Cooling extensive burns: sprayed coolants can improve initial cooling management - a thermography-based study.

This pilot study was designed to verify whether the spraying of coolant improves initial cooling in extensive burns. The cooling effects of 1l of sprayed water and 5l of poured water (at 22 degrees C) were tested; 53 healthy participants were cooled for 15 min over 18% of their total body surface, twice. Thermographic imaging measured the loss of skin temperature and assessed the homogeneity of cooling. With sprayed coolant the mean decrease of skin temperature was significantly higher (p < 0.003) throughout the entire cooling period and more homogeneous for the first 9 min (p < 0.003), compared with poured coolant. Infrared tympanic thermometry estimated core body temperature; neither poured nor sprayed water caused hypothermia. Even with a fifth of the volume of poured water, sprayed water cooled more efficiently. Thus, we conclude that spraying of coolant improves initial management.

Separation and quantitation of alkylphosphocholines and analogues of different liposome formulations by HPTLC.

High-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) analysis of non UV-active phospholipids in biological matrixes is a common method for separation, detection, and quantitation. Liposomes containing new alkylphosphocholines and analogues with enhanced cytostatic activity had been prepared. The liposomal formulations were designed to enable the intravenous application of the alkylphosphocholines and analogues and to reduce dose-limiting toxicities observed after oral administration. For quality control the liposomes were analyzed by HPTLC for content of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol (DPPG), cholesterol, alkylphosphocholines, and analogues and their related compounds (main degradation products). Due to the differences in lipophily of the compounds, different mobile phases were necessary to achieve separation. Automated Multiple Development was used to reduce the number of plates and to improve the selectivity and the capacity of the chromatographic system to separate the described alkylphosphocholines and analogues from DPPG and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine in one chromatographic system.

Preparation and analysis of styrene oligomers containing migrates from various polystyrenes used in food packaging.

An oligostyrene-like product (F2L5250) was reported to have estrogen-like activity (statistically significant increases in means for absolute uterine weight and the ratios of the uterine weight to terminal body weight) in juvenile female rats provided a dietary concentration of 100 ppm F2L5250 for four consecutive days. The highest no-effect-level (NOEL) for estrogenic activity was 80 ppm in the diet, corresponding to a daily intake of 13.3 mg F2L5250/kg. Although it is unlikely that such estrogenic tetramers would occur in commercial polystyrene, the Styrene Steering Committee (SSC) of the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) sponsored the current extensive project to address any concern that human consumption of styrene oligomers migrating from polystyrene containers into food, e.g., from packaged yoghurt, or from the use of EPS coffee cups and related products, might affect human health. To ensure confidentiality and compliance with the highest scientific and regulatory standards, the entire project was conducted without knowledge of the oligomer migrates tested, and all activities were managed and audited under a contract between the SSC and a third party, Argus International. This paper describes the preparation and analyses of the 23 representative polystyrenes [9 general purpose polystyrenes (GPPS), 8 high impact polystyrenes (HIPS) and 6 expandable polystyrenes (EPS)] evaluated for estrogenicity in an in vivo uterotrophic assay in immature female rats. The polystyrene samples were chosen to represent food packaging applications. They were obtained from participating European Polystyrene Manufacturers, coded at the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands (TNO) and sent to BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany for preparation of test bars (GPPS and HIPS) or test foam parts (EPS). The prepared polystyrene test bars or test foam parts were submitted to elution with 50% aqueous (v/v) ethanol for 10 days at 40 degrees C, a procedure which simulates an exposure at ambient temperature for several weeks and represents an exaggeration in comparison with yogurt, for which directive 85/572/EEC1 defines 3% aqueous acetic acid as the official food simulant. To further exaggerate the potential concentration of the possible migrates, the surface/volume ratio selected for elution was the maximum experimentally possible, i.e., approximately 56 dm2/kg food for the GPPS and HIPS bars and approximately 38 dm2/kg food for the EPS foam, representing a multiple of approximately 9 (GPPS and HIPS) and 6 (EPS), times the conventional surface/volume ratio of 6 dm2/kg. These obtained styrene oligomer migrates were then diluted to 25% aqueous (v/v) ethanol, a concentration that could be tolerated by the test animals. After dilution, the low and high concentrations represented multiples of 0.5 and 4.6 (GPPS and HIPS) and 0.5 and 3.2 (EPS) the conventional surface/volume ratio, respectively. These levels simulated daily human consumption of 500 or 5,000 g of food for the GPPS and HIPS samples and of 500 or 3,150 g of food for the EPS samples, respectively. The results of the homogeneity, stability and concentration analyses of the styrene dimers and trimers in the migrates indicated that the concentrations of migrants were highest as the result of 50% aqueous ethanol extraction of HIPS test bars followed by GPPS test bars and EPS test foam parts.

