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[SANET-MG] recent papers on glyphosate toxicity for round-up phobes



Two recent papers deal with new information on glyphosate toxic effects.
The first shows that the herbicide effects global transcription in a
marine invertebrate embryo. The danger reaches beyond marine organisms
to all embryos.
The second article shows that a common glyphosate formulation causes
liver damage after a brief (sub chronic) exposure.
 Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2005 Feb 15;203(1):1-8.

A glyphosate-based pesticide impinges on transcription.
Marc J, Le Breton M, Cormier P, Morales J, Belle R, Mulner-Lorillon O.

Station Biologique de Roscoff, Cycle Cellulaire et Developpement, Unite
Mer and Sante, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS),
Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), 29682 Roscoff Cedex, France.

Widely spread chemicals used for human benefits may exert adverse
effects on health or the environment, the identification of which are a
major challenge. The early development of the sea urchin constitutes an
appropriate model for the identification of undesirable cellular and
molecular targets of pollutants. The widespread glyphosate-based
pesticide affected sea urchin development by impeding the hatching
process at millimolar range concentration of glyphosate. Glyphosate, the
active herbicide ingredient of Roundup, by itself delayed hatching as
judged from the comparable effect of different commercial
glyphosate-based pesticides and from the effect of pure glyphosate
addition to a threshold concentration of Roundup. The surfactant
polyoxyethylene amine (POEA), the major component of commercial Roundup,
was found to be highly toxic to the embryos when tested alone and
therefore could contribute to the inhibition of hatching. Hatching, a
landmark of early development, is a transcription-dependent process.
Correlatively, the herbicide inhibited the global transcription, which
follows fertilization at the 16-cell stage. Transcription inhibition was
dose-dependent in the millimolar glyphosate range concentration. A
1257-bp fragment of the hatching enzyme transcript from Sphaerechinus
granularis was cloned and sequenced; its transcription was delayed by 2
h in the pesticide-treated embryos. Because transcription is a
fundamental basic biological process, the pesticide may be of health
concern by inhalation near herbicide spraying at a concentration 25
times the adverse transcription concentration in the sprayed microdroplets.
Toxicol Lett. 2004 Nov 2;153(2):227-32

The effects of sub-chronic exposure of Wistar rats to the herbicide
Glyphosate-Biocarb.

Benedetti AL, Vituri Cde L, Trentin AG, Domingues MA, Alvarez-Silva M.

Laboratorio de Neurobiologia e Hematologia Celular e
Molecular--BEG-CCB--Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Campus
Universitario, 88040-900 Florianopolis, SC, Brazil.

The object of this study was to analyze the hepatic effects of the
herbicide Glyphosate-Biocarb (as commercialized in Brazil) in Wistar
rats. Animals were treated orally with water or 4.87, 48.7, or 487 mg/kg
of glyphosate each 2 days, during 75 days. Sub-chronic treatment of
animals starting from the lowest dose of glyphosate induced the leakage
of hepatic intracellular enzymes, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and
aspartate aminotransferase (AST), suggesting irreversible damage in
hepatocytes. We observed the increase of Kupffer cells in hepatic
sinusoid of glyphosate-treated animals. This was followed by large
deposition of reticulin fibers, composed mainly of collagen type III. We
may conclude that Glyphosate-Biocarb may induce hepatic histological
changes as well as AST and ALT leaking from liver to serum in
experimental models.

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