Developmental Changes in the NGF Content in the Brain of Young,Growing, Low-Birth-Weight Rats

The NGF content in each region of the brain of four-week-old rats was ranked in the decreasing order of cerebral cortex, hippocampus, cerebellum, midbrain/diencephalon, and pons/medulla ob-longata, and the NGF concentration, in the decreasing order of hippocampus, cerebral cortex, cerebellum, midbrain/diencephalon, and pons/medulla oblongata in both AFD and SFD groups. The NGF content and concentration in the cerebral cortex were about the same value at each age between those in the AFD and SFD groups. Those in the hippocampus were a little higher in the SFD group than in the AFD group at the ages of three and four weeks, unlike those in the other regions, where the values for the cerebellum, midbrain/diencephalon and pons/medulla oblongata tended to be somewhat higher in the AFD group than in the SFD group. The NGF concentrations in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex increased with growth: the concentration in the hippocampus at four weeks of age was about 4-fold of that at one week in the AFD group and about 5.7-fold of that at one week in the SFD group; and likewise the concentration in the cerebral cortex at four weeks of age was about 5.3-fold in the AFD group and about 7-fold in the SFD group. The NGF concentrations in the cerebellum decreased, and those in midbrain/diencephalon and pons/medulla oblongata hardly changed with growth in either AFD or SFD group. From these results NGF may have stronger implications for the neuronal growth in the hippocampus compared with those in the lower brain regions of the SFD rats.     

Simultaneous determination of phthalate di- and monoesters in poly(vinylchloride) products and human saliva by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

This paper reports on the selectivity behaviour of tryptic peptides on a Cu(2+)-loaded immobilised metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) support. Ovalbumin was chosen as a model protein for investigation of the selection and separation of histidine-containing peptides by IMAC off-line coupled with capillary electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF). Two of five histidine-containing peptides in addition to some non-histidine-containing peptides from a tryptic digest of ovalbumin were captured by IMAC. To separate and purify the selected peptides, the IMAC sample was analysed by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The sample was not separated by capillary zone electrophoresis, therefore, micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using 10-75 mM SDS was used. Analysis of IMAC sample by MEKC, using low concentrations of SDS (10 mM) was characterised by MALDI-TOF. When using SDS at 75 mM, the migration times of reversed-phase fractions of the IMAC sample, were used to identify the peaks. One of the two selected histidine-containing peptides with two histidine residues was identified, analysing the sample by CZE or MEKC.