Dermal and ocular exposure systems for the development of models of sulfur mustard-induced injury.

Sulfur mustard (SM) is a chemical threat agent for which the effects have no current treatment. Due to the ease of synthesis and dispersal of this material, the need to develop therapeutics is evident. The present article details the techniques used to develop SM laboratory exposure systems for the development of animal models of ocular and dermal injury. These models are critical to enable evaluation of SM injury and therapeutics against that injury. Iterative trials were conducted to optimize dermal and ocular injury models in guinea pigs and rabbits respectively. The goal was a homogeneous and diffuse ocular and dermal injury that compares to the human injury. Dermal exposures were conducted by either a flow-past or static vapor cup system. Ocular exposures were conducted by a static exposure system. Ocular and dermal exposures were conducted with vaporized SM. Vapor concentrations increased with time in the dermal and ocular exposure systems but were stable with varying amounts of applied SM. A dermal deposition estimation study was also conducted. Deposited volumes increased with exposure time.

Inhalation exposure systems for the development of rodent models of sulfur mustard-induced pulmonary injury.

Sulfur mustard (SM) is a chemical threat agent for which its effects have no current treatment. Due to the ease of synthesis and dispersal of this material, the need to develop therapeutics is evident. The present manuscript details the techniques used to develop SM laboratory exposure systems for the development of animal models of pulmonary injury. These models are critical for evaluating SM injury and developing therapeutics against that injury. Iterative trials were conducted to optimize a lung injury model. The resulting pathology was used as a guide, with a goal of effecting homogeneous and diffuse lung injury comparable to that of human injury. Inhalation exposures were conducted by either nose-only inhalation or intubated inhalation. The exposures were conducted to either directly vaporized SM or SM that was nebulized from an ethanol solution. Inhalation of SM by nose-only inhalation resulted in severe nasal epithelial degeneration and minimal lung injury. The reactivity of SM did not permit it to transit past the upper airways to promote lower airway injury. Intratracheal inhalation of SM vapors at a concentration of 5400 mg x min/m(3) resulted in homogeneous lung injury with no nasal degeneration.

Measurement of plasma or urinary metabolites and Hprt mutant frequencies following inhalation exposure of mice and rats to 3-butene-1,2-diol.

Studies were performed to determine if the detoxification pathway of 1,3-butadiene (BD) through 3-butene-1,2-diol (BD-diol) is a major contributor to mutagenicity in BD-exposed mice and rats. First, female and male mice and rats (4-5 weeks old) were exposed by nose-only for 6h to 0, 62.5, 200, 625, or 1250 ppm BD or to 0, 6, 18, 24, or 36 ppm BD-diol primarily to establish BD and BD-diol exposure concentrations that yielded similar plasma levels of BD-diol, and then animals were exposed in inhalation chambers for 4 weeks to BD-diol to determine the mutagenic potency estimates for the same exposure levels and to compare these estimates to those reported for BD-exposed female mice and rats where comparable blood levels of BD-diol were achieved. Measurements of plasma levels of BD-diol (via GC/MS methodology) showed that (i) BD-diol accumulated in a sub-linear fashion during single 6-h exposures to >200 ppm BD; (ii) BD-diol accumulated in a linear fashion during single or repeated exposures to 6-18 ppm BD and then in a sub-linear fashion with increasing levels of BD-diol exposure; and (iii) exposures of mice and rats to 18 ppm BD-diol were equivalent to those produced by 200 ppm BD exposures (with exposures to 36 ppm BD-diol yielding plasma levels approximately 25% of those produced by 625 ppm BD exposures). Measurements of Hprt mutant frequencies (via the T cell cloning assay) showed that repeated exposures to 18 and 36 ppm BD-diol were significantly mutagenic in mice and rats. The resulting data indicated that BD-diol derived metabolites (especially, 1,2-dihydroxy-3,4-epoxybutane) have a narrow range of mutagenic effects confined to high-level BD (>or=200 ppm) exposures, and are responsible for nearly all of the mutagenic response in the rat and for a substantial portion of the mutagenic response in the mouse following high-level BD exposures.

Identification of urinary metabolites of orally administered N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine in male F344 rats.

The metabolism of orally administered N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine (DMPT) in male F344 rats was investigated. The rat urinary metabolite profile was determined by analytical reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Four radiolabeled peaks were observed, isolated, and purified by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and preparative HPLC methods. The 4 peaks were identified as p-(N-acetylhydroxyamino)hippuric acid (M1), DMPT N-oxide (M2), N-methyl-p-toluidine (M3), and parent DMPT. Metabolites M1 and M2 were identified by spectrometric and spectroscopic methods, including mass fragmentation pattern identification from both liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and from chemical analysis of nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. Structural confirmation of metabolite M2 was accomplished by comparison with a synthetic standard. Peaks M3 and the peak suspected to be DMPT were identified by comparison of their HPLC retention times and mass fragmentation patterns with authentic standards of N-methyl-p-toluidine and DMPT, respectively. DMPT metabolism is similar to that reported for N,N-dimethylaniline.

