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Xenobiotics.

Xenobiotics are a group of substances whose biochemical properties have a destructive effect on living organisms. Most xenobiotics are of man-made origin. These are the results of human economic activity (emissions of waste substances and industrial waste), household chemicals and building materials (synthetic dyes, detergents, poisons for fighting insects and mold , pesticides, etc.), chemical products (perfumery, paint for hair, chemical additives, plastics), the results of volcanic activity, fires and man-made disasters ( radionuclides, dioxins) and similar substances. Once in the human environment, xenobiotics accumulate in high concentrations and, in contact with the human (or animal) organism, cause changes at the level of gene structures and biochemical processes.

Xenobiotics can cause:

Hereditary changes,
Lowered immunity,
Allergic reactions,
Groups of specific diseases caused by toxins of mercury, lead, cadmium,
Metabolic disorders,
Carcinogenesis (development of cancerous tumors).

In humans and animals, there is a mechanism for detoxification of xenobiotics at the cellular level , which reduces their toxicity to a certain extent: cellular metabolism binds and partially removes harmful substances (xenobiotics are deactivated in cells), but they are not completely removed from the body, although humans (and animals ) thus get the opportunity to survive in contaminated areas, but acquire incurable diseases.

Groups of enzymes are involved in the deactivation of xenobiotics , and liver cells and renal tubules play an important role in the elimination of xenobiotics. These systems of detoxification of the body originate from the origins of evolution, when nature invented mechanisms to protect living organisms from the harmful effects of the environment. But there is also a system for depositing xenobiotics in some body tissues (skin, bones, adipose tissue). Special attention of scientists today is attracted by the ability of xenobiotics to accumulate in adipose tissue due to their lipophilicity (affinity to fats ), since this is of great importance in the transfer of toxic substances along the food chain from various living organisms to animals and to humans.