| 1. |
- Bergman, Lina, et al.
(författare)
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Plasma Levels of S100B in Preeclampsia and Association With Possible Central Nervous System Effects
- 2014
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Ingår i: American Journal of Hypertension. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0895-7061 .- 1941-7225. ; 27:8, s. 1105-1111
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND:S100B is supposed to be a peripheral biomarker of central nervous system (CNS) injury. The purpose of this study was to compare levels of S100B in women with preeclampsia with levels in healthy pregnant control subjects and furthermore to analyze levels of S100B in relation to possible CNS effects.METHODS:A cross-sectional case-control study in antenatal care centers in Uppsala, Sweden, was performed. Fifty-three women with preeclampsia and 58 healthy pregnant women were recruited at similar gestational length; women with preeclampsia were recruited at time of diagnosis, and control subjects were recruited during their routine visit to an antenatal clinic. Plasma samples were collected, and levels of S100B were analyzed with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Information about demographic and clinical characteristics, including symptoms related to CNS affection, was collected from the medical records. The main outcome measures were plasma levels of S100B and possible CNS effects.RESULTS:Levels of S100B were significantly higher among women with preeclampsia than among control subjects (0.12 µg/L vs. 0.07 µg/L; P < 0.001). In preeclampsia, there was a significant association between high levels of S100B and visual disturbances (P < 0.05).CONCLUSIONS:S100B is increased among women with preeclampsia, and high levels of S100B associate with visual disturbances, which might reflect CNS affection in women with preeclampsia.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Bergman, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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Science and policy on endocrine disrupters must not be mixed : a reply to a "common sense" intervention by toxicology journal editors
- 2013
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Ingår i: Environmental Health. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1476-069X. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The "common sense" intervention by toxicology journal editors regarding proposed European Union endocrine disrupter regulations ignores scientific evidence and well-established principles of chemical risk assessment. In this commentary, endocrine disrupter experts express their concerns about a recently published, and is in our considered opinion inaccurate and factually incorrect, editorial that has appeared in several journals in toxicology. Some of the shortcomings of the editorial are discussed in detail. We call for a better founded scientific debate which may help to overcome a polarisation of views detrimental to reaching a consensus about scientific foundations for endocrine disrupter regulation in the EU.
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| 4. |
- Borg, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Is 'legal empowerment of the poor' relevant to people with disabilities in developing countries? An empirical and normative review.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1654-9880 .- 1654-9716. ; 6:22854, s. 1-15
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background : Legal empowerment of the poor is highly relevant to public health as it aims to relieve income poverty, a main determinant of health. The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) has proposed legal empowerment measures in the following four domains: access to justice and the rule of law, property, labor, and business rights. Despite being overrepresented among the poor, CLEP has not explicitly considered the situation of people with disabilities. Objectives : To examine the empirical evidence for the relevance of the CLEP legal empowerment measures to people with disabilities in low- and lower middle-income countries, and to evaluate the extent to which the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) addresses those measures. Methods : Critical literature review of empirical studies and a checklist assessment of the CRPD. Results : Fourteen included articles confirm that people with disabilities experience problems in the domains of access to justice and the rule of law, labor rights, and business rights. No texts on property rights were found. Evidence for the effectiveness of the proposed measures is insufficient. Overall, the CRPD fully or partially supports two-thirds of the proposed measures (seven out of nine measures for access to justice and the rule of law, none of the five measures for property rights, all seven measures for labor rights, and six out of nine measures for business rights). Conclusions : Although most of the domains of the CLEP legal empowerment measures are relevant to people with disabilities from both empirical and normative perspectives, it is uncertain whether the devised measures are of immediate relevance to them. Further research is warranted in this regard.
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| 5. |
- Brandstedt, Eric, et al.
(författare)
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Climate Rights : Feasible or Not?
- 2013
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Ingår i: Environmental Politics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0964-4016 .- 1743-8934. ; 22:3, s. 394-409
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scholars have argued that we have compelling reasons to combat climate change because it threatens human rights, referred to here as ‘climate rights’. The prospects of climate rights are analysed assuming two basic desiderata: its accuracy in capturing the normative dimension of climate change (reasons to prevent/mitigate/adapt to climate change); and its ability to generate political measures. In order for climate rights to meet these desiderata certain conditions must be satisfied: important human interests are put at risk by global climate change; there is an identified rights-holder and obligation-bearer; this relationship is codified in a legitimate formal structure; it is feasible to claim the rights; an ‘enforcement mechanism’ (not necessarily of legal character) could strengthen compliance. When asserting climate rights it is insufficient to consider the moral ground or actual enforcement possibilities by themselves. Normative and practical aspects are closely interlinked and must be studied in tandem.
