Antiseptic efficacy and tolerance of tissue-tolerable plasma compared with two wound antiseptics on artificially bacterially contaminated eyes from commercially slaughtered pigs.

AIM: To compare the tissue tolerance and efficacy of two wound antiseptics with tissue-tolerable plasma (TTP) on enucleated contaminated eyes from slaughtered pigs in order to draw consequences for the use of TTP on wounds. METHOD: The corneas of extracted eyes were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus or Pseudomonas aeruginosa. One and 10 min after application of 10% povidone (PVP)-iodine and 0.04% polyhexanide, respectively, the eyes were rinsed with inactivating solution. To test TTP, the plasma pen meandered over the eyes at a speed of 30 mm/s and a distance of 5 mm; the eyes were then rinsed with balanced salt solution. The reduction factor was calculated by the difference between the logarithm of colony-forming units in the rinse before and after antisepsis or TTP application. RESULTS: The efficacy of TTP (reduction factor 2.4-2.9) was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that of PVP-iodine and polyhexanide (reduction factor 1.7-2.1). CONCLUSION: TTP is more effective than the tested wound antiseptics. The lack of histological damage to the eyes of slaughtered pigs would seem to make its use as a wound antiseptic a viable alternative. In contrast to antiseptics, it supplies additional energy in the form of heat, electric fields and radicals by TTP.

Biosynthesis of somatostatin in pancreatic islets of Wistar rats.

Pancreatic islets of Wistar rats were isolated by collagenase digestion and incubated with [3H]-L-phenylalanine. Using a specific somatostatin antiserum radioactivity was found in the antibody-antigen-complex. The radioactivity was displaced by unlabelled somatostatin. These findings give the first evidence for the biosynthesis of somatostatin or somatostatin-like peptides in mammalian pancreatic islets.