Tattooing breast cancers treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Background: In breast carcinomas treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, intraoperative identification of residual tumors may be difficult. A well-tolerated, low-diffusion charcoal suspension has been designed to tattoo breast tumors. In this study, we investigated whether this tattooing technique is efficient for localizing the tumor after treatment with chemotherapy.

Insulin-loaded W/O/W multiple emulsions: comparison of the performances of systems prepared with medium-chain-triglycerides and fish oil.

Insulin-loaded W/O/W multiple emulsions (ME) composed of medium-chain triglycerides have been shown to decrease the blood glucose level after oral administration to diabetic rats. Fish oil (very long-chain triglycerides) could be an alternative to medium-chain triglycerides because its chronic consumption has beneficial therapeutic effects. The aim of this work was twofold: to obtain stable fish oil containing ME, based on a formulation optimized in a previous work with low medium-chain triglycerides content, and to compare their characteristics to those of ME composed of medium-chain triglycerides.

Cyclodextrins and emulsions.

This paper synthesises the literature on interactions between cyclodextrins (CD) and fatty acids and glycerides, and explains how these interactions allow the use of cyclodextrins to stabilise emulsions. An example of formulation with cyclodextrins is given which discusses the preparation of simple o/w emulsions, the addition of a model active ingredient, and the preparation of multiple emulsions in the absence of preformed surface active agents.

Effect of camphor/cyclodextrin complexation on the stability of O/W/O multiple emulsions.

Camphor (CA) encapsulation in oil/water/oil multiple emulsions prepared with cyclodextrin disturbs the emulsifier potential of alpha- and beta-natural cyclodextrins (CD). It was suggested that the size and geometrical fit between the CD cavity and CA could induce CD/CA complex formation in place of emulsifier formation leading to perturbation of emulsion stability. The complexation between CA and alpha-, beta- or gamma-CD in solution in the presence of oil phase are confirmed by phase-solubility diagrams, circular dichroism and 1H NMR.

Optimization of a thermally reversible W/O/W multiple emulsion for shear-induced drug release.

Purpose: The present work aimed at improvement of the formulation of a previously developed thermo-reversible W/O/W multiple emulsion by increasing the emulsion stability and reaching a higher fraction of an encapsulated drug released under shear. The emulsion was based on high molecular weight graft-copolymers of poly(acrylic acid) and Pluronic F127 as stabilizing agents.

Methods: Once a stable W/O/W thermo-reversible multiple emulsion was obtained via a fine-tuning of the formulation, rheological, granulometric and conductometric tests were performed to assess the thermo-reversible behavior and the fragmentation-release characteristics of the new W/O/W multiple emulsion.