Determination of glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid in traditional Chinese medicinal preparations by capillary electrophoresis

A simple, rapid, accurate and reproducible capillary electrophoretic method was developed for the assay of glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid in traditional Chinese medicinal preparations. The buffer solution used in this method was acetonitrile and 0.02 M sodium dihydrogen-phosphate solution adjusted to pH 7.5 with 0.05 M sodium hydroxide. The linear calibration range was 0.04-2.00 mg/ml (r = 0.9988) for glycyrrhizin and 0.007-0.35 mg/ml (r = 0.9985) for glycyrrhetinic acid and recoveries were 98.1-101.3% for glycyrrhizin and 98.5-101.4% for glycyrrhetinic acid. The relative standard deviations were 1.02% (n = 6) for glycyrrhizin and 0.91% (n = 6) for glycyrrhetinic acid. The content of these two acids in Glycyrrhizae Radix and Glycyrrhizae Radix-containing Chinese medicinal preparations was successfully determined within 10 min.     

Drug release from heat-treated polyvinyl alcohol films

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films containing 10% w/w of a model drug, sulphathiazole, were cast from aqueous solutions and subjected to heat treatment at specific temperatures for known periods of time. Heat treatment at temperatures above the T_g of the PVA films slowed down the rate of drug release from the films. Increasing the temperature of heat treatment from 120°C to 160°C further decreased the rate of drug release. On the other hand, if the heat treatment were conducted at a temperature below the T_g e.g. at 80°C, there were insignificant differences between the release profile of sulphathiazole from heat-treated films and that from untreated films. The duration of heat treatment affected the rate of drug release to a smaller extent compared to the temperature of heat treatment. These results correlated with the heat induced changes in the morphology of, and in the extent of water uptake by the PVA films.     

Centers for disease control and prevention lead guidelines: do pediatricians know them?

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) fellows responded to a questionnaire measuring knowledge of 1991 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Generalists' scores on a knowledge scale were positively correlated with reporting CDC and AAP documents as knowledge sources, and negatively correlated with private practice, medical school as a knowledge source, and age. However, private practitioners who read AAP documents scored well.     

Correlates of osteopenia in patients with cystic fibrosis

The responses to heat shock in Tritrichomonas mobilensis, a squirrel monkey parasite and Tritrichomonas augusta, an amphibian trichomonad, were evaluated by means of metabolic labeling with [35S]methionine. Electrophoretically separated trichomonad proteins synthesized at different temperatures were visualized by autoradiography and the label incorporation quantitated by a trichloroacetic acid precipitation procedure. A considerable difference in thermotolerance between the two species was found as the protein synthesis reached a maximum at 41 C in T. mobilensis and 37 C in T. augusta. The latter tolerated temperature increases 13 C above normal cultivation temperatures as compared to only 4 C thermotolerance range above normal in T. mobilensis. Major heat shock proteins (Hsps) were expressed in both T. mobilensis (with apparent Mr 94, 72, and 58 kDa) and T. augusta (Mr 94, 70, and 56 kDa) as revealed by autoradiography. Western blot analysis with polyclonal antibody against DnaK of Escherichia coli showed the presence of antigenic Hsp70 homologs in both trichomonads. Similarly, a polyclonal antibody against Hsp60 with broad interspecies cross-reactivity detected Hsp60 homologs in both T. mobilensis and T. augusta. The anti-DnaK antibody cross-reacted with a T. mobilensis protein localized in Golgi apparatus as demonstrated by immunoelectron microscopy. Immunocytochemistry on trichomonad frozen sections revealed the presence of the Hsp60 homolog in light-microscopic granules corresponding to hydrogenosomes.