Biomedical Research on Trace Elements
Online ISSN : 1880-1404
Print ISSN : 0916-717X
ISSN-L : 0916-717X
Volume 28, Issue 1
Displaying 1-4 of 4 articles from this issue
Review Article
  • Shiho Asai, Kyoichi Saito
    2017 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 1-10
    Published: May 22, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: June 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Radionuclides are commonly determined with radiometry and mass spectrometry. For gamma-emitting nuclides, the activities can be measured without chemical separation due to the strong penetration ability. In contrast, the measurements of alpha and beta-emitting nuclides are generally associated with tedious and time-consuming chemical separation procedures to remove concomitants. Thus, an adsorbent that achieves rapid separation is desirable to reduce separation time and workload. Our research team has developed compact cartridge-type solid phase extraction materials which enable to facilitate separation procedures. A porous polymer sheet with high permeability was employed for the base materials. Polymer chains with functional groups were densely attached onto the pore surface of the porous polymer sheet by graft polymerization technique. This interfacial structure provides high-speed adsorption ensured by minimized diffusion paths of the target ions to the functional groups of the pore surface. In this review, basic separation performances of the developed cartridges were overviewed along with two application examples to radionuclide-containing samples.

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  • Ken-ichiro Tanaka
    2017 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 11-17
    Published: May 22, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: June 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    The diseases that cause acute respiratory failure are acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), acute pulmonary embolism, acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and asthma attacks. Especially, ARDS is a major cause of acute respiratory failure. A standard clinical protocol for ARDS treatment has not been established as yet, and ARDS mortality remains at 40–50%. Therefore, discovering new compounds to prevent ARDS development is very important. Although pathogenic mechanisms of these diseases are unknown, metal particles (zinc, nickel, titanium, etc.) or fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are reportedly involved the onset of these pulmonary diseases. In this review, we first introduce about the etiology and treatment of ARDS, and then introduce studies on metal particles and lung injuries in humans and animals. Further, we introduce our recent study about carnosine’s preventive effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung injury.

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Original Article
  • Takao Watanabe, Peiyu Wang, Aiping Liu, Huaming Zhang, Zhongmin Li ...
    2017 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 18-27
    Published: May 22, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: June 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Objectives: Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are two toxic environmental pollutants. As foods are leading sources for Cd and Pb, concerns persist on health of people, particularly, children. This survey was initiated in 2004-5, i.e., early this century to investigate dietary Cd and Pb intakes (Cd-D and Pb-D) of children in China.

    Methods: Children studied were in kindergartens in Beijing, 2 provincial capitals and 2 rural villages. Guardians of 167 children (5 to 6 years-old) in 8 kindergartens offered 24-hours food duplicate samples. Cd and Pb were analyzed by ICP-MS. The results were expressed in terms of geometric means (GMs) after correction for body weight (BW).

    Results and Discussion: Children consumed 1542 g of foods/day on an average. GMs for Cd-D and Pb-D in total 167 samples were 0.54 and 0.64 μg/kg BW/day, respectively. Both Cd-D and Pb-D were significantly (p<0.05) higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Comparison with JECFA-established PTMI (provisional tolerable monthly intake) for Cd-D (25 μg/kg/month, or about 0.83 μg/kg BW/day when calculated for a daily basis) and PTWI (provisional tolerable weekly intake) for Pb-D (25μg/kg BW/week, or about 3.57μg/kg BW/day) disclosed that the observed Cd-D and Pb-D accounted for 65 and 18% of tolerable intakes, respectively.

    Conclusions: The observed dietary Cd intake was about 2/3 of the tolerable limit, which suggests that the safety margin was rather narrow. The value for Pb intake was well below 20% of the tolerable limit, suggesting a wide margin of safety.

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Short Communication
  • Munehiro Yoshida, Ayumi Mukama, Ryota Hosomi, Kenji Fukunaga
    2017 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 28-34
    Published: May 22, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: June 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Although high dietary iodine intake due to consumption of edible kelp (kombu) is observed, there are few health problems associated with iodine in Japan. Since several kinds of isoflavones contained in soybeans act as goitrogens, the consumption of soybean may modify the adverse effects of excess iodine derived from kombu. In the present study, to clarify the effects of eating soybean meal on thyroid function and tissue distribution of iodine, we measured iodine content of serum and several organs in rats fed casein diet or soybean meal diet with or without kombu powder. Four types of experimental diet (casein diet, casein diet with 5% kombu, soybean meal diet, soybean meal diet with 5% kombu) were prepared using dried kombu powder (Saccharina diabolica; iodine content, 7.18 mg/g). Twenty-four male 4-week-old Wistar rats were divided into four groups and fed these four diets for four weeks each. No significant differences were observed in animal growth, thyroid weights, serum total thyroxine, triiodothyronine and thyroid stimulating hormone concentrations among the four groups. Irrespective of dietary protein (casein or soybean), the iodine content in thyroid gland of all four groups was significantly increased to a similar level by the administration of kombu. Iodine concentrations in serum, liver and kidney were also increased by the kombu, but the increases of iodine in these tissues were significantly lower in rats fed soybean than in those fed casein indicating that soybean meal reduced the content of iodine in serum, liver and kidney. These results suggest that the consumption of soybean products could prevent the manifestation of adverse effects due to an excess iodine intake from kombu.

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