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| 6. |
- Dahlberg, Anna-Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Recovery discrepancies of OH-PBDEs and polybromophenols in human plasma and cat serum versus herring and long-tailed duck plasma
- 2014
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Ingår i: Chemosphere. - : Elsevier BV. - 0045-6535 .- 1879-1298. ; 94, s. 97-103
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hydroxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (OH-PBDEs) have been identified as metabolites of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and/or as natural products. The OH-PBDEs and polybromophenols have come into focus over the last decade due to their abundance in biota and their potential adverse health effects. The present recovery study aims to validate a commonly used method (published by Hovander et al. 2000) for OH-PBDE analysis in human plasma. Further, the authors intended to determine the method's applicability to serum/plasma matrices from other species than humans. The investigated matrices were human plasma, cat serum, herring- and long-tailed duck plasma. The recovery study included nine OH-PBDEs, four polybromophenols and three methoxylated PBDEs (MeO-PBDEs). Five replicates of each matrix were spiked with these compounds at two dose levels; a low dose (0.5 ng) and a high dose (5 ng) and were cleaned up according to the Hovander method. The recovery of OH-PBDEs and polybromophenols in human plasma and cat serum were high and reproducible at both dose levels whereas the recovery for herring and long-tailed duck plasma were low and insufficient with great variability amongst OH-PBDE congeners at both dose levels. Our data show that the method can be fully applied to matrices like human plasma and cat serum but not for herring and long-tailed duck plasma without further method development. Hence care needs to be taken when applying the method onto other blood matrices without validation since the present study have demonstrated that the recoveries may differ amongst OH-PBDE congeners and specie.
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| 7. |
- Legradi, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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Disruption of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) by hydroxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (OH-PBDEs) present in the marine environment
- 2014
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Technology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0013-936X .- 1520-5851. ; 48:24, s. 14703-14711
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hydroxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (OH-PBDEs) are of growing concern, as they have been detected in both humans and wildlife and have been shown to be toxic. Recent studies have indicated that OH-PBDEs can be more toxic than PBDEs, partly due to their ability to disrupt oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), an essential process in energy metabolism. In this study, we determined the OXPHOS disruption potential of 18 OH-PBDE congeners reported in marine wildlife using two in vitro bioassays, namely the classic rat mitochondrial respiration assay, and a mitochrondrial membrane potential assay using zebrafish PAC2 cells. Single OH-PBDE congeners as well as mixtures were tested to study potential additive or synergistic effects. An environmental mixture composed of seven OH-PBDE congeners mimicking the concentrations reported in Baltic blue mussels were also studied. We report that all OH-PBDEs tested were able to disrupt OXPHOS via either protonophoric uncoupling and/or inhibition of the electron transport chain. Additionally we show that OH-PBDEs tested in combinations as found in the environment have the potential to disrupt OXPHOS. Importantly, mixtures of OH-PBDEs may show very strong synergistic effects, stressing the importance of further research on the in vivo impacts of these compounds in the environment
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| 8. |
- Löfstrand, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Brominated phenols, anisoles, and dioxins present in blue mussels from the Swedish coastline
- 2010
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Pollution Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0944-1344 .- 1614-7499. ; 17:8, s. 1460-1468
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction Naturally occurring hydroxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (OH-PBDEs), their methoxylated counterparts (MeO-PBDEs), and polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PBDDs), together with their potential precursors polybrominated phenols (PBPs) and polybrominated anisoles (PBAs), were analyzed in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) gathered along the east coast (bordering the Baltic Sea) and west coast of Sweden (bordering the North Sea). Brown algae (Dictyosiphon foenicolaceus) and cyanobacteria (Nodularia spumigena) from the Baltic Sea, considered to be among the primary producers of these compounds, were also analyzed for comparison. Materials and methods The samples were liquid–liquid extracted, separated into a phenolic and a neutral fraction, and subsequently analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GS-MS). Results and discussion The levels of OH-PBDEs, MeO-PBDEs and PBDDs were significantly higher in Baltic Sea mussels than in those from the west coast, whereas the levels of PBPs and PBAs displayed the opposite pattern. The blue mussels from the Baltic Sea contained high levels of all analyzed substances, much higher than the levels of, e.g., polybrominated diphenyl ethers. In addition, the GC-MS chromatogram of the phenolic fraction of the west coast samples was dominated by four unknown peak clusters, three of which were tentatively identified as dihydroxy-PBDEs and the other as a hydroxylated-methyl-tetraBDE. Conclusions Clearly, all of the compounds analyzed are natural products, both in the Baltic and the North Sea. However, the geographical differences in composition may indicate different origin, e.g., due to differences in the occurrence and/or abundance of various algae species along these two coasts or possibly a more extensive dilution on the west coast.
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| 9. |
- Wikström, Anna-Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Plasma levels of S100B during pregnancy in women developing pre-eclampsia.
- 2012
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Ingår i: Pregnancy hypertension. - : Elsevier BV. - 2210-7789 .- 2210-7797. ; 2:4, s. 398-402
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- S100B is suggested to be a peripheral biomarker of central nervous system injury with increased blood-brain barrier permeability. The aim of this study was to investigate if there is a difference in plasma levels of S100B throughout pregnancy between women developing pre-eclampsia and those who did not.A nested case-control study within a longitudinal study cohort was performed. Healthy pregnant women were enrolled and plasma samples were collected at gestational weeks 10, 25, 28, 33 and 37. Levels of S100B throughout pregnancy were analyzed with an ELISA assay.The levels of S100B did not change between gestational weeks 10 and 37 (0.047 vs. 0.052; p=0.71) in the healthy controls, but the S100B levels increased between corresponding weeks in women who developed pre-eclampsia (0.052 vs. 0.075; p<0.05). In gestational weeks 33 and 37 women who developed pre-eclampsia had higher levels of S100B than the controls (p=0.047 and p=0.010, respectively).S100B levels increase during pregnancy in women who develop pre-eclampsia and there is an increased S100B level in women who develop pre-eclampsia compared with healthy pregnancies several weeks before clinical symptoms of the disease. The increased amount of plasma S100B in women developing pre-eclampsia might be secondary to cerebral vascular damage and S100B is a potential peripheral biomarker reflecting cerebral involvement in pre-eclampsia.
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