ABSTRACT
Ionization efficiency in mass spectrometry was examined for three types of molecules under different ionization schemes, i.e., resonant/nonresonant and two-photon/three-photon ionization, using an ultraviolet (UV) femtosecond laser at different wavelengths, pulse energies, and pulse widths. The efficiency of nonresonant ionization could be improved substantially by decreasing the laser pulse width. The effect of resonance was minimal when an ultrashort optical pulse of less than 100 fs was employed for ionization in the UV region. Three-photon ionization was less efficient than two-photon ionization, but the difference was not significant at shorter pulse widths in the femtosecond region. Although the excess energy can be decreased by optimizing the laser wavelength in the case of nonresonant ionization, fragmentation was not suppressed in the cases studied here. However, fragmentation was drastically suppressed when the laser pulse width was decreased. Thus, this approach of using an ultrashort optical pulse would provide a new tool for soft ionization and then for more reliable identification of an analyte.
ABSTRACT
We investigated the effects of insulin resistance on the expression of heat-shock proteins (HSPs) and myocardial protection against ischemia/reperfusion injury. Male Sprague-Dawley rats received normal chow (CNT) or high-fat (HiF) diet. HiF diet for 6 weeks resulted in the development of insulin resistance, which was evaluated by oral glucose test and insulin tolerance test. Twenty-four hour after oral administration of geranylgeranylacetone (GGA) (200 mg/kg), the heart was isolated and perfused retrogradely with two different doses of insulin (0.1 or 1 mU/ml). Myocardial expression of HSP72 was examined using Western blot analysis. In the HiF group, the expression of HSP72 in response to GGA was decreased. The recovery of left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) 30 min after reperfusion was tended to be lower in HiF group than in CNT group. Although GGA improved the recovery of LVDP in both CNT and HiF rats, LVDP during reperfusion period was significantly lower in HiF group than in CNT group. High-dose insulin perfusion caused deterioration of post-ischemic functional recovery and LVDP was not different between the two groups, but GGA-induced cardioprotection was preserved irrespective of the dose of insulin both in the CNT and HiF rats. This is the first demonstration that expression of HSP72 was depressed in the heart and that reduced HSP72 was related with less cardioprotection against ischemic insult in high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance rats.
