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Aquatic Phytotherapy
Published in Namrita Lall, Medicinal Plants for Cosmetics, Health and Diseases, 2022
Muhali O. Jimoh, Learnmore Kambizi
Earlier, Ferrat et al., (2003) reviewed the use of seagrasses as biomarkers of environmental quality and as diagnostic tools in ecotoxicological studies using detectable responses in the synthesis and accumulation of secondary metabolites, photosynthetic activity, enzymatic processes involved in nitrogen and phosphorus assimilation during light and dark reactions, hydrolysis of organic phosphate monoesters to inorganic phosphate, carbohydrate synthesis and mobilization, and other oxidative mechanisms. The identified bioindicators of metallic pollutants were Amphibolis Antarctica (Labill.) Asch., Cymodocea nodosa (Ucrea.) Asch., Cymodocea rotundata Asch. & Schweinf., Enhalus acoroides (L.f) Royles, Halodule uninervis (Forssk.) Boiss., Halophila ovalis (R.Br) Hook.f., Halophila stipulacea (Forssk.) Asch., Heterozostera tasmanica (Martens ex Ascherson), Posidonia australis Hook.f., Syringodium isoetifolium (Asch.) Dandy, Thalassia hemprichii (Ehrenb. ex Solms) Asch., Thalassodendron ciliatum (Forssk.) Hartog, Zostera marina L., Thalassia testudinum Banks ex Konig. and Zostera muelleri Irmisch ex Asch. (Ferrat et al., 2003). In addition to those just listed, Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile was regarded as a ‘classical biomarker species’ due to its high sensitivity to changes in environmental quality (Ferrat et al., 2002).
Ecotoxicology of Nanoparticles
Published in Suresh C. Pillai, Yvonne Lang, Toxicity of Nanomaterials, 2019
As described in Section 8.2.4, the modelled environmental concentrations and the dearth of definitive empirical data result in ecotoxicological assessments at concentrations several fold higher than the predictions when acute assessments are employed. As a result, more discrete sub-acute endpoints and longitudinal studies will be needed to determine if a true no effect concentration (NoEC) exists. The fidelity of assessments will need to be refined further, identifying more sensitive endpoints and bioindicators not currently possible with existing assessment protocols.
A study of the palatal rugae pattern as a bioindicator for forensic identification among Sundanese and Malaysian Tamils
Published in Robert Hofstra, Noriyuki Koibuchi, Suthat Fucharoen, Advances in Biomolecular Medicine, 2017
R. Khaerunnisa, M. Darjan, I.S. Hardjadinata
This study concludes that the wavy pattern was more common in Sundanese, whereas the curved pattern was more common in Malaysian Tamils. The fact that certain patterns are more common in certain populations emphasized that it can be used as a bioindicator for population identification. The difference in the palatal rugae pattern between two different ethnic groups may be factored on wide genetic and geographic separation. However, the role of genetics in rugae pattern needs to be evaluated.
Toxicity and biomarkers of micro-plastic in aquatic environment: a review
Published in Biomarkers, 2021
Kamrul Hassan Suman, Md Niamul Haque, Md Jamal Uddin, Most Shirina Begum, Mahmudul Hasan Sikder
Biological markers (biomarkers) are biological features, i.e. antioxidant enzymes and acetylcholinesterase, that are easily measured and indexed as an indicator of normal and abnormal biological processes or responses (Hamza-Chaffai 2014). MPs can be ingested by phytoplankton and/or zooplankton and may enter food chain by trophic transfer including human consumption, thus the understanding its toxicological impact is urgent. It is suggested that current research on the toxic effect of MPs to be evaluated at the tissue, cellular, and molecular levels (Pirsaheb et al. 2020). To increase our understanding on the toxic effect of MPs, various vertebrates and invertebrates have been used as bio-indicators. Commonly, the adverse effects of MPs on metabolic, membrane permeability, and physiological functions in bio-indicators are determined by measuring the modifications in biochemical, histopathological, and molecular biomarkers. Many biomarkers explored to estimate the consequence of MPs and however, the prominent biomarkers would be reviewed in this segment. Some of the important and commonly used biomarkers for various bioindicators are organised in Table 2.
Utility of gene expression studies in relation to radiation exposure and clinical outcomes: thyroid cancer in the Ukrainian-American cohort and late health effects in a MAYAK worker cohort
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2021
Michael Abend, Ruth M. Pfeiffer, Matthias Port, Maureen Hatch, Tetyana Bogdanova, Mykola D. Tronko, Kiyohiko Mabuchi, Tamara Azizova, Kristian Unger, Herbert Braselmann, Patrick Ostheim, Alina V. Brenner
Conventional radiation epidemiology studies are multi-disciplinary in nature and challenging to conduct, because epidemiologists, dosimetrists, statisticians as well as pathologists have to work in concert and must have an understanding of the other fields involved (Figure 1, left side). When performing molecular radiation epidemiology studies an additional interface comes into place. It is the field covering molecular biology, bioinformatics and (often) medicine (Figure 1, right side). This enhances the complexity of the studies with regard to communication, understanding and finances – molecular biology is expensive. The question arises: How much do we gain scientifically? Conventional radiation epidemiology uses dose estimates for risk estimation, prediction, and transfer. However, combined with molecular biology, it could unravel mechanisms underlying health effects of radiation exposure. Once dose-dependent bioindicators are identified, in an extended approach, we can examine whether late health effects can be predicted based on these bioindicators. This approach might have potential for a more individualized risk assessment following the concept of adverse outcome pathways where molecular key events have to be identified. Moreover, the extended approach holds promise for improving clinical diagnostics and providing target molecules for potential individual therapeutic intervention (Abend and Port 2015) or in other words ‘practical tools for the decision-maker’.
Damage-Fitness Model: the missing piece in integrative stress models
Published in Stress, 2019
It has become clear that organisms’ response to a stressor is multifaceted and integrative (Romero et al., 2015). This makes it difficult to use a snapshot of one bioindicator level to assess health and condition of an animal. As previously suggested by other researchers, measuring multiple indicators of stress at multiple times will be insightful and needed. Equally important, damage and anti-damage regulators should be measured together whenever possible. This includes oxidative damage with antioxidant levels, as well as telomere length with telomerase activity. Of course, measuring mortality and reproductive success within and across generations is most informative. However, it is sometimes not feasible to measure reproductive success and mortality, sample animals repeatedly, or collect enough samples to quantify multiple physiological parameters. In those cases, the recommendation from the Damage-Fitness Model is to measure indicators of persistent damage or physiological dysregulation instead of anti-damage regulators because those regulators are often transient and improves fitness components only when capacity of the regulators to minimize damage exceeds the level of the stressor.