Serum Lowers Bioactivity and Uptake of Synthetic Amorphous Silica by Alveolar Macrophages in a Particle Specific Manner.

Various cell types are compromised by synthetic amorphous silica (SAS) if they are exposed to SAS under protein-free conditions in vitro. Addition of serum protein can mitigate most SAS effects, but it is not clear whether this is solely caused by protein corona formation and/or altered particle uptake. Because sensitive and reliable mass spectrometric measurements of SiO NP are cumbersome, quantitative uptake studies of SAS at the cellular level are largely missing.

The use of matrix-specific calibrations for oxygen in analytical glow discharge spectrometry.

The performance of glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy and mass spectrometry for oxygen determination is investigated using a set of new conductive samples containing oxygen in the percent range in three different matrices (Al, Mg, and Cu) prepared by a sintering process. The sputtering rate corrected calibrations obtained at standard conditions for the 4 mm anode (700 V, 20 mA) in GD-OES are matrix independent for Mg and Al but not for Cu. The importance of a "blue shifted" line of oxygen at 130.

Flow injection combined with ICP-MS for accurate high throughput analysis of elemental impurities in pharmaceutical products according to USP <232>/<233>.

New guidelines of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), European Pharmacopeia (EP) and international organization (ICH, International Conference on Harmonization) regulating elemental impurity limits in pharmaceuticals seal the end of unspecific analysis of metal(oid)s as outlined in USP <231> and EP 2.4.8.

Glow discharge mass spectrometry.

Over the past twenty years or so, glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS) has become the industry standard for the analysis of trace elements in metals and semiconductors. A review of its history is followed by a picture of the present situation and a look to where the future may lie. Applications are summarised, including the ability of GDMS to offer depth-resolved data and non-conductor analysis, and the well-documented quantitative nature of the results is reviewed.