Cells, toxic effects

The use of organic solvents to produce surface layers has clear disadvantages if the aim is to use such techniques on an industrial scale (due to both environmental emission and disposal issues). Moreover, for applications in areas such as medical devices and implants, the presence of even minor organic solvent residues in the adlayers cannot be tolerated, in view of potential cell-toxicity effects and other biological risks. On the other hand, self-assembled monolayers, in particular of molecules with functional terminal groups, are of great interest for the modification and functionalization of biomaterials and medical devices. Therefore, a technique based on the deposition of SAMs from aqueous alkyl phosphate solutions has been developed and successfully applied to a variety of metal oxide substrates. ... 

The feature common to the cytotoxic effects brought on by nonreplicating influenza virus, poxvirus, and defective-interfering vesicular stomatitis virus is the high multiplicity of infection required. This has led to the assumption that the toxic effect is caused by one or more components of the parental input virion, most likely protein in origin. However, Cordell-Stewart and Taylor (1971, 1973) have provided evidence that the double-stranded viral RNA isolated from cells infected with bovine enterovirus causes a rapid cytopathic effect as determined by trypan-blue uptake or Cr release from affected Ehrlich ascites tumor cells or L1210 cells toxic effects are reduced or do not occur in cells exposed to single-stranded or heat-denatured double-stranded viral RNA and the toxic effect of bovine enteroviral double-stranded RNA is not abolished by inhibitors of protein synthesis such as puromycin or cycloheximide. 

Protein phosphatases are ubiquitous. They are foxmd in all tissues and across species as diverse as mammals, plants, and bacteria, and they play a critical role in the regulation of multiple cellular metabolic pathways. Protein phosphatases reverse tiie active state of kinases through the hydrolytic removal of tiie phosphoryl group from kinases. The protein phosphatases inhibited by microcystins have broad substrate specificity and play roles in the regulation of a wide range of cellular fxmc-tions. Protein phosphatase 2A is highly conserved and is a major downregulator of active protein kinases in eukaryotic cells. Toxic effects in hepatocytes and other... 

Lead is toxic to the kidney, cardiovascular system, developiag red blood cells, and the nervous system. The toxicity of lead to the kidney is manifested by chronic nephropathy and appears to result from long-term, relatively high dose exposure to lead. It appears that the toxicity of lead to the kidney results from effects on the cells lining the proximal tubules. Lead inhibits the metaboHc activation of vitamin D in these cells, and induces the formation of dense lead—protein complexes, causing a progressive destmction of the proximal tubules (13). Lead has been impHcated in causing hypertension as a result of a direct action on vascular smooth muscle as well as the toxic effects on the kidneys (12,13). 

Toxicity. Many /V-nitrosamines are toxic to animals and cells in culture (4,6—8,88). /V-Nitrosodimethy1amine [62-75-9] (NDMA) is known to be acutely toxic to the Hver in humans, and exposure can result in death (89). Liver damage, diffuse bleeding, edema, and inflammation are toxic effects observed in humans as a result of acute and subacute exposure to NDMA. These effects closely resemble those observed in animals dosed with NDMA (89,90). 

Hazard identification involves gathering and evaluating data on the types of health injury or disease that may be produced by a chemical and on the conditions of exposure under which injury or disease is produced. It may also involve characterization of the behavior of a chemical within the body and the interactions it undergoes with organs, cells, or even parts of cells. Hazard identification is not risk assessment. It is a scientific determination of whether observed toxic effects in one setting will occur in other settings. 

The term endocrine disrupter (ED) has tended to be used for those chemicals which act specifically at the level of the hormone receptor present in the target cells of various organs. Such chemicals may either mimic the action of the natural hormone (agonistic activity) or are sufficiently similar in molecular shape to the naturally produced hormone to interfere with the interaction between the hormone and receptor, thus blocking or impeding the activation of the receptor (antagonsitic activity). Such effects may occur at very low concentrations (as with the endogenous hormone), compared with the concentrations normally required to elicit the more traditional toxic effects attributed to chemicals. Recently,... 

Toxic effects often disappear after the cessation of the exposure, but they can also be permanent. The tissue s ability to regenerate is one of the most important factors that determines the nature of toxic effects. For example, liver tissue has a remarkable capacity to regenerate, and therefore liver injur> is often reversible. On the other hand, neuronal cells do not regenerate at all, thus neuronal injury is irreversible. It is true that neuronal cells can compensate for possible losses, but only to a minor degree. In particular, chronic effects tend to be irreversible. ... 

Paracelsus, a Swiss physician of the sixteenth century, stated that everything is toxic, it is just the dose that matters. This statement still holds true 500 years after Paracelsus developed it to defend the use of toxic compounds such as lead and mercury in the treatment of serious diseases such as syphilis. Chemical compounds cause their toxic effects by inducing changes in cell physiology and biochemistry, and an understanding of cellular biology is a prerequisite if one wishes to understand the nature of toxic reactions. 

Although toxic agents have the potential to cause necrosis, some of them can interfere with intracellular signaling pathways and induce apoptosis instead of necrosis. It seems that organotin(IV) compounds exert their toxic effects involving all these processes. The precise balance of these actions and their outcomes may differ radically from one cell type to another and among different organisms. 

During the development of pharmaceutical products, the toxic effect of biomaterials on cells is considered one of the most important issues to be evaluated. For instance, cell death, cell... 

Changing the distribution of a drug can lead to toxic effects not described before. It is possible that after liposomal delivery high concentrations of drugs (e.g., cytotoxic drugs) inside macrophages affect these cells detrimentally (Poste and Kirsch, 1983). This results in toxic effects in liver, spleen, and bone marrow which were not previously associated with the use of these drugs. 

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