Mario Ančić

Cadmium and decabrominated diphenyl ether mixture: In vitro evaluation of cytotoxic, prooxidative and genotoxic effects.

In order to look into the combined effects of Cd and BDE-209 in vitro, this study was aimed at examining cytotoxic and genotoxic effects using the human colon carcinoma cell line (SW 480) as a biological test system as well as to determine if ROS production was one of the possible mechanisms of their mixture action. This cell line was chosen since ingestion of contaminated food/water represents an important route of exposure to both Cd and BDE-209, which is why intestinal cells are a common target for the contaminants present in food and water. Cells were treated with single Cd in concentrations of 2.5, 7.5 or 15μg Cd/mL (corresponding to 22, 67 or 134μM), single BDE-209 in concentrations of 2.5, 5 or 10μg BDE209/mL (corresponding to 2.5, 5 or 10μM), and their mixtures (design 3×3). Mixture of Cd and BDE-209 has shown clear potential to reduce the viability of SW 480 cells, as evidenced by cytotoxicity associated with ROS generation. Factorial regression models used to identify type of interaction revealed synergism related to mixture citotoxicity and additive interaction for the effect on ROS production. The results from this introductory study could contribute to the issue of possible adverse effects associated with co-exposure and body burden with two persistent environmental pollutants, Cd and BDE-209.

Pine reforestation of degraded sites on the island of Rab, Croatia

Abstract Degradation of forest sites on the island of Rab goes back several hundred years. The causes include in the first place negative anthropogenic impacts, followed by climatic conditions that are hostile to natural regeneration of climatozonal vegetation. In a part of the island, devastation has led to the disappearance of forests or the preservation of only degraded forms of the basic autochthonous forest vegetation, the forest of holm oak and manna ash (Fraxino orni‐Quercetum ilicis H‐ic/1956/1958). The beginning of the twentieth century saw intensive reforestation activities aimed at halting site degradation processes. The main task of the pines was to create site conditions for the return of climatozonal vegetation. The paper examines the correlation between pine cultures and the return of autochthonous vegetation. Differences were found among forest cultures of maritime (Pinus pinaster Aiton), black (Pinus nigra J.F.Arnold) and Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis L.). Moreover, the results confirm the justifiability of reforesting degraded sites with pines, but they also reveal the absence of more pronounced effects on the sites. Today, there are about 1000 hectares of pine cultures on the island of Rab, yet climatozonal vegetation has been re‐established in only a small part of these forest cultures.