Disposition of orally and intravenously administered methyltetrahydrofuran in rats and mice.

The disposition of [14C]methyltetrahydrofuran (14C-MTHF) in rats and mice was determined by following changes in the radioactivity in tissue and excreta with time after dosing. MTHF administered orally (1, 10, or 100 mg/kg) or intravenously (1 mg/kg) to either rats or mice was rapidly metabolized and excreted with <8% (mice) or 8-22% (rats) of the dose remaining in the body after 24 h (1 and 10 mg/kg doses) or 72 h (100 mg/kg dose). Based on recovery of radioactivity in excreta (other than feces) and tissues (other than the gastrointestinal [GI] tract), absorption of orally administered MTHF was essentially complete (93-100%). There were no overt signs of toxicity observed at any dose studied. The major route of excretion in mice was in urine followed by exhaled CO2. In rats the major route of excretion was exhaled CO2 followed by urinary excretion. The excretion of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOC) was dose-dependent in both species; at lower doses exhaled VOC represented 1-5% of dose, but at the highest dose (100 mg/kg) this proportion rose to 14% (mice) and 27% (rats). Analysis of the VOCs exhaled at the high dose indicated that the increase was due to exhalation of the parent compound, 14C-MTHF. Analysis of urine showed three highly polar peaks in the mouse urine and two polar peaks in the rat urine. Because the 14C label in MTHF was in the methyl group, the polar metabolites were considered likely due to the one-carbon unit getting into the metabolic pool and labeling intermediate dietary metabolites.

Medical nebulizer performance: effects of cascade impactor temperature.

BACKGROUND: During operation of a jet nebulizer, the temperature of the nebulizer outlet could decrease by more than 10 degrees C, depending on the nebulizer type and operating conditions, such as driving flow rate and fill volume. The droplet size distribution generated from the nebulizer can be measured by a cascade impactor. However, when the cascade impactor is operated at ambient room temperature, the droplets could evaporate because of the temperature difference between the nebulizer outlet and the body of the impactor. METHODS: An 8-stage cascade impactor was used to measure the particle size distribution from 4 different types of jet nebulizer (LC Plus, Side-Stream, VixOne, and Micromist) in 2 temperature conditions: ambient (22 degrees C) and low (10 degrees C). Two different formulations, albuterol (aqueous solution) and budesonide (suspension), were used. RESULTS: There was a significantly larger (p < 0.05) mass median aerodynamic diameter and smaller respirable fraction for each nebulizer with the impactor at low temperature than with the impactor at ambient temperature. The mass median aerodynamic diameter of the nebulizers with the impactor operating at low temperature appeared 15-130% larger than with the impactor operating at ambient temperature, for both formulations. The respirable fraction also changed from 10% when the impactor was operated at low temperature to 65% when the impactor was operated at ambient temperature. CONCLUSION: The results provide important information for the use of a cascade impactor to measure the particle-size distribution of nebulizer aerosols.

Analysis of butadiene urinary metabolites by liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry.

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is a monomer produced in petrochemical production facilities and from several combustion sources. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has defined BD as a probable human carcinogen. Methods for assessing exposure and internal dose are therefore of critical interest, and one technique is the measurement of urinary metabolites. Here we describe methods for measuring two urinary metabolites, N-acetyl-S-(3,4-dihydroxybutyl)-L-cysteine (referred to as MI) and an isomeric mixture of the regio- and stereoisomers (R)/(S)-N-acetyl-S-(1-(hydroxymethyl)-2-propen-yl)-L-cysteine and (R)/(S)-N-acetyl-S-(2-hydroxy-3-butenyl)-L-cysteine (referred to as MII). The method is based on isolation of the metabolites by solid-phase extraction and measurement using liquid chromatography and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS(3)). The LC-MS(3) allowed good selectivity with minimal sample preparation. Assay accuracy was within 10% or better, with substantial improvement in accuracy accompanying the commercial availability of deuterated internal standards for both compounds. Assay precision and linearity passed rigorous validation criteria, and precision-based limits of quantitation values were 12 and 1 ng/mL for MI and MII, respectively. Data are shown from analysis of human urine from occupationally exposed individuals and rat urine from BD exposures conducted to investigate rodent metabolic profiles. Both of these data sets clearly show that this assay can discern previously described relationships between BD exposure and the production of MI/MII.