Journal of Xenobiotics最新文献

{"title":"Toxic Trace Element Levels in Maternal and Cord Blood Worldwide and Their Impact on Pregnancy: A Narrative Review.","authors":"Radomir Aničić, Dejan Mihajlović, Jovana Kocić, Aleksandar Stojsavljević","doi":"10.3390/jox16040132","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040132","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>This up-to-date narrative review examines the associations of low environmental exposure to toxic trace elements-arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg)-on pregnancy. While high levels are known to be harmful, the impact of low levels has not been fully analyzed. The aim was to summarize global data on As, Cd, Pb, and Hg levels in maternal and cord blood of healthy pregnant women, compare their distribution, and assess associations with demographic factors, lifestyle, and pregnancy outcomes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Scopus for studies published between 1 January 1990 and 14 May 2025. The review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines. A total of 824 records were assessed for eligibility, and 656 were excluded based on predefined criteria. Exclusion criteria encompassed in vivo or in vitro studies, non-English written publications, treatment-based studies, and studies involving occupationally exposed pregnant women. Inclusion criteria included original full-length research papers with cross-sectional, prospective cohort, or case-control designs; studies measuring As, Cd, Pb, and/or Hg in maternal and/or cord blood; and studies examining associations with demographic, lifestyle, and pregnancy outcomes. The review was not registered, and no external funding was received. Given the narrative synthesis approach of the review, a formal risk-of-bias assessment was not undertaken.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 168 studies were included: 32 reported findings on As, 55 on Cd, 78 on Pb, and 64 on Hg, with 26 addressing all four elements. No meta-analysis was performed; results were summarized narratively. Results show that As and Cd levels are higher in maternal blood, whereas Pb and Hg, including methylmercury, are higher in cord blood. Key factors include smoking, rural residence, and fish or seafood consumption, linked to higher Cd, Pb, and Hg levels, respectively.</p><p><strong>Interpretation: </strong>Low Pb levels show the strongest associations with adverse pregnancy outcomes, while As shows the weakest. Pb's effects may relate to passive placental diffusion, unlike other elements. Further studies are needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398213/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Micro- and Nanoplastics as Emerging Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Systematic Review.","authors":"Dominika Kaczyńska, Emilia Malik, Kamil Szemik, Szymon Pokrzywiński, Wiktoria Nowojewska, Adam Mitręga, Jakub Kufel","doi":"10.3390/jox16040131","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040131","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are emerging contaminants increasingly detected in human tissues and biological fluids. Their presence in blood, vascular tissues, thrombi, and atherosclerotic plaques raises concern about their possible association with cardiovascular disease. This systematic review synthesized evidence on associations between MNPs and cardiovascular pathology.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A systematic search was conducted in October 2025 in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase according to PRISMA guidelines and a PICOS-based strategy. Original human studies from the last 10 years were eligible. Fourteen studies were included. Due to methodological heterogeneity, a narrative synthesis was performed. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-E, and certainty of evidence was evaluated using a GRADE-informed approach.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>MNPs were detected in multiple cardiovascular-related matrices. Included studies suggested possible associations with major adverse cardiovascular events, acute coronary syndrome, myocardial infarction, arterial stenosis, vascular calcification, thromboembolic disease, hypertension, inflammatory markers, coagulation-related parameters, and lipid profiles. However, the certainty of evidence was very low, and most studies had a high or very high risk of bias.