Environmental hepatotoxins

Environmental Hepatotoxins and Associated Occupations at Risk for Exposure... 

Is the patient exposed to an environmental hepatotoxin at work or at home ... 

Cyanobacteria toxins are toxins produced by certain species of blue-green algae that have become a major environmental and public health concern. The behavior of cyanotoxins during chlorination treatment has been recently reviewed by Merel et al. [129]. Chlorination DBFs have been reported only for the hepatotoxins microcystin-LR and cylindrospermopsin. Other cyanotoxins, such as nodularins, saxitoxins, and anatoxins, have yet to be investigated. Different isomers of six chlorination products of microcystin-LR have been characterized dihydroxy-microcystin, monochloro-microcystin, monochloro-hydroxy-microcystin, monochloro-dihydroxy-microcystin, dichloro-dihydroxy-microcystin, and trichloro-hydroxy-microcystin. Only two chlorination DBFs have been reported so far for cylindrospermopsin 5-chloro-cylindros-permopsin and cylindrospermopsic acid [129]. Chlorination of microcystin, cylindrospermopsin, and nodularins seems to reduce the mixture toxicity however, this aspect has not been extensively studied [129]. 

Numerous studies have been carried out on the effects of single chemicals on the liver, of which ethanol and carbon tetrachloride are the most notorious. [4,81 Other hepatotoxic chemicals, however, have also been widely studied, both in the laboratory and environmentally. For example, an outbreak of toxic liver disease was reported in a fabric coating company. Upon investigation, it was found that dimethylformamide, a known hepatotoxin, was used as a coating solvent in poorly ventilated areas without appropriate skin protection, and no other hepatotoxins were identified. 1121... 

Spoof, L. VesterkvisL P. Lindholm, T. Meriluoto, J. Screening for cyanobcteril hepatotoxins, microcystins and nodulrin in environmental water samples by reversed-phase liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. J. Chromatogr. A, 2003,1020, 105-119. 

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