Globally, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disproportionately affects the poor and certain races and ethnic groups. Identify and map current knowledge on contributors, i.e., psychosocial stressors (PSS) and environmental exposures, to these disparities. PSS may work though the same mechanistic pathways and could also increase the susceptibility of an individual to environmental exposures. We conducted systematic evidence mapping constructed from searches performed in PubMed. Study data was extracted for environmental exposures, PSS, CVD-related outcomes, disproportionately affected populations (DAPs), and other characteristics. Finally, we selected four exemplars two environmental exposures (noise, heat/cold), one PSS (discrimination), and one CVD (allostatic load) with varying databases to conduct a more in-depth review and illustrate the utility of the tool. We created the CVD Environmental Health Disparities Tool using data from over 8,000 relevant reviews and primary studies identified from over 53,000 unique references. The publicly available tool consists of six interactive systematic evidence maps (SEMs); three are specific for DAPs and three for all populations. Collectively, these SEMs include 35 environmental exposures, 13 PSS, and > 30 CVD outcomes in 9 populations. Each SEM allows users to visualize and filter the evidence by the extracted data, evaluate patterns, and identify research gaps and identify recommendations to meet those gaps. We found few studies on minority sexual orientation populations, household products, and green spaces. To illustrate the utility of the tool, for each exemplar, we identified recommendations for primary studies, e.g., the need to evaluate the interactions between PSS and environmental exposures (all exemplars), conduct studies in DAPs (e.g., noise, heat/cold for racial and ethnic groups), and determine which exposure-outcome pairs warranted a systemic review (e.g., discrimination and several CVDs) or intervention (e.g., allostatic load could be used to evaluate intervention efficacy). Our comprehensive systematic evidence mapping and tool is unique because it provides a comprehensive characterization of studies of environmental exposures and PSS across all CVD outcomes. It is a resource that can be leveraged to inform effective research leading to action and provide knowledge to affected communities and community-based organizations.
Dystocia (prolonged, difficult, and/or delayed parturition) results from a variety of potential clinical conditions including uterine inertia, hormonal imbalances, oversized fetuses, abnormal orientation of fetuses in the birth canal, etc. In the laboratory, dystocia frequently results in euthanasia. In 2020, the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute's Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology committee formed a working group to discuss anecdotal reports of increased incidence of dystocia amongst laboratory rodents. Based on an initial survey completed by contributing laboratories, it became apparent that there is significant disparity in how various laboratories define, record, report, and interpret dystocia in laboratory animals. This report highlights the key findings from a survey of performing laboratories conducted by this working group and proposes best practices and recommendations for the monitoring and recording of parturition and dystocia in reproductive toxicity studies in rodents. Implementing consistent definitions, observation strategies, and documentation standards will strengthen data comparability and enhance the scientific foundation on which regulatory decisions are made. Furthermore, consistent reporting of dystocia across industry laboratories will improve the transparency and reliability of evidence used in hazard identification and risk assessment and thereby help reduce discrepancies in regulatory outcomes and facilitate regulatory decision-making for chemicals, plant protection products, biocides, and pharmaceuticals.
As members of the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI)‘s Publishers Compact Fellows Action Group, the authors have come to recognize that achieving progress on the seventeen United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires advanced technology management. Specifically, how can we make better use of technology in the higher education and academic publishing worlds to support data gathering for the indicators and targets associated with each Goal? Also, how can we use it to make progress on the cause at hand, which is to bridge theory and practice in support of the UN’s SDGs? The authors outline some of the opportunities and limitations they see for technology to support achievement of these aims.
Development is a tightly regulated process that establishes body axes and orchestrates the spatial organization of tissues and organs. Although developmental programs contain inherent redundancies, they remain highly sensitive to environmental cues. Among environmental contaminants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), chemicals that resist degradation and bioaccumulate in the body, are of particular concern. These "forever chemicals" are widespread in our household products, including non-stick and waterproof materials, and drinking water remains a major source of exposure. PFAS accumulate in specific tissues and have been associated with developmental delays, childhood leukemia, and other adverse health outcomes, yet the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which they disrupt early development remain largely unknown. To address this, we employ zebrafish embryos as a New Approach Methodology (NAM) to investigate how perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a prevalent environmental PFAS, alters early embryogenesis. Embryos were exposed to physiologically relevant low and high doses of PFOA and analyzed at 24 hours post-fertilization (hpf), a key stage of organogenesis. We also included a parental exposure group, in which adults were treated with PFOA and their offspring were collected to assess whether the effects of exposure were transmitted to the next generation. Developmental processes are inherently plastic, and we wanted to understand the extent to which PFOA impacts normal cellular processes as well as the redundancy in the system (different developmental signaling pathways) which ensures that an embryo develops properly. Towards this, we performed single-nucleus RNA sequencing at 24 hpf, and it revealed that neuronal and muscle tissue clusters are particularly sensitive to PFOA exposure. These molecular perturbations correspond with anxiety-like behavioral phenotypes we observed in the exposed larvae, linking early developmental disruptions to organism-level outcomes. Overall, our findings provide mechanistic insight into the way in which PFAS exposure alters development, disrupting gene expression patterns and chromatin organization in developing tissues, revealing how early molecular perturbations can give rise to long-term behavioral consequences.
