Factors affecting interpretation of tissue dielectric constant (TDC) in assessing breast cancer treatment related lymphedema (BCRL).

Tissue dielectric constant (TDC) measurements are increasingly used as quantitative adjunctive tools to detect and assess lymphedema. Various factors affect measured TDC values that may impact clinical interpretations. Our goal was to investigate possible impacts of: 1) anterior vs.

Reference Values for Assessing Localized Hand Lymphedema Using Interhand Tissue Dielectric Constant Ratios.

Background: Early detection and tracking of breast cancer treatment-related lymphedema have been helped by quantitative assessment methods and parameters, including bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy and tissue dielectric constant (TDC). Such measurements are evaluated with respect to interarm differences or ratios that (when exceeding specified thresholds) are suggestive of lymphedema. Specific threshold ratios depend on the assessment method and have been reported for arms.

Stabilization of recombinant adenovirus: site-directed mutagenesis of key asparagine residues in the hexon protein.

The quality and stability of recombinant adenovirus preparations for gene therapy trials are currently analyzed by anion-exchange HPLC. It was shown that the retention time of the adenovirus peak increased over the course of time upon storage in current liquid formulations. The number of isoaspartate residues at the outer surface of the particles also increased in parallel in these preparations.

An improved anion-exchange HPLC method for the detection and purification of adenoviral particles.

We have developed an anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method using Q Sepharose XL (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) as adsorbent to analyze samples containing adenovirus. This method has several major advantages over the HPLC method previously described for quantitating particles, namely (1) a >10-fold improvement in the detection limit of adenovirus in crude preparations; (2) absence of interferences originating from nucleic acids and proteins which usually contaminate crude samples; (3) unprecedented sharpness and symmetry of adenovirus peak, rendering the identification of the viral peak unambiguous, even in extremely crude and dilute preparations; and (4) no enzymatic treatment required even for crude samples. This assay was used to quantitate particles in samples taken at the transfection and amplification stages of production of various recombinant adenovirus, and in cultures of wild-type adenovirus of different serotypes.

pCOR: a new design of plasmid vectors for nonviral gene therapy.

A totally redesigned host/vector system with improved properties in terms of safety has been developed. The pCOR plasmids are narrow-host range plasmid vectors for nonviral gene therapy. These plasmids contain a conditional origin of replication and must be propagated in a specifically engineered E.

Degradation and fermentation of alpha-gluco-oligosaccharides by bacterial strains from human colon: in vitro and in vivo studies in gnotobiotic rats.

The ability of several human gut bacteria to break down alpha-1,2 and alpha-1,6 glycosidic linkages in alpha-gluco-oligosaccharides (GOS) was investigated in vitro in substrate utilization tests. Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Bifidobacterium breve and Clostridium butyricum, which are usually found in the infant gut and have been associated with both beneficial and deleterious effects on health, were studied. Alpha-Gluco-oligosaccharide degradation was compared in vitro and in vivo in gnotobiotic rats associated with these organisms, inoculated alone or in combination.