Epidemiological and experimental studies have suggested that exposure to particulate air pollution may promote progression of atherosclerosis. In the present study, the characteristics and trends of the research field of particulate matter (PM) and atherosclerosis were analyzed using bibliometric indicators. Bibliometric analysis was based on original papers obtained from PubMed/MEDLINE search results (from 1973 to 2014) using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms. A fully-detailed search strategy was employed, and articles were imported into the Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA) software. The visualizing network of the collaborative researchers was analyzed by Ucinet 6 software. Main research topics and future focuses were explored by co-word and cluster analysis. The characteristics of these research articles were summarized. The number of published articles has increased from five for the period 1973–1978 to 89 for the period 2009–2014. Tobacco smoke pollution, smoke and air PM were the most studied targets in this research field. Coronary disease was the top health outcome posed by PM exposure. The aorta and endothelium vascular were the principal locations of atherosclerotic lesions, which were enhanced by PM exposure. Oxidative stress and inflammation were of special concern in the current mechanistic research system. The top high-frequency MeSH terms were clustered, and four popular topics were further presented. Based on the quantitative analysis of bibliographic information and MeSH terms, we were able to define the study characteristics and popular topics in the field of PM and atherosclerosis. Our analysis would provide a comprehensive background reference for researchers in this field of study.

The demethylation potential of environmental pollutants is possibly an innate part of their comprehensive health risk. This paper develops a novel method called TDQ to quantify the demethylation epigenetic toxicity, termed the 5-AZA-CdR demethylation toxic equivalency, of aquatic samples from the heavily polluted Bohai Bay using Hep G2 cell lines transiently transfected with the pEGFP-C3 plasmid containing a methylated promoter of the EGFP reporter gene inserted artificially in vitro. If the aquatic sample extract has strong total demethylation potential to the promoter, its methylation level will decrease, and increased green fluorescence will be observed under microscopy after TDQ co-incubation. The 5-AZA-CdR was selected as a representative demethylation agent to validate the principle of the TDQ method on three levels: significant dose–response relationships between the concentration of 5-AZA-CdR and the methylation level of promoters, mRNA expression level of the EGFP gene, and the fluorescence intensity of EGFP proteins. Twenty extracts from aquatic samples are successfully quantified with the TDQ test. Eight of them return meaningful results ranging from 0.00004 to 0.20053 μM 5-AZA-CdR toxicity equivalents. The TDQ method is a reliable and rapid assay for the quantification of the DNA demethylation potential of aquatic sample extracts, which may shed light on the safety evaluation of food material.

以安徽省宿州市埇桥区奎河、沱河岸边2 000 m范围内的9个村庄作为研究区域，在距离河岸500 m、1 000 m、2 000 m处采集表层土壤样品. 使用ICP-MS法检测土壤样品中砷、镉、铬、镍、铅、铜和锌7种重金属的含量，并通过单因子评价法、内梅罗污染指数法及潜在生态风险指数法，评价奎河、沱河周边土壤的污染等级和潜在生态风险. 共采集土壤样品27个，砷、镉的超标率为100%（27个），锌超标率37.0%（10个），镍超标率29.6%（8个），铜超标率25.9%（7个），铬超标率22.2%（6个），铅不超标. 砷、镉、铬、镍、铜、锌的浓度均超过其背景值. 单因子评价结果显示镉为中度污染，砷、铬为轻度污染，其他镍、铅、铜、锌4种重金属属于轻微污染范畴. 内梅罗综合污染指数结果显示，奎河、沱河周边土壤综合指数为3.1，属于重度污染. 奎河、沱河附近土壤的土壤生态风险值为166.8，该地区生态风险等级为强烈风险. 评价结果显示该地区土壤存在一定程度的重金属污染，其生态风险已经超过可接受水平，亟待治理. （图1表9 参26）