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Current evidence suggests a possible association between MNPs and cardiovascular pathology, but causality remains unproven. Larger prospective studies using standardized detection protocols, rigorous contamination control, and adjustment for confounders are needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398113/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A SAR-Based Classification Model for Assessing Pesticide Toxicity to <i>Apis mellifera</i>.","authors":"Nadia Iovine, Anna Lombardo, Alessandra Roncaglioni, Emilio Benfenati","doi":"10.3390/jox16040130","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040130","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pollinators are essential for maintaining ecosystem stability and agricultural productivity, yet their populations are in decline due to various stressors, including parasites, pathogens, climate change and pesticide exposure. Protecting pollinators has become a priority for environmental safety and food security. Regulatory authorities, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have guidelines for pesticide risk assessment, but conventional testing methods are costly and time-consuming, limiting their applicability to large chemical datasets. Computational approaches, such as Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) models, offer efficient alternatives by enabling the rapid screening of pesticides for potential toxicity to pollinators. In this study, we used a dataset of 357 compounds to develop a classification model based on structural alerts to predict oral acute toxicity in <i>Apis mellifera</i>. The model showed a higher Matthews Correlation Coefficient in the training set (0.82), with a moderate decay in the test set (0.56) likely due to applicability domain limits. Despite this, high balanced accuracy (0.80) and sensitivity (0.79) in the test set confirm the model as a reliable tool for the toxicological screening of pesticides.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398046/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Potential Toxic Elements in Farm Soils and Vegetables of Northern Bangladesh: Impact on Soil Health and Human Safety.","authors":"Aninda Sarker, Supti Mallick, Minhaj Uddin, Ronzon Chandra Das, Md Harun Rashid, Md Shohidul Alam, Quazi Forhad Quadir, Md Zakir Hossen","doi":"10.3390/jox16040127","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040127","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Intensive vegetable production can increase the transfer of persistent toxic trace elements from agricultural soils into the food chain, particularly where agrochemical use, irrigation inputs, and local geochemical conditions are insufficiently characterized. This study was undertaken to assess toxic trace-metal contamination levels in soils and vegetables from two renowned vegetable-producing subdistricts-Shibganj and Kahaloo-in the Bogra district, Bangladesh. The study also estimated potential human health risks by evaluating the dietary intake of these elements. It measured Pb, Ni, Cd, and Cr content in six vegetables and their respective farm soils using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The average concentrations of Pb, Ni, Cd, and Cr in farm soils of Shibganj and Kahaloo subdistricts were 158.3 ± 8.83, 31.5 ± 5.25, 0.43 ± 0.08, and 14.1 ± 2.16 µg g^-1 and 164.1 ± 4.60, 35.7 ± 6.91, 0.53 ± 0.14, and 9.37 ± 2.87 µg g^-1, respectively. Soils collected from all locations in both subdistricts of Bogra fall under 'moderate' ecological risk. Regarding the pollution load index (PLI), 66.7% of Shibganj and 75.0% of Kahaloo sampling sites had a PLI > 1.0, confirming that 'metal pollution exists.' Based on the calculated bioconcentration factors (BCFs), Cr and Cd show a high tendency to migrate from soil to various vegetables in the study area, though the mean Cd BCF for brinjal in Shibganj exceeded 1.0 due to a single high observation. The results demonstrated that the edible parts of potatoes, onions, and chilies accumulate significant amounts of toxic trace elements. The calculated mean daily intake of Pb and Cr in all vegetables ranged from 0.33 to 1.21 mg person^-1 day^-1 and from 0.10 to 0.64 mg person^-1 day^-1, respectively, exceeding the upper tolerable intake limits. Similarly, dietary intake of potatoes showed both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks, while brinjal showed only carcinogenic risks for adults. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicates that the measured soil parameters are strong predictors of the response variables (trace element content in various vegetables). Overall, the results identified Pb-dominated soil contamination and human exposure to Pb and Cr associated with vegetables as the principal concerns. To address these issues, priority actions should be given to source apportionment and testing of various agricultural inputs. Additionally, before implementing site-specific remediation or issuing consumption advisories, these risks should be validated through metal speciation and bioaccessibility analyses.