VSL#3 probiotics provide protection against acute intestinal ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

Acute intestinal ischaemia/reperfusion injury (AII/R) is an adaptive physiologic response during critical illness, involving mesenteric vasoconstriction and hypoperfusion. Prevention of AII/R in high risk patient populations would have a significant impact on morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective effects of VSL#3 probiotic treatment in a murine model of AII/R. Adult 129/SvEv mice were subjected to an experimental AII/R model using superior mesenteric artery occlusion. Animals were pre-treated with either three days or two weeks of VSL#3 probiotics. Local tissue injury markers were assessed by levels of myeloperoxidase and activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NFкB). Systemic and local cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL- 10, TNFα, and interferon gamma were measured by ELISA and multiplex fluorescent detection. VSL#3 probiotics reduced local tissue inflammation and injury due to AII/R. A two-week course of VSL#3 was more effective than a shorter three-day course. The reduction in local inflammation from the two-week course of VSL#3 is correlated to a significant reduction in levels of active IL-1ß, and tissue levels of myeloperoxidase. Levels of active NFкB were significantly elevated in the vehicle-fed AII/R mice, corroborating with tissue inflammation, which were attenuated by VSL#3 administrations. VSL#3 did not cause any systemic inflammation or lung injury. VSL#3 probiotics are effective in reducing local tissue injury from AII/R by down-regulating pro-inflammatory mediators and immune cell recruitment. This study highlights a potential role for VSL#3 in management of patients at high risk for AII/R.

Development and validation of an improved method for confirmation of the carbadox metabolite, quinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid, in porcine liver using LC-electrospray MS-MS according to revised EU criteria for veterinary drug residue analysis.

A method is described for the quantitative determination of quinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid (QCA), the marker residue for the veterinary drug carbadox, in swine liver. Tissue is subjected to alkaline hydrolysis followed by liquid-liquid extraction. QCA residues are cleaned up using automated solid phase extraction (SPE), before a final liquid-liquid extraction step. Analysis is based on LC coupled to positive ion electrospray MS-MS, monitoring product ions at m/z 129, 102 and 75 for QCA and at m/z 106 for the internal standard (d4-QCA). The method has been validated according to draft revised EU criteria for analysis of veterinary drug residues, and is suitable for monitoring tissues taken under national surveillance schemes. The method has been validated at 3, 10, 30, 100 and 300 microg kg(-1). The method performance characteristics, CCalpha (decision limit) and CCbeta (detection limit) were determined to be 0.16 and 0.27 microg kg(-1), respectively. The described method, which is relatively rapid and applicable to large sample numbers, correlates well (r2 = 0.9799) with a widely used GC-MS assay for QCA.