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Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is currently one of the most frequently used brominated flame retardants and can be considered as a high production volume chemical. In this study, zebrafish embryos and larvae served as a biological model to evaluate TBBPA-induced developmental toxicity, oxidative stress, oxidant-associated gene expression, and cell apoptosis. Abnormalities, including hyperemia and pericardial edema, were induced in zebrafish larvae. The results showed that toxicity endpoints such as hatching rate, survival rate, malformation rate, and growth rate had a significant dose-response relationship with TBBPA. Further studies revealed that TBBPA did not alter the enzyme activities of Copper/Zinc Superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathioneperoxidase (GPx) at 0.10 mg/L, but decreased activities following exposure to 0.40, 0.70, and 1.00 mg/L. Despite the significantly decreased gene expression of Cu/Zn-SOD, CAT, and GPx1a in the 1.00 mg/L treatment group, other treatments (0.10, 0.40, 0.70 mg/L) did not alter gene expression. Moreover, Acridine orange staining results showed that apoptotic cells mainly accumulated in the brain, heart, and tail, indicating possible TBBPA-induced brain, cardiac, and blood circulation system impairment in zebrafish embryos and larvae. Histological analysis also showed evidence of obvious heart impairment in TBBPA-treated groups. This study provides new evidence on the developmental toxicity, oxidative stress, and apoptosis of embryos and zebrafish larvae, which is important for the evaluation of environmental toxicity and chemical risk. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 31: 1241-1249, 2016.

Chitosan, a semi-crystalline biomolecule, has attracted wide attention due to its high synthesis flexibility. In this study, to improve the mechanical properties of chitosan aerogels (CSAs), graphene oxide (GO) was extracted and introduced into chitosan aerogels as fillers. The porous CSAs/GO composite aerogels were fabricated by an environmentally friendly freeze-drying process with different GO contents (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, wt.%). The characteristics of the CSAs/GO were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mechanical measurements and mercury porosimeter. The crystallinity of samples was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanism of the effect of graphene oxide on chitosan was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results show that the microstructure of the samples is developed in the network structure. The porosity of CSAs/GO aerogels is as high as 87.6%, and the tensile strength of the films increased from 6.60 MPa to 10.56 MPa with the recombination of graphene oxide. The crystallinity (CrI) of composite aerogels increased from 27% to 81%, which indicates that graphene oxide improves the mechanical properties of chitosan by chemical crosslinking.

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