OBJECTIVE:To establish the quality standard for Solanum tuberdsm. METHODS:The microscopic characteristics were detected;TLC was used for qualitative identification;moisture,ash,heavy metals and the amount of extract were deter-mined;HPLC was conducted for content determination of oxidized cyanidin:the column was Alltima C18 with mobile phase of ace-tonitrile-0.1% trifluoroacetic acid(80∶20,V/V)at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min,detection wavelength was 538 nm,column tempera-ture was 30℃. RESULTS:It showed clear microscopic identification map. S. tuberdsm TLC had clear spots and well separated. The water content was 8.5%-11.0%;total ash was 2.0%-2.9%;Pb was lower than 5 ppm and alcohol-soluble extracts was 15.6%-22.3%. The linear range of oxidized cyanidin was 0.043-0.215 μg(r=0.999 8);RSDs of precision,stability and reproduc-ibility tests were lower than 2.0%;recovery was 95.50%-99.65%(RSD=1.35%,n=9). CONCLUSIONS:The established method can be used for the quality control of S. tuberdsm.

Background Due to the limited availability of established research models, very few studies addressed the health effects and underlying mechanisms following exposure to diesel exhaust during the initiation of pulmonary respiration. It is highly demanded to elucidate such health effects and underlying mechanisms, so as to exert protective measures during the early stages of life. Objective To evaluate the health effects of diesel exhaust very-early-in-life inhalation in hatchling chicken with a novel chicken embryo air cell inhalation exposure model, and to explore the potential roles of aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling pathways in the observed effects with a specific aryl hydrocarbon receptor inhibitor. Methods Fertilized chicken eggs were assigned into five groups randomly (15 eggs per group): control group, air control group, aryl hydrocarbon receptor inhibitor (PDM2) group, diesel exhaust group, and diesel exhaust + aryl hydrocarbon receptor inhibitor (PDM2) group. Fertilized eggs were incubated with standard procedure. At embryonic day 17 (ED17), aryl hydrocarbon receptor inhibitor was administered to the corresponding animals. During embryonic day 18-19 (ED18-19), chicken embryos were exposed to diesel exhaust via air cell inhalation, then placed back to incubator until hatch. The air control group received clean air infusion during ED18-19, while the control group did not receive any treatment. Within 24 h post-hatch, 26 hatchling chickens were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital, subjected to electrocardiography, and sacrificed to harvest tissue samples of heart and lung. Cardiopulmonary toxicities were evaluated by histopathology, and potential changes in the protein expression levels of aryl hydrocarbon receptor pathway molecule cytochrome P450, family 1, subfamily A, polypeptide 1 (CYP1A1) and fibrosis-related pathway molecule phosphorylated SMAD family member 2 (pSMAD2) were assessed by Western blotting. The remaining 29 hatchling chickens were reared until two weeks old, and then subjected to identical treatments. Results The inhalation exposure to diesel exhaust at initiation of pulmonary respiration resulted in thickened right ventricular wall (by 220.3% relative to the control group, same hereafter) and elevated heart rate (17.4%) in one-day-old hatchling chickens. Although no remarkable fibrotic lesions were observed at this point, the expression levels of CYP1A1 and phosphorylation levels of SMAD2 in the lung tissues significantly increased (by 81.3% and 71.6%, respectively). Such changes were effectively abolished by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor inhibitor PDM2 pretreatment. In the two-week-old animals, the thickened right ventricular wall (by 339.3%) and elevated heart rate (by 18.9%) persisted, and significant fibrotic lesions were observed in the lung tissue samples under Masson staining. Again, the aryl hydrocarbon receptor inhibitor PDM2 pretreatment effectively abolished such changes. In addition, no statistically significant changes in CYP1A1 expression levels were observed in the two-week-old chicken lung samples, and a remarkable down-regulation of SMAD2 phosphorylation was observed. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor inhibitor PDM2 pretreatment independently decreased the phosphorylation levels of SMAD2 in the two-week-old chicken lung samples. Conclusion Inhalation exposure to diesel exhaust at initiation of pulmonary respiration could result in persistent cardiopulmonary injury in hatchling chickens, and the underlying mechanism might be associated with the regulation of pSMAD2 by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling pathway.

Background Organic phosphate flame retardants are emerging environmental pollutants. While there have been multiple toxicities reported following organic phosphate flame retardants exposure, few studies focus on their potential developmental toxicities. It is necessary to elucidate these developmental toxicological effects and underlying mechanisms to improve risk assessments and better protect sensitive populations. Objective To evaluate potential developmental toxicities in early chicken embryos following exposure to triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) or cresyl diphenyl phosphate (CDP), to reveal TPhP and CDP’s capabilities to activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) in vivo in an established chicken embryo gene reporter system, and to investigate the roles of PPARγ in TPhP/CDP-induced developmental toxicities with lentivirus-mediated in vivo gene silencing. Methods Firstly, diverse doses of TPhP and CDP were injected into the air sacs of fertilized eggs to assess the development of chicken embryos after 6 d of incubation, and an optimal dose was chosen for subsequent experiments. Subsequently, the report gene system was employed to evaluate the intraembryonic activation of PPARγ by TPhP and CDP. Eventually, PPARγ was silenced using lentivirus, and the embryos were co-treated with TPhP and CDP to further disclose the roles of PPARγ in the observed developmental toxicity. Results Following developmental exposure to TPhP or CDP, significantly lower chicken embryo weights (normalized with egg weights) were observed in the 6 d embryos (10, 30 mg·kg⁻¹ TPhP and 3, 10, 30 mg·kg⁻¹ CDP), indicating that both chemicals have general developmental toxicities and CDP is more potent. Additionally, exposure to CDP also resulted in remarkably increased sagittal brain area (normalized to embryo weights) and decreased sagittal eye area (normalized to embryo weights) (P<0.05), suggesting that CDP has specific developmental neurotoxicity and ocular toxicity. The PPARγ reporter gene experiment results revealed that rosiglitazone (positive control), TPhP, and CDP all significantly activated PPARγ relative to control (P<0.05). The potency order was rosiglitazone > CDP > TPhP. The lentivirus microinjection successfully achieved in vivo silencing of PPARγ in developing chicken embryos, and the estimated silencing efficacy was approximately 55% according to the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) results. The in vivo silencing of PPARγ effectively alleviated TPhP or CDP-induced decrease of embryo weights (P<0.05), as well as CDP-induced increase of brain areas and decrease of eye areas (P<0.05). Conclusions Both TPhP and CDP can induce general developmental toxicities in early chicken embryos, and CDP is more potent than TPhP. Meanwhile, CDP can induce specific enlarged brain area and decreased eye area. The observed toxicities are associated with in vivo activation of PPARγ.