Eosinophilic fasciitis in a young male auto mechanic exposed to organic solvents.

We report a case of eosinophilic fasciitis in a teenage auto mechanic who was most likely affected by occupational exposure to organic solvents, including the aromatic hydrocarbons benzene, trimethylbenzene, naphthalene, toluene, and xylene. The patient presented with an 8-month history of painful induration of his extremities and an abnormal gait. A deep excisional biopsy of the fascia was obtained, demonstrating subcutaneous fibrosis with perivascular and interstitial inflammation, with lymphocytes and plasma cells spilling into the sclerosed fascia, and focal fibrinoid necrosis. Treatment was begun with intravenous pulse doses of methylprednisolone, prednisone (20 mg daily), and subcutaneous methotrexate (25 mg weekly), and the patient's painful induration had resolved and gait had normalized at the 6-month follow-up. Our case suggests that exposure to organic solvents could be implicated in the pathogenesis of eosinophilic fasciitis and highlights the importance of a thorough occupational history to prevent repeat exposures to potentially causative agents.

On-line capillary electrophoresis-based enzymatic methodology for the study of polymer-drug conjugates.

This work aims at studying the potentialities of an on-line capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based digestion methodology for evaluating polymer-drug conjugates degradability in the presence of free trypsin (in-solution digestion). A sandwich plugs injection scheme with transverse diffusion of laminar profile (TDLFP) mode was used to achieve on-line digestions. Electrophoretic separation conditions were established using poly-l-Lysine (PLL) as reference substrate. Comparison with off-line digestion was carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methodology. The applicability of the on-line CE-based digestion methodology was evaluated for two PLL-drug conjugates and for the four first generations of dendrigraft of lysine (DGL). Different electrophoretic profiles presenting the formation of di, tri, and tetralysine were observed for PLL-drug and DGL. These findings are in good agreement with the nature of the linker used to link the drug to PLL structure and the predicted degradability of DGL. The present on-line methodology applicability was also successfully proven for protein conjugates hydrolysis. In summary, the described methodology provides a powerful tool for the rapid study of biodegradable polymers.