Chemistry Techniques, Analytical ; instrumentation ; Herbicides ; analysis ; Humans ; Paraquat ; analysis

OBJECTIVE: To establish an HPLC method for the determination of Paraquat in biological samples. METHODS: Paraquat in biological samples was extracted by C18 columns which were pre-treated with cetyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and soudium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), and analysed by HPLC/DAD. RESULTS: The detection limit of the method was 1 ng x mL(-1), and the average recoveries were 81%-94%. CONCLUSION The method can be used to analysis of paraquat in biological samples.
Animals ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid/methods* ; Herbicides/chemistry* ; Liver/chemistry* ; Paraquat/analysis* ; Rabbits ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate ; Solvents ; Swine

OBJECTIVE: To establish a new method for the analysis of paraquat in blood and urine by sodium borohydride/nickel chloride chemical reduction-gas chromatography/thermionic specific detector. METHODS: An initial procedure of precipitation was performed by adding hydrochloric solution with sodium chloride and a mixture of chloroform and ethanol. Then the analyte contained in supernatant was reduced by a reduction system of sodium borohydride and nickel chloride and extracted by acetic ether. Ethyl paraquat (EPQ) was used as internal standard. GC/TSD was used to identify and quantify the analyte. RESULTS: The limits of detection (S/N=3) in blood and urine were 0.002 and 0.004 microg/mL, respectively. The linear ranges were 0.050-30.0 microg/mL. Correlation coefficients in blood and urine were 0.999 and 0.998, respectively. The recoveries exceeded 80% both in blood and urine. CONCLUSION This method is applicable for quantification of paraquat in biological fluids.
Borohydrides/chemistry* ; Chromatography, Gas/methods* ; Forensic Toxicology ; Herbicides/urine* ; Humans ; Nickel/chemistry* ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Paraquat/urine* ; Sensitivity and Specificity

We investigated whether glyphosate influences the cellular toxicity of the surfactants TN-20 and LN-10 on the mouse fibroblast-like cells, alveolar epithelial cells, and a heart cell line. The cytotoxicity of TN-20 and LN-10 (0.4-100 microM), in the presence or absence of glyphosate was determined by assessing membrane integrity. TN-20 toxicity was significantly lower in the presence of 50 microM glyphosate for the fibroblast-like cell (6.25 microM; 3.9% +/- 3.4% vs -4.8% +/- 0.7%), for the alveolar cells (0.78 microM; 5.7% +/- 0.9% vs 0.1% +/- 0.6%), and for the heart cell line (25.0 microM; 7.9% +/- 3.0% vs 19.4% +/- 0.7%) compared to that of TN-20 alone. The cellular toxicity of LN-10 towards the fibroblast-like cells was found to be increased in the presence of 50 microM glyphosate when LN-10 concentrations of 50 microM (31.3% +/- 3.9% vs 19.2% +/- 0.9%) and 100 microM (62.1% +/- 3.4% vs 39.0% +/- 0.7%) were compared to that of LN-10 alone. These results suggest that the mixture toxicity may be a factor in glyphosate-surfactant toxicity in patients with acute glyphosate herbicide intoxication.
Animals ; Cell Line ; Cell Survival/drug effects ; Glycine/*analogs & derivatives/chemistry/toxicity ; Herbicides/chemistry/*toxicity ; Mice ; Polyethylene Glycols/*chemistry ; Surface-Active Agents/*chemistry

Many studies have failed to prove the health effects of herbicides on exposed Vietnam veterans. The main difficulties for the studies have been the methodologic weakness, the time delay from the onset of exposure to the assessments and inability of measuring exposure amount. The purpose of this study is to evaluate human health effects among Vietman veterans who were exposed to herbicides while staying in Vietnam. The subjects were patients who visited to Taegu veterans hospital between November, 1995 and July, 1996. Any veterans stationed in Vietnam for six or more months between 1966 and 1973 were included in this study. We performed a comprehensive study including a neurologic test, physical examination, medical history, serum and urine chemistry, electrodiagnostic study and a roentgenographic study. We have found that the patients with peripheral neuropathy were 24 cases, soft tissue sarcoma 1 case and Buerger's disease 1 case. And many other diseases were also diagnosed in these patients. However we were unable to find the strong evidences of association between the clinical illness and the exposure to herbicides.
Chemistry ; Daegu ; Herbicides* ; Hospitals, Veterans ; Humans* ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases ; Physical Examination ; Sarcoma ; Thromboangiitis Obliterans ; Veterans* ; Vietnam*

The cellular toxicities of surfactants, a solvent, and an antifreeze that are included in herbicide formulations were assessed by measuring their effects on membrane integrity, metabolic activity, mitochondrial activity, and total protein synthesis rate in a cell culture. Polyethylene glycol, propylene glycol, and monoethylene glycol exhibited no cellular toxicity even at a high concentration of 100 mM. Sodium lauryl ether sulfate and polyoxyethylene lauryl ether significantly damaged the membrane, disturbed cellular metabolic activity, and decreased mitochondrial activity and the protein synthesis rate; however, their toxicity was far below those of the severely toxic chemicals at comparable concentrations. The severely toxic category included polyoxypropylene glycol block copolymer, polyoxyethylene tallow amine, and polyoxyethylene lauryl amine ether. These surfactants were cytotoxic between 3.125 microM and 100 microM in a dose-dependent manner. However, the toxicity graph of concentration vs toxicity had a point of inflection at 25 microM. The slope of the toxicity graph was gentle when the concentration was below 25 microM and steep when the concentration was greater than 25 microM. In conclusion, our results suggest that the toxicity of surfactants be taken care of pertinent treatment of acute herbicide intoxication.
Animals ; Cell Line ; Cell Membrane/drug effects ; Herbicides/*chemistry ; Mice ; Mitochondria/drug effects ; Polyethylene Glycols/toxicity ; Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate/toxicity ; Surface-Active Agents/chemistry/*toxicity ; Toxicity Tests

Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) catalyses the first reaction in the pathway for synthesis of the branched-chain amino acids. AHAS is the target for sulfonylurea, imidazolinone and other AHAS-inhibitor herbicides. Herbicides-resistant AHAS genes have potential application in plant transgenetic engineering and development of new generation herbicide. The AHAS isozyme genes ilvBN, ilvGM and ilvIH were cloned from metsulfuron-methyl resistant strain Klebsiella sp. HR11 and metsulfuron-methyl sensitive strain Klebsiella pneumoniae MGH 78578. Homologous sequences comparison indicated that the differences in AHAS isozyme genes at amino acid levels between strain HR11 and strain MGH 78578 were mainly on the large subunits of ilvBN and ilvGM. The three AHAS isozyme genes from HR11 and MGH 78578 were ligated into the expression vector pET29a(+) and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21, respectively. The results of enzyme inhibition assay showed that only ilvBN and ilvGM from strain HR11 showed strong resistance to AHAS-inhibitor herbicides, while ilvIH from strain HR11 and ilvBN, ilvGM and ilvIH from strain MGH78578 were sensitive to AHAS-inhibitor herbicides.
Acetolactate Synthase ; chemistry ; genetics ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Gene Expression ; Genes, Bacterial ; drug effects ; Herbicide Resistance ; genetics ; Herbicides ; pharmacology ; Imidazolines ; pharmacology ; Isoenzymes ; genetics ; Klebsiella ; genetics ; Sulfonylurea Compounds ; pharmacology