Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M Gallorini

Publications and source records attributed to M Gallorini.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

[Potential and limitations of neutron activation analysis methods for measuring elements of toxicological and environmental interest].

Merits and limits of neutron activation analysis are presented for the various classes of biological and environmental matrices and depending on the analytes to be quantified. In this framework the cases of mercury, cadmium, copper, arsenic, chromium, iodine are discussed in detail with particular reference to the most frequent analytical interferences and procedural pitfalls in sample pretreatment.

Chemistry, Bioinorganic↗
PubMed1995

[Reference materials and trace element analysis].

The use of appropriate reference materials allows the accuracy of analytical determinations to be assessed. The present availability of certified reference materials not always can adequately meet the needs of research in the field of trace and ultratrace element analysis, in particular as regards complex matrices, such as biological and environmental materials. In this context the various definitions of a reference material are discussed. Planning and certification of novel certified reference materials cannot disregard the exigency of obtaining more qualified information on the analytes, especially in so far as their different chemical species are concerned.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Cobalt speciation in urine of hard metal workers. A study carried out by nuclear and radioanalytical techniques.

A method for the determination of inorganic and organically-bound cobalt in human urine has been developed and applied to the urine of hard metal workers. The development was based on the use of the radionuclides 57Co, 58Co and 60Co-labelled Co compounds such as Co-Vitamin B12 and CO2+ ions which allowed the study of their biotransformations in human and rat urine. The proposed procedure is based on the use of Chelex 100 resin which retains quantitatively the inorganic Co from the urine while the organic complexed form of the element is eluted. Cobalt is detected in both column and eluate by neutron activation analysis (NAA). The method has been applied to speciate inorganic and organically-bound Co in the urine of hard metal workers. There is a significant increase (P < 0.02) of the ratio inorganic/organic Co (2.3) in the urine of workers compared with controls (1.01), showing an increase of the inorganic fraction of Co in the urine of workers. The ratio was constant for the wide range of urinary Co analyzed (from 180 micrograms to 1254 micrograms Co/l). Therefore, the discrimination between inorganic and organic Co in urine should not represent progress in the biological monitoring of Co compared with the determination of total urinary Co. However, a large amount of organically-complexed Co is formed in the body of hard metal workers and excreted in urine, thus, investigations of the nature of the organo-cobalt compounds are of fundamental importance in establishing their possible clinical significance.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMed1992

Trace element reference values in tissues from inhabitants of the European Community. II. Examples of strategy adopted and trace element analysis of blood, lymph nodes and cerebrospinal fluid of Italian subjects.

The EURO TERVIHT (Trace Element Reference Values in Human Tissues), recently initiated, aims to establish and compare trace metal reference values in inhabitants from the different EC countries. The project anticipates international cooperation of specialized chemical and toxicological laboratories in Western Europe. In order to overcome the well known and intolerable high fluctuation in published trace metal concentrations in body fluids and tissues, which are mostly due to poor analysis, this paper gives recommendations and strategies for approaching 'background' values measurement practised in the EURO TERVIHT. The focus of the paper is more on quality rather than on quantity of data with particular aspects: (i) well-described protocol for the selection/composition of reference groups (extended epidemiological data plus clinical status); (ii) numerous pre-analytical factors, among which are of paramount importance are ultraclean laboratory air, container material, storage conditions at -20 degrees C; (iii) statistical treatment of the data and the expression of the analytical results (use of refined statistical analysis such as the Lilliefors test to define the type of distribution, normal or log-normal). Results reported here concern the determination of trace elements in whole blood of more than 350 Italian subjects which allowed the proposal of 'reference values' for 12 elements. In lymph nodes and cerebrospinal (CSF) the degree of information acquired is only sufficient to suggest 'indicative' of 'informative' values.

Computers↗
PubMed1992

Novel, contrast gradient-oriented, automated chromatin texture analysis. I. Feasibility study on nuclei from benign and malignant breast epithelial cell lines in fine needle aspirates.

Coarse granularity of nuclear chromatin texture is a prominent feature of most malignant cell lines. We have chosen the abrupt transition from eu- to heterochromatic foci (high contrast gradient [CG]) as a novel parameter for coarseness. This feature was quantified using automated image analysis of single nuclei in smears stained by the May-Grünwald-Giemsa technique. The principle of this approach consists of eliminating, with the help of subtraction between two image lowpass filters, the small grey level differences among pixels, so that only high CG values are retained on the digitized image. The sum of these distinctive microareas is then taken as a fraction of the area of the peripherally eroded nucleus, and this ratio is designated as contrast gradient index (CGI) per nucleus. This method was tested on fine needle aspirates from 11 patients with benign breast disease (BBD) and 14 with mammary carcinoma (CA). For each specimen, 60 nuclei were analyzed, with a measuring time per nucleus of about 1 min. A high significant distinction between epithelial cell populations in BBD and CA, respectively, was obtained by variance analysis of all CGIs per nucleus (p = 2 x 10(-18). The median and the mean values of CGI per specimen were the next best discriminators, followed by the modes and the standard deviation of CGI per specimen. The percentage of nuclei per specimen with CGI values of greater than 12 was also significantly greater in CA than in BBD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Cellular retention, toxicity and carcinogenic potential of seafood arsenic. I. Lack of cytotoxicity and transforming activity of arsenobetaine in the BALB/3T3 cell line.

