Intranasal administration of tetrabromobisphenol A bis(2-hydroxyethyl ether) induces neurobehavioral changes in neonatal Sprague Dawley rats

Tetrabromobisphenol A（TBBPA） and its derivatives are now being highly concerned due to their emerging environmental occurrence and deleterious effects on non-target organisms.Considering the potential neurotoxicity of TBBPA derivatives which has been demonstrated in vitro, what could happen in vivo is worthy of being studied. Tetrabromobisphenol A bis（2-hydroxyethyl ether）（TBBPA-BHEE）, a representative TBBPA derivative, was selected for a21-day exposure experiment on neonatal Sprague Dawley（SD） rats through intranasal administration. The neurobehavioral, histopathological changes, and differentially expressed genes based on RNA microarray were investigated to evaluate the neurological effects of this chemical. The results indicated that TBBPA-BHEE exposure significantly compromised the motor co-ordination performance and the locomotor activities（p 〈 0.05）. The neurobehavioral phenotype could be attributed to the obvious histopathological changes in both cerebrum and cerebellum, such as neural cell swelling, microglial activation and proliferation. A total of 911 genes were up-regulated, whereas 433 genes were down-regulated. Gene set enrichment analysis showed multiple signaling pathways, including ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis and wingless-int（Wnt） signaling pathway etc. were involved due to TBBPA-BHEE exposure. The gene ontology enrichment analysis showed the basic cellular function and the neurological processes like synaptic transmission were influenced. The toxicological effects of TBBPA-BHEE observed in this study suggested the potential neuronal threaten from unintended exposure,which would be of great value in the biosafety evaluation of TBBPA derivatives.

Constraints on the generalized natural inflation after Planck 2018

Based on the dynamics of single scalar field slow-roll inflation and the theory of reheating,we investigate the generalized natural inflationary(GNI)model.We introduce constraints on the scalar spectral index ns and the tensor-to scalar ratio r for theΛCDM+r model,according to the latest data from Planck 2018 TT,TE,EE+low E+lensing(P18)and BICEP2/Keck 2015 season(BK15),i.e.,with ns=0.9659±0.0044 at 68%confidence level(CL),and r<0.0623 at 95%CL.We find that the GNI model is favored by P18 and BK15 in the ranges log10(f/Mp)=0.62^+0.17−0.18 and m=0.35^+0.13−0.23 at 68%CL.In addition,the corresponding predictions of generalized and two-phase reheating are discussed.It follows that the parameter m has significant effect on the model behavior.