Application of Microencapsulation Technology to Improve the Stability of Citral in Rodent Diets

Application of Microencapsulation Technology to Improve theStability of Citral in Rodent Diets. KUHN., G. O., MCCAMPBELL,P., SLNGMASTER, G., ARNESON, D. W., AND JAMESON, C. W. (1991).Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 17, 635–640. Citral is a widelyused flavoring and scenting agent which is employed in numerousfood, industrial, and household products. Although the currentregulatory status of citral lists it as a GRAS chemical on theFDA list, the chemical is a reactive beta-substituted vinylaldehyde that has been shown to induce irritations of skin andmucous membranes, and to exhibit a dose-dependent teratogeniceffect on embryos of white leghorn chickens. Because of thesefactors, citral was nominated by the National Toxicology Programfor carcinogenesis study. Stability studies of dose formulationsof citral (0.02%) in NIH-07 rodent diet indicated a loss of41% of the citral after 1 day in a rat cage, due mainly to volatilityand reactivity with diet components. The chemical was subsequentlymicroencapsulated using a shell medium of food-grade modifiedcornstarch and sucrose, and then formulated into NIH-07 diet(0.02%) for various stability studies. Results after 7 daysin a rat cage showed 95% retention of chemical; diet that hadbeen stored 21 days retained 95% at 5°C storage and 89%at room temperature. An assessment of the purity of the citralin the microcapsules indicated that total impurities increasedfrom 0.7% in the neat chemical to 1.1% in the encapsulated chemical.     

THE IMPACT OF GUN CONTROL (BILL C-51) ON SUICIDE IN CANADA

Suicide is a multiply determined behavior, calling for diverse prevention efforts. Gun control has been proposed as an important component of society's response, and an opportunity for studying the effects of legislative gun control laws on suicide rates was provided by Canada's Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1977 (Bill C-51). This article reviews previous studies of the impact of this act on the total population of Canada and subpopulations by age and gender and, in addition, presents the results of 2 new studies: a different method of analysis, an interrupted time-series analysis, and the results of a multiple regression analysis that controls for some social variables. It appears that Bill C-51 may have had an impact on suicide rates, even after controls for social variables.     

Modulation of hu/mu severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse arthritis by local application of human recombinant IL-1β, IL-2 and IL-6

The contribution of interleukins produced by most inflammatory cells to chronic arthritis is not well understood. Therefore, we investigated the influence of several human recombinant interleukins (IL-1β, IL-2 and IL-6) on joint swelling, on the inflammatory process, and on serological parameters in a novel animal model of arthritis, the human/murine SCID arthritis. In this model an arthritis is induced by implanting human synovial tissue from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) into the knee joint of mice with SCID. These mice tolerate the xenogeneic implant and develop a mixed human/murine pannus tissue. The interleukins were injected daily for 7 or 14 days after implantation. IL-1β led to a significant increase in joint swelling. It intensified the inflammatory process accompanied by enhanced migration of murine inflammatory cells into the knee joint. The production of human IL-6 in the transplanted tissue was stimulated through the application of IL-1β, and the serum level of human IL-6 was thus significantly higher than in controls. We could not observe a significant influence of IL-1β on the production of human IgG or IgM by the implant. The application of human IL-2 had a weak effect similar to that of IL-1β, but without statistical significance. Although IL-6 is a good marker for inflammation in RA, the application of recombined human IL-6 had no influence on the inflammatory process in this model.     

The Treatment of Septicemia in Pacemaker Patients

The authors analyzed the data of seven patients who had undergone open heart surgery because of pacemaker endocarditis in the past 4 years. Repeated surgical interventions on the pacemaker system were found to be the most common predisposing factors. Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis were the most common causative organisms. Two-dimensional echocardiography was important in the diagnosis of cases with atypical clinical picture and negative blood cultures. We concluded that: (1) any pacemaker patient with fever should be considered to have a pacemaker endocarditis; (2) all of these patients should be examined by two-dimenensional echocardiography; and (3) the total removal of the infected hardware seems to be the only way to achieve complete recovery.