An Assessment Of Early Effects Of A Common Domestic Detergent On The Detoxification System And Anti-oxidant System In Mice Using A Suite Of Biomarkers

Detergents, with surfactant as their main component, are widely used in households. These chemicals are disposed of in the sewers and will finally enter environment with very little or no treatment, causing severe environmental pollution problems. Except for eutrophication owing to higher phosphorus, it is not negligible that synthetic detergents can influence all kinds of organism. Firstly, detergents can affect large quantities of organism in the aquatic environment, such as plankton, fish and so on. Secondly, irrigation water containing detergents and surfactants can make ecosystem of soil influenced. Thirdly, during the process of detergent used and produced, human beings often expose to detergent, and the main daily exposure come from oral and skin, while vocational exposure still come from tract. Thus, it is conceivable that domestic detergents may pose a health risk to human beings. Although there have been some reports about effects of the matter containing surfactants including detergents on human beings, it is very limited that effects of this matter on the advanced animals and human beings are known about.Low-dose, long-time and mixture-pattern are action characters of environmental pollutants on human beings. It is the most meaningful to assess potential hazards ofpollutants on human beings from change of biomarkers. Detergent been widely used daily was chosen in the present study. The early effects of low-dose detergent in mice on the detoxification system and anti-oxidant system was evaluated by using a suite of biomarkers including glutathione-S-transferase (GST), ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase (EROD), total oxyradical scavenging capacity (TOSC), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and reduced glutathione (GSH) in the mouse liver, modelling the way of possible exposure of animals, which provides bases for overall understanding possible effects of detergents on advanced animals.The results showed as follows:1. Four-week old mice were exposed to domestic detergents for 4-12d, and the results showed significant changes in glutathione-S-transferase, ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase, total oxyradical scavenging capacity, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase, among them, response time to detergent is different. The results implied existence of early effects of detergent on mice.2. glutathione-S-transferase was induced, and ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase was inhibited by detergent, showing detergent can influence the detoxicating enzymes of the mouse.3. Anti-oxidant system, among which glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase changed obviously, was influenced after exposure of detergent.4. Significant decreasing of total oxyradical scavenging capacity in mouse caused by detergent, and its relation to glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase imply that total oxyradical scavenging capacity posses very high values as a new biomarker.