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Biomedical subjects

H Kock

Publications and source records attributed to H Kock.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Bioavailability of fine dispersed platinum as emitted from automotive catalytic converters: a model study.

Automobile exhaust catalytic converters emit fine dispersed elemental platinum, Pt (0), in the nanometer range coated on larger aluminium oxide carrier particles. A pre-requisite for a potential systemic toxic effect of the emitted platinum is its bioavailability which was investigated using laboratory animals. To this end, a model substance was synthesised which consisted of aluminium oxide particles < or = 5 microns onto which platinum particles > or = 4 nm were deposited by a calcination process. These particles closely resemble those emitted from automobile exhaust converters. This model substance was applied to female Lewis rats in two doses by intratracheal instillation; the animals were killed after 1, 7, 28 and 90 days. In addition, the model substance was also applied during a 90-day inhalation study. After microwave digestion of the tissues, the platinum was determined in all organs and body fluids by inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). Platinum was found in the blood, urine and faeces and all important organs (liver, spleen, kidneys, adrenals, stomach, femur). Based on the platinum content determined in the body fluids and all organs (except the lung and the faeces) it was calculated that up to 16% of the platinum was retained in the lung 1 day after intratracheal instillation and up to 30% of the fine dispersed platinum deposited on an average during 90 days inhalation in the lung was bioavailable. Using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) in combination with ICP/MS, it was shown that > or = 90% of the bioavailable platinum was bound to high molecular weight compounds (approximately 80-800 kDa), most likely proteins.

Administration, Inhalation

Bioavailability of platinum emitted from automobile exhaust.

A model substance was used which is similar in respect to platinum content of exhaust particles emitted from a three-way-catalytic converter equipped engine. The bioavailability of platinum from such exhaust particles and the kind of platinum species formed in vivo were assessed. An in vitro solubility test showed a solubility of approximately 10 percent of platinum content of the model substance in physiological sodium chloride solution. Two short-term animal studies (8 days) were performed. In all examined rat tissues and body fluids platinum could be detected. In addition, the contribution of the overall bioavailability caused by swallowing a certain amount of the intratracheally applied platinum was evaluated by oral application. It was very low. An analytical method was developed to determine platinum species. Synthetic samples (matrix with a platinum standard solution) were analysed. In rat bronchoalveolar lavage spiked with a platinum standard solution only low molecular complexed platinum was found whereas in rat blood plasma all platinum was bound to proteins. In ongoing studies, the model substance is being tested in a three month rat inhalation study.

Animals

Effect of photocorrosion on cadmium sulfide suspensions applied in animal inhalation studies with CdS particles.

Cadmium sulfide aerosol (90 micrograms Cd/m3) was generated from an aqueous suspension for 12 weeks and the ratio of Cd++/Cdtotal in the suspension and the resulting aerosol was determined. After 4 weeks the concentration of Cd++ in the suspension and the aerosol leveled off at 43.5 +/- 11.4% and 35.8 +/- 6.8%, respectively. Therefore, lung tumors in rats observed after inhalation exposure to such CdS aerosols (Glaser et al. 1990) may have been caused not only by the effect of CdS but also by the influence of inhaled Cd++ or CdSO4. The contribution of CdS particles to the observed lung tumor rate depends on the bioavailability of CdS retained in the lungs. The photochemical decay of CdS in aqueous suspensions only occurred when exposed to light and adjusting the suspension up to pH 3 did not increase the decomposition rate of CdS. Ethanolic suspensions of CdS are much more stable than aqueous ones and experiments with suspensions kept under shield gases showed that the decay of CdS is not dependent on oxygen.

Administration, Inhalation

To link, to infer, to understand.

A model of linkage in text processing is proposed: An external proposition and an inference belonging to one frame are superimposed to constitute understanding. A text containing four academic subjects was presented orally to students who recalled it in writing. After transforming the recalls into propositions they are entered into a nonmetric multidimensional scaling to yield a text space. The subjects' interest choices among items of the four aspects are scaled to render an interest space. The decomposition ob both as subspaces of a common space yields an angle as their overall similarity and indicates the degree of predictability from interests. As the aggregate of inferences shows directedness, correlated with volitional-motivational orientation, and inference base is assumed to intervene. It is concluded that recipients try to superimpose and thereby construct a primary stage of processing. This allows for a very general algorithm of parallel information processing (holographic thesis), perhaps constructing the properties we are used to. Motivated perception, knowledge influence, schema-directedness and contribution to coherence are rivalled out as an explanation of this process.

Adult