Cytotoxicity, morphological neoplastic transformation, intracellular retention and metabolic behaviour have been investigated in BALB/3T3 Cl A 31-1-1 cells for arsenobetaine, the main form of arsenic in certain seafoods, in comparison to inorganic sodium arsenite. In order to avoid false results, particular attention was paid to the purity, checking for the presence of any trace amounts of inorganic arsenic as well as methylated contaminants in the chemically synthesized arsenobetaine. Cytotoxicity and morphological transformation assays gave obvious positive results for sodium arsenite at a dose exposure of 10 microM. On the other hand, concentrations of arsenobetaine as high as 500 microM failed to induce either cytotoxic effects or neoplastic transformations. The absence of cytotoxicity and transforming potential of arsenobetaine in comparison to inorganic arsenite can be explained by the different degree of retention and the intracellular behaviour of the two arsenic species. Cellular retention of arsenobetaine was dose dependent for exposure concentrations ranging from 1 to 500 microM with a mechanism resembling a simple diffusion (1.4 and 760 pmol of As/10(6) cells were cell associated for the two concentrations at 24 h respectively). About 95% of the intracellular arsenobetaine was present in the cytosol fraction and the attempt to detect any intracellular degradation of the organoarsenic compound failed. Thus, the low retention efficiency of arsenobetaine, its inability to interact with intracellular components and the absence of biotransformation in the cell could explain the lack of cytotoxicity and transforming potential observed in the BALB/3T3 cells. These findings reinforce the view that in humans exposed to different chemical species of arsenic the contribution to the total health risk, including the carcinogenic potential, of arsenobetaine ingested with marine foodstuffs would be negligible.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Trace element reference values in tissues from inhabitants of the European community. I. A study of 46 elements in urine, blood and serum of Italian subjects.

Neutron activation analysis-electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy (ETA-AAS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) have been used for the determination of 46 elements in urine, 35 in blood and 26 in serum of unexposed Italian subjects living in the same region (Lombardy). The results allowed the proposal of reference values for various elements determined in more than 350 healthy subjects, these being Ag, Al, As, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Tl, V, Zn, in urine; Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Hg, Pb, Se, Tl, Zn in blood; and Ag, Al, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Tl, V, Zn in serum (or plasma). For all other elements indicative values are suggested. In addition to the mean value and the "reference range", a "range of uncertainty" and an upper limit above which metabolic abnormalities could be expected have also been defined on the basis of simple statistical considerations.

Humans↗
PubMed1990

Titanium nitride as a coating for surgical instruments used to collect human tissue for trace metal analysis.

When metallic surgical instruments are used to collect human tissue, metal contamination may occur, making accurate ultra-trace metal determinations very difficult. In order to reduce this risk as much as possible, surgical instruments made from a stainless-steel core covered by a film of titanium nitride, a very hard compound with high chemical stability and very good wear resistance, were prepared. The degree of risk from trace metal contamination during sample collection was investigated by neutron activation analysis and a radio-release in vitro serum test. As examples of their application, the titanium nitride coated instruments were used to determine Co, Cr and W in the skin of unexposed subjects and of uraemic patients under regular dialysis treatment.

Humans↗
PubMed1979

Cadmium analysis by radiochemical neutron activation analysis.

Radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA) has been routinely used at the National Bureau of Standards to analyze Cd in a variety of environmentally important matrices. The method used to separate Cd from other neutron-activated products is solvent extraction. Zinc diethyldithiocarbamate [Zn(DDC)2] in chloroform will quantitatively extract Cd from an aqueous solution over a pH range from 1 to 12. In addition to the extraction of Cd, Zn(DDC)2 will also extract Cu, which can interfere with the Cd analysis by producing a high background level of radiation. This can be avoided by first extracting with Bi(DDC)3 in chloroform which removes Cu, but not Cd. Copper concentrations can, therefore, be determined in addition to Cd. This two extraction radiochemical separation procedure is very versatile and is often used as part of a larger multi-element analysis scheme. One such scheme involves the use of an inorganic-ion exchanger, Hydrated Manganese Dioxide (HMD), to retain As, Sb, Se, and Cr prior to extraction. The eluted fraction is then extracted with Bi(DDC)3 to remove Cu, and then with Zn(DDC)2 to remove Cd.

Activation Analysis↗
PubMed1976

Benin: nutritional considerations on trace elements in the diet.

The increasing use of the atomic absorption technique makes it possible to study man's trace-element requirements with a very accurate methodology. Some of these elements are present in the daily diet in minute quantities of micrograms which are, however, indispensable for the proper functioning of the body. But apart from such trace quantities present in conditions which are not affected by abnormal environmental concentration, there may be situations in which trace-element levels in foods and diets reach very high values. If very high, the levels may expose a population to the risk of toxicity; on the other hand, they may lead to wrong interpretations of trace-element requirements because they may lead the nutritionist to regard some high values as normal levels and therefore appropriate for meeting man's requirements. Inversely, they may also induce the nutritionist to regard lower values as unsatisfactory. Therefore, since these environmental factors, which are not always identifiable, can induce erroneous judgements due to overestimation of the requirements, it would seem appropriate, if figures on the total supplies of the diet are to be used, to refer to the tabled values of the individual foods of the diet, rather than to analyses of the whole diet ready for consumption. In fact, an abnormally high or low value of a trace element of any single food of a food composition table would have little influence on the calculation of the total supply of the diet, whereas the use of values obtained from meals which have been exposed to contamination during technological processes(e.g., through the cooking water of foods or cooking utensils) may result in overestimation. However, the analysis of global diets seems to be the method of choice in toxicological research, because in this type of investigations the basic elements of an evaluation often derive indeed from abnormal conditions identified at consumer level. Regarding the importance of copper and iron in haematopoiesis, the following hypotheses can be put forward: (a) In the haematopoietic phenomena occurring in intrauterine life, copper seems to play a role equal to that of iron, and perhaps even more important. (b) This role does not seem to be an autonomous one, but is mediated by availability of serum globulin to the child. In other words, this hypothesis relates the problem more generally to the protein nutrition of mother and foetus...

Adult↗