[Ectopic gastric mucosa in the duodenal bulb]. / Ektope Magenschleimhaut im Bulbus duodeni.

The radiological and clinical findings of 12 patients with ectopic gastric mucosa in the duodenal bulb are presented. This is a defined disease with characteristic radiological features: multiple small nodular defects of the contrast medium of 1-3 mm diameter. Histology shows complete heterotopia. Pathogenesis and clinical significance are discussed with reference to the literature on this subject.

Incidence of diabetic retinopathy and relationship to baseline plasma glucose and blood pressure.

A nationwide, stratified population sample of 534 diabetic Swiss men and women, aged 35-54 yr, participated in a study of vascular disease. The study was based on a common protocol, standardized examination procedures, and centralized laboratory methods. Patients were chosen from a pool of diabetic Swiss with diabetes greater than or equal to 1 yr. After selection, the participants were classified into groups according to age at diabetes onset (greater than 30 or less than 30 yr) and insulin treatment status. Several variables thought to be related to retinopathy incidence were analyzed at the initial examinations: onset of diabetes before age 30, duration of disease, fasting plasma glucose, blood pressure, and insulin therapy. Follow-up examination of 358 of 458 survivors, with a diabetes duration that averaged 20 yr, showed retinopathy significantly and independently associated with initial fasting plasma glucose, systolic blood pressure, and insulin use but not with diabetes duration. Lower rates of retinopathy development were observed during the follow-up period in diabetic patients on antihypertensive therapy at the baseline examination, suggesting that not only lower fasting plasma glucose and systolic blood pressure levels but also blood pressure therapy itself decreases the incidence of retinopathy.

Effect of physiological elevation of plasma growth hormone levels on ketone body kinetics and lipolysis in normal and acutely insulin-deficient man.

The effect of physiological elevation of growth hormone levels on ketone body kinetics was determined using a 14C-ketone body tracer technique in normal and acutely insulin-deficient man. Changes of ketone body production and metabolic clearance rates during growth hormone infusion (plasma levels of approximately 25 micrograms/1) were measured during basal conditions and during heparin-induced elevation of non-esterified fatty acid levels. Growth hormone administration to six subjects fasted overnight resulted in an increase in ketone body production which exceeded that observed in nine control subjects (5.5 +/- 0.5 versus 3.1 +/- 0.1 mumol X kg-1 X min-1, p less than 0.025) after elevation of plasma non-esterified fatty acids. Growth hormone infusion increased glycerol and non-esterified fatty acid concentrations indicating enhanced lipolysis. During somatostatin-induced acute insulin deficiency (n = 7), growth hormone enhanced the increase in total ketone body production observed in six subjects receiving somatostatin alone (8.4 +/- 0.8 versus 4.1 +/- 0.7 mumol X kg-1 X min-1, p less than 0.01). Total ketone body metabolic clearance decreased by 50% during somatostatin and remained uninfluenced by growth hormone. Non-esterified fatty acids and glycerol levels increased during somatostatin, and growth hormone failed to alter non-esterified fatty acid levels significantly. The results demonstrate a stimulatory effect of high physiological growth hormone levels on ketogenesis which is largely explained by an enhancement of lipolysis and thus increase in substrate supply for ketogenesis. Growth hormone administration during acute insulin deficiency enhanced ketogenesis in the absence of alterations in plasma non-esterified fatty acid levels, suggesting a direct hepatic ketogenic effect.

Role of glucagon in enhancing ketone body production in ketotic diabetic man.