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398253/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Combined Effects of Metals and PFAS Exposure on Prevalent Diabetes.","authors":"Rifa Tasnia, Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi","doi":"10.3390/jox16040128","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040128","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and metal exposures occur as mixtures, but most studies evaluate them independently. Using data from adults in the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) with directly measured PFAS and blood metals (N = 1648), we assessed joint associations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), lead, cadmium, and mercury with prevalent diabetes via survey-weighted logistic regression, Weighted Quantile Sum (WQS) regression, quantile g-computation, and design-aware and naïve Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR). Survey-weighted diabetes prevalence was 11.4%. Lead and PFOS emerged as the dominant contributors to the exposure mixture in the BKMR model, with posterior inclusion probabilities of 1.00 and 0.997, respectively. In the WQS model, PFOS and PFOA were the primary drivers of the positive mixture index, consistent with their proposed roles in endocrine disruption and insulin resistance. BKMR exposure-response functions were non-monotonic, indicating that lead and cadmium associations with diabetes are nonlinear rather than uniformly directional across the exposure range, a structure that conventional logistic regression cannot capture. Overall, restricting to directly measured exposures, incorporating the full NHANES design in the primary regression, and triangulating across complementary mixture frameworks provide a more rigorous platform than prior single-pollutant or design-naive approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398037/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Xenobiotic Exposure to Neuroinflammation: Mechanisms Linking Lipopolysaccharide Signaling to Depressive-like Behavior.","authors":"Alissa Maria de Oliveira Martins, Maxsyara Felismino da Silva Soares, Lucas Nóbrega de Oliveira, Nayana M M V Barbosa, André Luiz Leocádio de Souza Matos, Maria Clara Ferreira Gonçalves, Adriana M F de Oliveira-Golzio, Cícero Francisco Bezerra Felipe, Marcus T Scotti, Pablo R da Silva, Luciana Scotti","doi":"10.3390/jox16040129","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040129","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Depression is increasingly recognized as a multifactorial disorder involving immune, metabolic, and neurobiological disturbances that extend beyond classical monoaminergic hypotheses. Among xenobiotic-based experimental approaches, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has become a valuable tool for investigating how peripheral inflammatory stimuli are translated into central neurobiological dysfunction. This narrative review aimed to integrate current evidence regarding the mechanisms by which LPS-induced neuroimmune activation contributes to depression-related phenotypes and to discuss the translational relevance of these findings. Literature searches were performed in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, focusing on studies addressing inflammatory signaling, oxidative imbalance, inflammasome activation, neurotransmitter dysfunction, and experimental modeling strategies. Current evidence suggests that LPS-induced neuroinflammation involves a dynamic interaction between peripheral immune signaling, mitochondrial dysfunction, redox imbalance, and glial activation, establishing self-amplifying mechanisms capable of sustaining chronic inflammatory states. Such alterations profoundly affect kynurenine metabolism, glutamatergic homeostasis, and reward-related neurotransmission, thereby contributing to synaptic dysfunction and behavioral impairment. Experimental findings obtained from animal, cellular, and computational platforms further support the emergence of integrated therapeutic strategies targeting multiple neuroimmune pathways. Collectively, these observations reinforce the concept that neuroinflammation represents a central biological interface linking xenobiotic exposure to depressive-like behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398186/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Eggshell-Activated Carbon from Water Hyacinths for Heavy Metal Removal from Wastewater: Isotherm and Kinetic Studies.","authors":"Claire Atumanye, Simon Bbumba, Hakimu Nsubuga, Ivan Kiganda, Timothy Omara, Justus Kwetegyeka","doi":"10.3390/jox16040126","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040126","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Heavy metals (HMs) such as copper (Cu), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr) and zinc (Zn) from industrial activities are discharged into nearby water resources after treatment. In the present study, the potential of utilizing chemically activated carbon derived from water hyacinths as a sustainable and low-cost adsorbent for heavy metal removal from industrial wastewater from the Nakawa industrial area, Uganda was investigated. The measured physicochemical parameters of wastewater (temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chlorides and total hardness) varied significantly among the