A Short-Duration Combined Exercise and Education Program to Improve Physical Function and Social Engagement in Community-Dwelling Elderly Adults.

Exercise is a key intervention for improving older adults' physical function and life expectancy. Here, we investigated a short-term intervention program designed to improve the physical functioning of elderly adults in a community-dwelling setting. We examined the effect of a 5-week combined exercise and education program on the physical function, social engagement, mobility performance, and fear of falling in 42 subjects older than 65 years. Eleven subjects dropped out. There was significant improvement in the 30-second chair stand test (p < .001) and timed up-and-go test (p < .001) between the baseline and the last session. At the end of the intervention, the subjects' social engagement was significantly higher than at baseline (p = .022), but this improvement was not maintained in the follow-up assessment. These results suggest that a combined exercise and education program can improve the physical function and social engagement of elderly individuals living in a community dwelling.

Development of salt-tolerance interface for an high performance liquid chromatography/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry system and its application to accurate quantification of DNA samples.

Accurate quantification of DNA is highly important in various fields. Determination of phosphorus by ICP-MS is one of the most effective methods for accurate quantification of DNA due to the fixed stoichiometry of phosphate to this molecule. In this paper, a smart and reliable method for accurate quantification of DNA fragments and oligodeoxythymidilic acids by hyphenated HPLC/ICP-MS equipped with a highly efficient interface device is presented. The interface was constructed of a home-made capillary-attached micronebulizer and temperature-controllable cyclonic spray chamber (IsoMist). As a separation column for DNA samples, home-made methacrylate-based weak anion-exchange monolith was employed. Some parameters, which include composition of mobile phase, gradient program, inner and outer diameters of capillary, temperature of spray chamber etc., were optimized to find the best performance for separation and accurate quantification of DNA samples. The proposed system could achieve many advantages, such as total consumption for small amount sample analysis, salt-tolerance for hyphenated analysis, high accuracy and precision for quantitative analysis. Using this proposed system, the samples of 20 bp DNA ladder (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200, 300, 400, 500 base pairs) and oligodeoxythymidilic acids (dT(12-18)) were rapidly separated and accurately quantified.

Multielement analysis of micro-volume biological samples by ICP-MS with highly efficient sample introduction system.

A method for multielement analysis of micro-volume biological sample by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with a highly efficient sample introduction system was presented. The sample introduction system was the combination of (1) an inert loop injection unit and (2) a high performance concentric nebulizer (HPCN) coupled with a temperature controllable cyclone chamber. The loop injection unit could introduce 20 µL samples into the carrier liquid flow of 10 µL min(-1) producing a stable signal for 100s without any dilution. The injection loop is continuously washed with 0.1M HNO(3) carrier solution during the measurement, thereby much improving sample throughput. The HPCN is a triple tube concentric nebulizer, which can generate fine aerosols and provide a stable and highly measurement sensitivity in ICP-MS at a liquid flow rate less than 10 µL min(-1). With the combination of the chamber heating at 60°C, the sensitivity obtained with the proposed sample introduction system at the liquid flow rate of 10 µL min(-1) was almost the same as that with a common concentric nebulizer and cyclone chamber system at the liquid flow rate of 1 mL min(-1), though the sample consumption rate of the HPCN was two orders of the magnitude lower than that of the common nebulizer. The validation of the proposed system was performed by analyzing the NIST SRM 1577b Bovine Liver. The observed values for 12 elements such as Na, P, S, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Mo, Cd were in good agreement with their certified values and information value. Satisfactory analytical results for 14 elements such as Na, Mg, P, S, K, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Ba in Escherichia coli sample were also obtained. The proposed sample introduction system was quite effective in the cases when only micro-volume of biological sample is available.

Estimation of the distribution of intravenously injected adipose tissue-derived stem cells labeled with quantum dots in mice organs through the determination of their metallic components by ICPMS.

Adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) have shown promise in cell therapy because of their ability to self-renew damaged or diseased organs and easy harvest. To ensure the distribution and quantification of the ASCs injected from tail vein, several whole-body imaging techniques including fluorescence optical imaging with quantum dots (QDs) have been employed, but they may suffer from insufficient sensitivity and accuracy. Here, we report quantitative distribution of ASCs in various organs (heart, lung, liver, spleen, and kidney) of mice, which were intravenously injected with QDs-labeled ASCs (QDs-ASCs), through the detection of QDs-derived metallic components by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). For accurate and precise determination, each organ was harvested and completely digested with a mixture of HNO(3) and H(2)O(2) in a microwave oven prior to ICPMS measurement, which was equipped with a microflow injection system and a laboratory-made capillary-attached micronebulizer. After optimization, 16 elements including major components (Cd, Se, and Te) of QDs and essential elements (Na, K, Mg, Ca, P, S, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr, and Mo) were successfully determined in the organs. As compared to untreated mice, QDs-ASCs-treated mice showed significantly higher levels of Cd and Te in all organs, and as expected, the molar ratio of Cd to Te in each organ was in good agreement with the molar composition ratio in the QDs. This result indicates that the increment of Cd (or Te) can be used as a tracer for calculating the distribution of ASCs in mice organs. As a result of the calculation, 36.8%, 19.1%, 0.59%, 0.49%, and 0.25% of the total ASCs injected were estimated to be distributed in the liver, lung, heart, spleen, and kidney, respectively.

Preparation of monolithic chelating adsorbent inside a syringe filter tip for solid phase microextraction of trace elements in natural water prior to their determination by ICP-MS.

A syringe-based sample pretreatment tool, named herein "tip-in chelating monolith", has been developed for simple and facile solid phase microextraction (SPME) of trace elements in natural waters. The tip-in chelating monolith was directly prepared within the confines of a commercially available syringe filter tip by a two-step process: (1) in situ polymerization of a monomer solution consisting of 22.5% glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), 7.5% ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA), 35% 1-propanol, 28% 1,4-butanediol, and 7% water and (2) its subsequent modification with 1molL(-1) of iminodiacetate solution (adjusted to pH 10) via ring-opening reaction of epoxide. The adsorption properties of the tip-in chelating monolith thus obtained were evaluated through an adsorption/desorption experiment, where the effects of sample solution pH and eluent on the SPME of trace metals and metalloids were systematically examined. Consequently, when sample solution pH was adjusted to 5.0 and 0.9mL of 2molL(-1) nitric acid was used as an eluent, good recoveries of more than 80% were obtained for 27 elements in a single-step extraction. The proposed SPME method was validated through the analysis of two river water certified reference materials (CRMs: JSAC 0301-1 and NMIJ 7201-a). After 50-fold preconcentration (from 50mL of the original river water sample to 1.0mL of final analysis solution), 22 trace elements including Ti, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ga, Cd, Sn and REEs were quantitatively determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The analytical detection limits were in the range from 0.000003microgL(-1) for Ho to 0.18microgL(-1) for Fe. Good agreement of the observed values with the certified or reference values indicates that the proposed SPME using the tip-in chelating monolith is practically applicable.