Evaluation of the capillary electrophoresis method for measurement of immunoglobulin concentration in ewe colostrum.

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a technique routinely used in clinical laboratories that allows the separation and quantification of blood serum proteins in a rapid, precise, accurate, and inexpensive manner. Recently, CE has been proposed to separate and measure colostral proteins, but an evaluation of the agreement between CE and radial immunodiffusion (RID) method, currently used to quantify IgG in colostrum, is still lacking. The purpose of this study was to test the ability of a CE instrument, normally used in blood serum protein analysis, to realize the correct quantification of total Ig concentration in ewe colostrum, using RID assay as reference. Colostrum samples (n = 68) were collected from 35 multiparous Sarda ewes at first milking (n = 33) and at 24 h postpartum (n = 35). The mean ± standard deviation of IgG concentration measured by RID and whey colostrum total Ig concentration measured by CE were 54.76 ± 41.82 g/L and 54.70 ± 41.43 g/L, respectively. Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (r = 0.993; 95% confidence interval = 0.989 to 0.996) and linear regression analysis results (RID = 1.0022CE - 0.063; R2 = 0.986) showed an excellent agreement between these 2 methods. Bland-Altman analysis confirmed that CE method can be a suitable alternative to RID: the mean of the differences between CE and RID was -0.055 ± 4.95 g/L (95% confidence interval = -1.25 to 1.14 g/L) and the agreement limits were -9.75 to 9.60 g/L (low limit 95% confidence interval = -11.82 to -7.68 g/L; high limit 95% confidence interval = 7.57 to 11.72 g/L). In conclusion, the current study indicates that CE method may be a reliable tool for the quantification of the total Ig concentration in ewe colostrum.

New developments of aminobisphosphonates: the double face of Janus.

BACKGROUND: Bisphosphonate (BP) therapy has become a standard of therapy for patients with malignant bone disease. In vivo preclinical and preliminary clinical data indicate that BPs may prevent cancer treatment-induced bone loss and the onset of malignant bone disease in patients with early-stage cancer. DESIGN: This review will describe the preclinical evidences of action of BPs on osteoclasts and tumor cells. In addition, the effects of principal BPs on skeletal disease progression in patients with breast cancer, prostate cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer and other cancers will be reported. The preliminary clinical data from retrospective trials on the effect of zoledronic acid (ZA) on survival will be described and the ongoing adjuvant phase III trial will be analyzed. CONCLUSIONS: This review will describe the preliminary clinical evidences from prospective studies on the effect of ZA treatment on the prevention of bone metastasis.