Evaluation of sex specificity on oxidative stress induced in lungs of mice irradiated by C-12(6+) ions

The aim of this work is to identify if there is sex specificity on C-12(6+) ion-induced oxidative damage in mouse lung at different time points. Kun-Ming mice were divided into two groups, each composed of six males and six females: control group and irradiation group with a single acute dose of 4 Gy. Animals were sacrificed at 2, 4 and 12 h respectively, there lungs were removed immediately, and the oxidative stress-related biomarkers were measured by Diagnostic Reagent Kits. The results showed that the relative activities of superoxide dismutase (4 h), catalase (2 h) and Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase (12 h) have significant changes (P < 0.05) between male groups and female groups, suggesting that the lungs of male mice are more sensitive to counteracting the oxidative challenge. Moreover, higher levels of malondiadehyde and lower contents of glutathione were also found in males, indicating that oxidative stress induced by C-12(6+) ion is pronounced in the lungs of males. We thought that these sex-responded differences may be attributed to the influence of sex hormones.

Determination of SARS-coronavirus by a microfluidic chip system

We have developed a new experimental system based on a microfluidic chip to determine severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-Cov). The system includes a laser-induced fluorescence microfluidic chip analyzer, a glass microchip for both polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and capillary electrophoresis, a chip thermal cycler based on dual Peltier thermoelectric elements, a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) SARS diagnostic kit, and a DNA electrophoretic sizing kit. The system allows efficient cDNA amplification of SARS-CoV followed by electrophoretic sizing and detection on the same chip. To enhance the reliability of RT-PCR on SARS-CoV detection, duplex PCR was developed on the microchip. The assay was carried out on a home-made microfluidic chip system. The positive and the negative control were cDNA fragments of SARS-CoV and parainfluenza virus, respectively. The test results showed that 17 positive samples were obtained among 18 samples of nasopharyngeal swabs from clinically diagnosed SARS patients. However, 12 positive results from the same 18 samples were obtained by the conventional RT-PCR with agarose gel electrophoresis detection. The SARS virus species can be analyzed with high positive rate and rapidity on the microfluidic chip system.

Determination of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides based on enzyme inhibition using a pH-sensitive fluorescence probe

A flow injection system for the determination of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides is described. A sensitive fluorescence probe was synthesized and used as the pH indicator to detect the inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (ACNE). The percentage inhibition of enzyme activity is correlated to the pesticide concentration. Several parameters influencing the performance of the system are discussed. The detection limits of 3.5, 50, 12 and 25 mug/l for carbofuran, carbaryl, paraoxon and dichlorvos, in pure water, respectively were achieved with an incubation time of 10 min. A complete cycle of analysis, including incubation time, took 14 min. The detection system has been applied to the determination of carbofuran in spiked vegetable juices (Chinese cabbage and cole), achieving recovery values between 93.2 and 107% for Chinese cabbage juice and 108 and 118% for cole juice at the different concentration levels assayed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Determination of urinary oxidative DNA damage marker 8-hydroxy-2 '-deoxyguanosine and the association with cigarette smoking

8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8OHdG) has been widely used as a biomarker of oxidative DNA damage in both animal models and human studies. To evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on oxidative stress, we studied the levels of urinary 8OHdG from smokers and non-smokers and investigated the association with cigarette smoking. The urinary 8OHdG concentrations were determinated by capillary electrophoresis with end-column amprometric detection (CE-AD) after a single-step solid phase extraction (SPE), and then quantitatively expressed as a function of creatinine excretion. To increase the concentration sensitivity, a dynamic pH junction was used and the focusing effect was obvious when using 30 mM phosphate (pH 6.50) as sample matrix. The limit of detection is 4.3 nM (signal-to-noise ratio S/N = 3). The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) was 1.1% for peak current, and 2.3% for migration time. Based on the selected CE-AD method, it was found that the mean value of urinary 8OHdG levels in the smokers significantly higher than that in non-smokers (31.4 +/- 18.9 nM versus 14.4 +/- 7.6 nM, P = 0.0004; 23.5 +/- 21.3 mug g(-1) creatinine versus 12.6 +/- 13.2 mug g(-1) creatinine, P = 0.028). (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Determination of sulfur-containing compounds in diesel oils by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with a sulfur chemiluminescence detector

This article reports an analytical method for separating, identifying and quantitating sulfur-containing compounds and their groups in diesel oils (170-400degreesC) using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with a sulfur chemiluminescence detector. The identification of target compounds and their groups was based on standard substances, the group separation feature and the-effect of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography. The quantitative analysis on major sulfur compounds and total sulfur was carried out based on the linear response of sulfur chemiluminescence detector and the internal standards method. The results of total sulfur determination in the samples were compared with those from ASTM D 4294 standard method, the R.S.D. percentage were <6.02%, correctness of this method can meet the industrial requirement. To the end, the method developed was used to investigate the sulfur-containing compounds in different diesel oils, the result shows that the distribution of sulfur-containing compounds in diesel oils from different process units are apparently different. The sulfur compounds in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), residuum fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) diesel oils mainly exist in the form of alkyl-substituted dibenzothiophenes that add up to about 40-50% of the total sulfur, while this number is only 6-8 and 20-28% in visbreaking (VB) and delayed-coking (DC) diesel oils, respectively. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The application of spline wavelet transform to the determination of electroosmotic mobility in capillary electrophoresis

The rule of current change was studied during capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation process while the conductivity of the sample solution was different from that of the buffer. Using a quadratic spline wavelet of compact support, the wavelet transforms (WTs) of capillary electrophoretic currents were performed. The time corresponding to the maximum of WT coefficients was chosen as the time of current inflection to calculate electroosmotic mobility. The proposed method was suitable for different CE modes, including capillary zone electrophoresis, nonaqueous CE and micellar electrokinctic chromatography. Compared with the neutral marker method, the relative errors of the developed method for the determination of electroosmotic mobility were all below 2.5%. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.