Exhaled breath condensate analysis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The increasing focus on airway inflammation in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has led to development and evolution of tools to measure it. Direct assessment of airway inflammation requires invasive procedures, and hence, has obvious limitations. Non-invasive methods to sample airway secretions and fluids offer exciting prospects. Analysis of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is rapidly emerging as a novel non-invasive approach for sampling airway epithelial lining fluid and offers a convenient tool to provide biomarkers of inflammation. It has definite advantages that make it an attractive and a feasible option. It is a source of mediators and molecules that are the causes or consequences of the inflammatory process. Measurement of such markers is increasingly being explored for studying airway inflammation qualitatively and quantitatively in research studies and for potential clinical applications. These biomarkers also have the potential to develop into powerful research tools in COPD for identifying various pathways of pathogenesis of COPD that may ultimately provide specific targets for therapeutic intervention. The EBC analysis is still an evolving noninvasive method for monitoring of inflammation and oxidative stress in the airways. The limited number of studies available on EBC analysis in COPD have provided useful information although definite clinical uses are yet to be defined. Evolving technologies of genomics, proteomics, and metabonomics may provide deeper and newer insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of COPD.

Metabolism of arachidonic acid in sheep uterus: in vitro studies.

Arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism in the non-pregnant sheep uterus was studied in vitro using conventional chromatographic and HPLC techniques. High expression of both lipoxygenase (LOX) as well as cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes and their activities was found in the uterine tissues. On incubation of uterine enymes with AA, the LOX products formed were identified as 5-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-HPETE), 12- and 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (12- and 15-HETEs), based on their separation on TLC and HPLC. By employing differential salt precipitation techniques, the LOXs generating products 5-HPETE (5-LOX), 12-HETE and 15-HETE (12- and 15-dual LOX) were isolated. Based on their analysis on TLC, the COX products formed were identified as prostaglandins - PGF2alpha and prostacyclin derivative 6-keto PGF1alpha. The study forms the first report on the comprehensive analysis on the metabolism of AA in sheep uterus in vitro via the LOX and COX pathways.

Subcellular distribution of prostaglandin-E2 and prostaglandin-F2alpha in atrial tissue from patients with mitral valve disease

The distribution of prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2) and prostaglandin-F2alpha (PGF2alpha) was studied in subcellular fractions isolated from homogenates of human atrial fresh tissue by differential centrifugation. Right and left atrial samples were excised from the same heart of six patients with mitral valve disease at the time of open heart surgery. The atrial fractions investigated were mitochondrial (8,500 g pellet), microsomal (100,000 g pellet) and cytosol soluble (100,000 g supernatant) fractions. After extraction of prostaglandins from the three atrial fractions and separation of PGE from PGF series by chromatography on silicic acid column, these prostaglandins were measured by radioimmunoassay. The results, showed that PGE2 and PGF2alpha were located mainly in the soluble cytosolic fraction of right and left atrial tissue (p<0.001). Furthermore, the prostaglandins levels were higher in left than in right atria of these patients (p<0.001). The relation between prostaglandins heart generation in response to elevated work load of mitral valve disease is discussed.