three sampled sites (<i>p</i> < 0.05), except for pH. Similarly, the concentration of the HMs in the samples (0.54 ± 0.04 mg L^-1 for Cr to 93.54 ± 0.07 mg L^-1 for Pb) varied significantly between sites (<i>p</i> < 0.05), exceeding the maximum permissible limits of Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu and Zn specified in the National Environment Standards for Discharge of Effluent into Water or Land. The water hyacinth biomass was activated using eggshell powder and phosphoric acid, followed by thermal treatment. Characterization using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy confirmed that there was improvement in its surface functionality and porosity post activation. Batch adsorption experiments indicated that optimal removal of the HMs was achieved at pH 4-5, contact time of 90 min, and 1.0 g of adsorbent. Maximum adsorption capacities of Pb, Cd, Cu, Cr and Zn were in the range of 1.04-8.36 mg g^-1. Under the optimized conditions, the eggshell-activated carbon derived from water hyacinths had removal efficiencies of 91.2 ± 9.1% (range: 71.3-100%). Adsorption occurred through both monolayer and multilayer coverage, as indicated by the experimental data which fitted well to the Freundlich isotherm (Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Cu²⁺ ions) and Langmuir isotherm model (Cr³⁺ ions). These results support the potential of water hyacinth-derived activated carbon as an ecofriendly alternative for treating low concentrations of these HMs in industrial wastewater.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13397911/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Therapeutic Drug to Xenobiotic in Cancer Repurposing: Clozapine Mechanisms, Metabolic Liabilities, and Human-Relevant Translational Approaches.","authors":"Maria João Gouveia, Nuno Vale","doi":"10.3390/jox16040125","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040125","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Drug repurposing represents a rational and resource-efficient strategy to expand the oncological armamentarium by leveraging the established pharmacology, clinical experience, and safety-monitoring frameworks of approved non-oncological agents. Clozapine (CZP), an atypical antipsychotic characterized by broad receptor pharmacology, complex biotransformation, and clinically relevant toxicological liabilities, has emerged as a candidate of interest following preclinical evidence of context-dependent anticancer activity across multiple tumor types. As such, CZP provides an informative case study at the interface between therapeutic drug action and xenobiotic behavior. This review provides a critical and integrated synthesis of the current evidence supporting the repurposing of CZP in oncology, with particular emphasis on the relationship between its molecular mechanisms, dose-exposure requirements, pharmacological complexity, and potential toxicity. Analysis of in vitro and in vivo studies across glioblastoma, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma brain metastasis models indicates that CZP can impair tumor cell proliferation and survival through a form of mechanistic plasticity. Rather than acting through a single conserved pathway, CZP appears to disrupt shared upstream processes related to pro-survival signaling, cellular stress tolerance, and metabolic homeostasis, while engaging tumor-specific downstream responses, including autophagic cell death, mitochondria-dependent apoptosis, oxidative stress, and coordinated modulation of survival and angiogenic pathways. Despite this mechanistic rationale, translation remains substantially constrained, most notably by the order of magnitude gap between anticancer-effective concentrations in vitro and clinically achievable plasma exposures, requiring careful distinction between potentially useful anticancer pharmacology and nonspecific xenobiotic-induced cellular stress and clinically unacceptable toxicity. Key limitations include the discrepancy between anticancer-effective concentrations observed in vitro and exposures achievable during standard psychiatric dosing, the limited understanding of how CZP metabolism and metabolite formation may influence efficacy and toxicity, the absence of integrated pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic and toxicokinetic modeling, and the lack of dedicated clinical trial evidence. To address these challenges, this review examines complementary translational strategies, including patient-derived organoids, co-culture systems, microphysiological platforms, pharmacokinetic and toxicological modeling, and computational digital twin frameworks. Together, these approaches may support a biologically informed and risk-aware evaluation of CZP, helping to identify responsive tumor contexts, anticipate exposure-related liabilities, and prioritize rational combination strategies. By integrating therapeutic potential with xenobiotic pharmacology and toxicology, this ","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13397985/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pregnancy Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): Exploratory Comparative Levels in Blood Serum Samples from Different Regions in Antioquia, Colombia.","authors":"Jhon Fredy Narváez-Valderrama, Juan José García-Londoño, Juan David González-Calderón, Yileni Argoti-Ospina, Gabriel Jaime Maya, Jorge L Gallego, Ana Luisa Urrego, Carlos Daniel Ramos-Contreras","doi":"10.3390/jox16040124","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040124","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maternal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during pregnancy has been associated with adverse obstetric and perinatal outcomes, including miscarriage, low birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction, and spontaneous abortion. Exposure occurs through multiple pathways, including dietary intake and inhalation, which ultimately determine the final body burden. PAHs may reach relevant levels in the blood, representing the initial step in their internal distribution to the placenta, umbilical cord, and breast milk, thereby compromising maternal-fetal health. In this exploratory study, maternal blood samples were collected from pregnant women residing in different regions of Antioquia, Colombia. Serum was isolated from whole blood, subsequently extracted using freezing-assisted liquid-liquid extraction, purified by solid-phase extraction, and analyzed by GC-MS. Method performance showed PAH recoveries between 60 and 120%, limits of detection (LOD) ranging from 0.5 to 3.3 ng·mL^-1, and limits of quantification (LOQ) ranging from 1.4 to 9.9 ng·mL^-1. Airborne PAH concentrations were measured using a photoelectric aerosol sensor, and higher levels were observed in municipalities intersected by major highways, indicating a strong vehicular contribution, with an average concentration of 72.6 ± 39.2 ng·m^-3. Low and medium-molecular weight PAHs were detected in serum samples at an average concentration of 43.8 ± 8.8 ng·g^-1 of lipid (mean of ∑ individual congeners). In contrast, a high-molecular-weight PAH, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), was detected in one participant. Pyrene (PYR) and fluoranthene (FLU) were the predominant congeners, suggesting combustion-related sources, primarily vehicular emissions. Serum PAH levels showed a correlation with the frequency of consumption of canned fish and meat, but not with short-term airborne PAH measurements. These exploratory findings suggest that dietary intake is a primary pathway of bioaccumulation during acute exposure and plays a key role in determining the parental PAHs burden during pregnancy in polluted environments. However, additional data on parent PAHs and their metabolites are needed to provide a more comprehensive assessment of cumulative exposure arising from dietary sources and chronic inhalation of airborne PAHs.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398110/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental and Population Biomonitoring of Selenium in Eastern Croatia.","authors":"Zvonimir Užarević, Martina Šrajer Gajdošik, Elvira Kovač-Andrić, Lidija Kalinić, Mihaela Vranješ Delać, Dinko Puntarić, Eda Puntarić, Domagoj Vidosavljević, Mario Begović, Vlatka Gvozdić","doi":"10.3390/jox16040123","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jox16040123","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Selenium is a trace element of vital importance for ecosystem functioning and human health mainly due to its antioxidant and protective properties. Since both selenium deficiency and excess can have harmful effects on living organisms, monitoring its distribution in biological systems and the environment is of significant scientific and public health interest. This study systematically assessed selenium concentrations in biological (urine, serum, and hair) and environmental (soil and dandelion) samples in eastern Croatia. Selenium concentrations were determined using the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method. In biological samples, median selenium concentrations were from 15.02 to 37.15 μg·L^-1 in urine, from 80.76 to 114.05 μg·L^-1 in serum, and from 0.21 to 0.46 µg·g^-1 in hair. In environmental samples, median selenium concentrations varied depending on location, ranging from 0.32 to 0.51 mg·kg^-1 in soil and from 6.55 to 84.41 µg·kg^-1 in dandelion. PCA was applied to identify overall patterns and groupings among biological and environmental samples, showing that dandelion samples from urban locations exhibited the highest selenium concentrations, indicating the influences of urban environmental conditions on selenium accumulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":42356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Xenobiotics","volume":"16 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13398239/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}