Gulf related illness--current perspectives.

In the years after Operation Desert Storm and Operation Granby, some 4-8% of veterans of the conflict began to report symptoms of illness. Common complaints included fatigue, impaired cognition, joint pain, sleep disturbances, and chest pains. Between 1992 and 1994 in the USA, and later in the UK, governments set up medical assessment programmes to define the scope of the problem in qualitative and quantitative terms.

Biological consequences of multiple vaccine and pyridostigmine pretreatment in the guinea pig.

An investigation of the possible interactions between combinations of vaccines and pyridostigmine bromide (PB) has been undertaken in the guinea pig. This study is part of a research programme funded by the UK Government to determine any effects of the pretreatment regimes given to UK Forces during the Persian Gulf conflict of 1990-1991. The study was designed to simulate PB administration and to model multiple vaccination protocols that were experienced by UK Forces, modelling a "worst case" situation in which all ten vaccines and PB were administered within a short period of time.

Structure-pulmonary toxicity/retention relationships of inhaled fluorocyclobutenes.

Hexafluorocyclobutene (HFCB) and derivatives have been used as fumigants, refrigerants and polymerization monomers. When inhaled they produce a potentially fatal pulmonary oedema similar to that induced by perfluoroisobutene (PFIB), a by-product of Teflon manufacture. This study determined the relationship between the chemical structure, respiratory retention and toxicity of HFCB and five analogues in rats and mice.

Elevation of endogenous nucleophiles in rat lung by cysteine and glutathione esters in vitro.

In this study, we have compared the uptake of L-cysteine (L-CySH), D-cysteine (D-CySH), L-cysteine isopropyl ester (L-CIPE) and D-cysteine isopropyl ester (D-CIPE) in rat lung slices and tracheal sections and determined the effectiveness of glutathione (GSH), GSH isopropyl monoester, GSH isopropyl diester, gamma-glutamylcysteine (gamma-glu-cys) isopropyl monoester and gamma-glu-cys isopropyl diester to elevate and prolong intracellular GSH concentrations in rat lung slices. Lung slices were incubated with 1.0 mM of thiol and the concentrations determined intracellularly and extracellularly with time.

Presence of methenamine/glutathione mixtures reduces the cytotoxic effect of sulphur mustard on cultured SVK-14 human keratinocytes in vitro.

The basal epidermal keratinocytes of the skin are a main target for the vesicating agent, sulphur mustard (SM). A human keratinocyte cell line (SVK-14) has been used to model the effects of SM on the basal epidermal keratinocytes and subsequently to test the efficacy of potential prophylactic compounds in reducing the SM-induced cytotoxicity. The cultures were pretreated with mixtures of methenamine (HMT) and glutathione (GSH) for 1 h prior to exposure to 10 microM SM.