The studio of Professor Zhao Bin at the Hangzhou Institute of Advanced Studies, UCAS (hereinafter referred to as HIAS) made new progress in the impact of chlorinated flame retardant Dechlorane 602 (Dec 602), a new pollutant, on the intestinal microenvironment. The research paper entitled "Subacute Effects of the Chlorinated Flame Retardant Dechlorane 602 on Intestinal Microenvironment in Mice" was published online in Environment International, a top Q1 journal in the field of environmental sciences with an impact factor of 13.352.
Dec 602 is a new organic pollutant existing in many environmental media, with high detection rates and concentrations. Studies have shown that Dec 602 has biomagnification and bioaccumulation characteristics, and the model data predict that it features persistence and long-distance transmission. Thus, Dec 602 is proven to be a potential emerging persistent organic pollutant. Dec 602 has been detected in many kinds of foods, human serum and breast milk, suggesting that humans can be orally exposed to Dec 602. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the effects of Dec 602 on the intestinal microenvironment. However, research in this area is sparse.
With C57BL/6 female mice as the animal model, the research has evaluated the effects of Dec 602 on the intestinal microenvironment from both intestinal symbiotic microorganisms and metabolites. It is found that the abundance of inflammation-related microbiota in the intestinal tracts of mice exposed to Dec 602 increases, and the abundance of microbiota with anti-inflammatory or intestinal protection effects decreases. Meanwhile, the analysis used to predict the microbiota functions shows that Dec 602 has an effect on pathways related to oxidative stress and inflammation, such as peptidoglycan biosynthesis and ascorbic acid metabolism. Analysis of intestinal metabolites reveals an increase in oxidative and pro-inflammatory metabolites in the mice exposed to Dec 602 and a decrease in antioxidative and anti-inflammatory metabolites. The results of omics analysis of microorganisms and metabolites suggest that Dec 602 exposures may cause intestinal inflammation. The significant infiltrations of lymphocytes in the intestinal lamina propria in the mice exposed to Dec 602 discovered in the subsequent histopathological analysis prove that Dec 602 exposure does induce intestinal inflammation.
Through mouse experiments, the research proves that Dec 602 disturbs the homeostasis of intestinal symbiotic microorganisms and causes colonic inflammation. A theoretical basis and research direction for the subsequent toxicity study of Dec 602 is therefore provided.
The first author of the paper is Li Yunping, a postdoctoral fellow from the HIAS School of Environment, and the corresponding authors are Professor Zhao Bin and ProfessorTai L. Guo from the University of Georgia. The research was supported by the National Key R&D Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Shenzhen's Sanming Project.
Source | School of Environment
Typesetter | Liu Yuqi
Executive Editor | Wang Xia
