The benchmark dose (BMD) is defined as the dose that corresponds to a specific change in an adverse response compared to the response in unexposed subjects, and the lower 95% confidence limit is termed the benchmark dose level (BMDL). In this study, the threshold of daily ethanol intake affecting blood pressure was calculated by both the BMD approach and multiple logistic regression analysis to...

Increasing evidence that low-level exposure to toxic agents induces beneficial effects indicates the need to examine if and how the current EPA reference dose (RfD) derivation process could take this phenomenon into account. This paper examines conditions that affect how the RfD process could incorporate chemically induced beneficial effects while preventing toxic responses. Incorporation of be...

Vascular disruption agents (VDA) cause occlusion of tumor vasculature, resulting in hypoxia-driven tumor cell necrosis. Tumor vascular disruption is a therapeutic strategy of great potential; however, VDAs currently under development display a narrow therapeutic margin, with cardiovascular toxicity posing a dose-limiting obstacle. Discovery of new VDAs, which display a wider therapeutic margin,...

Abstract: Oxalic acid dihydrate is used to treat varroosis of Apis mellifera. This study investigates lethal and sublethal effects of oxalic acid dihydrate on individually treated honeybees kept in cages under laboratory conditions as well as the distribution in the colony. After oral application, bee mortality occurred at relatively low concentrations (No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) ...

Irritation of eyes and upper airways--sensory irritation--is commonly used as a parameter for setting occupational exposure limits and is a common complaint in occupants of non-industrial buildings. Sensory irritation occurs from stimulation of receptors on trigeminal nerves. In general, chemically reactive compounds are more potent than non-reactive congeners. Animal studies allow prediction o...

The short-term (acute) and long-term (subchronic) toxicity profile, mean lethal dose 50 (LD50), and no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of a nutraceutical formulation developed from green mussel Perna viridis, which showed in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory properties, were evaluated in the present study. The formulation was administered to the male and female Wistar rats at graded dos...

Bisphenol A (BPA) has been reported to possess hepatic toxicity. We investigated the hypothesis that BPA, below the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL), can induce hepatic damage and mitochondrial dysfunction by increasing oxidative stress in the liver. Two doses of BPA, 0.05 and 1.2 mg/kg body weight/day, were administered intraperitoneally for 5 days to mice. Both treatments impaired the...

Soils and sediments in the floodplain of the Tittabawassee River downstream of Midland, Michigan, USA contain elevated concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD). As a long-lived, resident top predator, the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus; GHO) has the potential to be exposed to bioaccumulative compounds such as PCDD/DF. Site-specific ...

The possibility that structurally unrelated food additives could show either joint actions or interactions has been assessed based on their potential to share common sites and mechanisms of action or common pathways of elimination. All food additives approved in the European Union and allocated numerical acceptable daily intake values were studied, initially based on the reports by the FAO-WHO ...

Hereditary inclusion body myopathy-2 (HIBM2) is an adult-onset, muscular disease caused by mutations in the GNE gene. HIBM2-associated GNE mutations causing hyposialyation have been proposed to contribute to reduced muscle function in patients with HIBM2, though the exact cause of this disease is unknown. In the current studies we examined pre-clinical in vivo toxicity, and expression of the pl...