To assess the role of endogenous glucagon in regulating hepatic ketone body production in ketotic insulin-withdrawn diabetic subjects, ketone body kinetics were determined in two groups of C-peptide-negative diabetics 6 h after interruption of a s.c. insulin infusion. In group 1 (N = 5), glucagon levels were suppressed by infusion of somatostatin (SRIF), whereas in group 2 (N = 6) glucagon was replaced during SRIF by infusing glucagon at 2 ng/kg/min. Ketone body production rates as determined by primed-continuous infusion of [3-14C]acetoacetate declined from 19.5 +/- 0.8 to 16.4 +/- 0.4 mumol/kg/min (P less than 0.01) during 105 min of SRIF-induced glucagon suppression, whereas they remained unchanged (+0.2 +/- 0.4 mumol/kg/min, P less than 0.01 compared with SRIF) during glucagon replacement. Total ketone body concentrations remained unchanged during SRIF infusion but increased from 2.2 +/- 0.3 to 2.9 +/- 0.2 mmol/L (P less than 0.01) during glucagon replacement. The metabolic clearance rate of total ketone bodies declined significantly (P less than 0.01) by 27% and 21% in the two groups. Plasma free fatty acid and glycerol concentrations remained unchanged in both groups whereas plasma glucose decreased by 3.2 +/- 0.5 mmol/L during SRIF (P less than 0.01). Thus, endogenous glucagon contributed significantly to the maintenance of ketone body production rates in ketotic insulin-deficient diabetics. Since ketogenesis was altered in the absence of changes in free fatty acid levels, the results suggested that glucagon enhanced ketogenesis by an intrahepatic effect.

Differences in the nuclease sensitivity between the two alleles of the immunoglobulin kappa light chain genes in mouse liver and myeloma nuclei.

In mouse myeloma T the productive kappa light chain gene differs from its aberrantly rearranged allele in the patterns of DNAase I hypersensitive sites. In the region of the alleles where they are identical in sequence they have one site in common which lies 0.8 kb downstream of the coding region; but two sites upstream of and within the C gene segment (2) are found only on the non-productive allele. Within the region of different sequences both alleles have analogously located DNAase I hypersensitive sites; they lie 0.15 kb upstream of the respective leader segments and cover putative promoter sequences. Only one of the six DNAase I hypersensitive sites is also very sensitive towards micrococcal nuclease due to its particular DNA sequence. The non-rearranged gene studied in liver nuclei has no DNAase I hypersensitive sites but is preferentially cleaved in A/T rich regions.

Characterization of X-chromosome specific satellite DNA of Muntiacus muntjak vaginalis.

A highly repeated DNA (designated satellite IA) was isolated from cultured cells of Muntiacus muntjak vaginalis and its organization analyzed by the use of restriction nucleases and hybridization experiments with cloned DNA-fragments. Several restriction nucleases cleave the satellite IA DNA into a series of fragments, which are multiples of a basic repeat unit of 800 bp. Sequences homologous to the satellite IA DNA were also found in a second highly repetitive DNA component of Muntiacus muntjak vaginalis (satellite IB). Its organization is more complex than the one of satellite IA and does not conform to a simple periodicity of a basic repeat unit.--Hybridization in situ revealed, that both satellites are confined in their entirety to the X-chromosome, where they are located at both arms close to the centromere. No satellite DNA was found at the Y1-chromosome, which is considered to be homologous to the long arm of the X-chromosome. These results have interesting implications for the evolution of the X-chromosome.

An unusual translocation of immunoglobulin gene segments in variants of the mouse myeloma MPC11.

Immunoglobulin light chain genes of the mouse are composed in germ-line DNA of four separate segments, the leader, V (variable), J (joining) and C (constant) segments. In immunocompetent cells a V and J gene segment are joined by a site-specific recombination event. In variants of the mouse myeloma MPC11 a so-called kappa (k) light chain fragment is expressed which consists of the MOPC321 leader peptide, joined to the kappa constant region peptide. Using the Southern blotting technique we found that the gene coding for the light chain fragment has apkparently been generated by an aberrant translocation of a V gene segment identical or very similar to the MOPC321 V gene segment into the large intervening sequence between the J and the C gene segments. The resulting deletion of the splice signals of the J segments could be the reason for the observed splicing between leader and C region sequences, a phenomenon which may be of general interest for the understanding of the splicing mechanism.

Cloning of V region fragments from mouse liver DNA and localization of repetitive DNA sequences in the vicinity of immunoglobulin gene segments.

Two different kappa light chain genes have previously been isolated from one mouse myeloma. The V (variable, abbreviations in ref. 2) gene segments of the two genes were now used to identify their germline counterparts in EcoRI digests of mouse liver DNA. In addition two sets of related V gene segments were found which hybridize with either of the two DNA probes. Five of the V region fragments of one set were cloned in a lambda phage vector and partially characterized by restriction mapping and Southern blot hybridization. Repetitive DNA sequences were found on each of the five fragments as well as on other cloned immunoglobulin gene containing fragments. Cross-hybridization between some but not all of the regions containing repetitive DNA sequences was observed.