Analysis of breast milk fatty acid composition using dried milk samples.

Background: The effect of breast milk fatty acid (FA) composition, particularly levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), on infant health outcomes is unclear. Part of the reason for this is difficulties in collecting, storing and shipping milk samples to the laboratory. Here we report the validation of a dried milk spot (DMS) system to measure FA composition to help overcome these obstacles.

Correcting the effects of -20 °C storage and aliquot size on erythrocyte fatty acid content in the Women's Health Initiative.

Red blood cell (RBC) fatty acid (FA) patterns have been shown to predict risk for cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. As part of a project analyzing RBC samples from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) we observed implausibly low levels of highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) suggestive of degradation. This was hypothesized to be due to short term storage (<1 month) at -20 °C during sample aliquoting.

Singlet oxygen generation by novel NIR BODIPY dyes.

Five novel near-infrared BODIPY dyes were prepared for improved singlet oxygen generation using thiophene and bromine. Theoretical, optical, photostable, and singlet oxygen generation characteristics of these dyes were assessed. Predicted excitation energies by TDDFT calculations were in good agreement (ΔE ≈ 0.