is to establish possible associations between lifestyle and the presence of breast cancer in premenopausal women.

Methods:

The study population was composed of 330 premenopausal patients younger than 55 years with breast disease, cared between 2013 and 2017 at the University Hospital Mayor Méderi. Two comparison groups were formed. Patients with a tumor diagnosed as malignant considering cases and control group of patients with a tumor diagnosed as benign. With factors associated significantly in the bivariate analysis (P < .10), the hierarchically organized multiple regression model controlled by the confounding variables was constructed. The logistic regression model was adjusted by the age variable, to avoid residual confounder.

Results:

The population included 330 premenopausal women with benign and malignant breast disease: 134 cases and 196 controls. From the multivariate analysis, it was identified that the whole-grain consumption was inversely associated with presence of breast cancer (odds ratio [OR] = 0.579; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.339, 0.991; P = .046). On the other hand, consumption of fish was associated with the presence of breast malignancy (OR = 2.560; 95% CI: 1.200, 5.460; P = .015).

Conclusions:

Considering the epigenetic and multiomics individual profiles in the development of premenopausal breast cancer and its social and economic impact can be useful in development of modern clinical strategies with crucial interventions at the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention levels for this disease.

Metalloproteomics analysis in human mammary cell lines treated with inorganic mercury

The interest in inorganic Hg toxicity and carcinogenicity has been pointed to target organs such as kidney, brain or placenta, but only a few studies have focused on the mammary gland. In this work, analytical combination techniques (SDS-PAGE followed by CV-AFS, and nanoUPLC-ESI-MS/MS) were used to determine proteins that could bind Hg in three human mammary cell lines. Two of them were tumorigenic (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) and the other one was the non-tumorigenic cell line (MCF-10A). There are no studies that provide this kind of information in breast cell lines with IHg treatment. Previously, we described the viability, uptake and the subcellular distribution of Hg in human breast cells and analysis of RNA-seq about the genes that encode proteins which are related to cytotoxicity of Hg. This work provides important protein candidates for further studies of Hg toxicity in the mammary gland, thus expanding our understanding of how environmental contaminants might affect tumor progression and contribute with future therapeutic methods.

Elemental bioimaging shows mercury and other toxic metals in normal breast tissue and in breast cancers

OBJECTIVE

Exposure to toxic metals such as mercury has been proposed to be a risk factor for the development of breast cancer since some metals can promote genetic mutations and epigenetic changes. We sought to find what toxic metals are present in normal breast tissue and in the tumours of women who had mastectomies for invasive ductal breast carcinoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks from mastectomies for breast carcinoma were examined from 50 women aged 34-69 years. Paraffin blocks selected for elemental analysis were from breast tissue not involved by carcinoma and from the carcinoma itself. Seven micrometer-thick sections were stained with autometallography to demonstrate the presence of mercury, and subjected to laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to confirm the presence of mercury and to detect other toxic metals.

RESULTS

Autometallography-detected mercury was seen in intraductal secretions and some luminal epithelial cells of normal breast lobules in 26 (55%) of the 47 samples where lobules were present, and in 10 (23%) of carcinomas from the 44 samples where carcinoma was present. In eight samples ductal carcinoma in situ was present and one of these contained mercury. LA-ICP-MS confirmed the presence of mercury in samples that stained with autometallography, and detected lead, iron, nickel, aluminium, chromium and cadmium in some samples.

CONCLUSIONS

Mercury was present in normal breast lobules in more than half of mastectomy samples that contained an invasive carcinoma, and in a smaller proportion of carcinomas and ductal carcinomas in situ. Other toxic metals that may interact synergistically with mercury could be detected in some samples. These findings do not provide direct evidence that toxic metals such as mercury play a role in the pathogenesis of breast cancer, but suggest that future molecular biological investigations on the role of toxic metals in breast cancer are warranted.

Radiation interaction parameters for blood samples of breast cancer patients: an MCNP study

The main goal of this study was to determine radiation interaction parameters such as mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers, and effective electron densities depending on element concentrations (Na, K, Cu, Zn, Al, Ca, Mg Cr, Fe, Se) in blood samples of patients with breast cancer. Eighty blood samples were collected and analyzed in this study (40 from breast cancer patients and 40 from healthy patients). The determination of element concentrations of the samples was performed with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) after which the element concentrations were normalized to percentage. Mass attenuation coefficients were calculated by Monte Carlo simulation method. In addition, effective atomic numbers and effective electron density values of the blood samples were calculated with the ZXCOM program. One of the most important results of this study is that differences in radiation interaction parameters between the two groups were observed. More specifically, the mass attenuation coefficients of the healthy group's blood samples were higher than those of the cancerous group at photon energies of 50 keV, 100 keV, 250 keV and 500 keV, while they were lower at 1 MeV. All the MCNP results were consistent with the results obtained from ZXCOM. As the main result of this study it is concluded that photon atomic parameters such as mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic number and electron density may be considered in cancer diagnosis or treatment modalities.

Cadmium, arsenic, selenium and iron- Implications for tumor progression in breast cancer

The aim of this study was to determine Cd (cadmium) and As (arsenic) contents in human breast cancer tissues, investigate their interactions with Se (selenium) and Fe (iron), and assess their further implications for tumor progression. Metal contents were determined in 42 tissue sets (tumor and adjacent tissue) collected from 42 women diagnosed with primary breast cancer. Analytical methods included AAS and ICP-MS techniques. Significantly higher contents of Cd (p=0.0003), Se (p<0.0001) and Fe (p=0.0441) whereas significantly lower content of As (p<0.0001) were observed in tumors as compared to adjacent tissues. There was a significant positive correlation between Cd and As contents in tumor tissue. However, only Cd was significantly associated with histological type of tumor, its size, grading and progesterone receptor status. This study support the role of Cd in breast cancer risk and progression. The possible link between As exposure and breast cancer is still not clear.