Abstract
We developed a novel method to quantify the demethylation epigenetic toxicity of pollutants. A hyper-methylated pEGFP-C3 plasmid eukaryotic expression vector was constructed and used to evaluate the epigenetic toxicity of aquatic pollutants samples from polluted coastal waters of Tianjin, China. The methylated pEGFP-C3 plasmid was transfected into HepG-2 cells and incubated with 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine at various concentrations. The HepG-2 cell line reporter gene vector was used to assess the epigenetic toxicity of heavy metal extracts from polluted marine waters, and shellfish samples. Results indicated that the demethylation ability of 5-aza-dC at doses between 0.0008 and 0.1 μM could be quantitatively detected. Nine of the 19 aquatic samples showed strong demethylation ability at values between 0.0064 and 0.0387 μM 5-AZA equivalents. A GFP reporter gene vector with a hyper-methylated CMV promoter was constructed, and a relatively sensitive response relationship between GFP gene expression and 5-AZA dose was observed, providing a novel method for quantifying the demethylation ability of pollutants.
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Jiang, Y., Wang, X. (2011). A Novel Method for Quantifying the Demethylation Potential of Environmental Chemical Pollutants. In: Lin, S., Huang, X. (eds) Advances in Computer Science, Environment, Ecoinformatics, and Education. CSEE 2011. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 214. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23321-0_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23321-0_10
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