Biomedical subjects

D Ferrier

Publications and source records attributed to D Ferrier.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2002

Analysis of intact heparin by capillary electrophoresis using short end injection configuration.

A capillary electrophoresis method for the analysis of intact heparin was developed using a phosphate buffer and a fused silica capillary. Operational parameters such as pH and concentration of the running buffer were investigated. The short end injection configuration permitted a gain on peak efficiency, on the analysis time and on the repeatability of both migration times and peak areas, through a reduction of the migration distance. Moreover, the beneficial effect of the presence of sodium chloride in the heparin sample on the peak efficiency was demonstrated and the influence of the salts on the conformation of the heparin was discussed. The optimized method (short end injection configuration, 50mM phosphate buffer pH 3, heparin sample prepared in 10 g/L NaCl solution) was validated in terms of linearity, reproducibility and specificity according to ICH requirements.

Buffers↗

PubMed2002

Safety and quality of food contact materials. Part 1: evaluation of analytical strategies to introduce migration testing into good manufacturing practice.

The results of a research project (EU AIR Research Programme CT94-1025) aimed to introduce control of migration into good manufacturing practice and into enforcement work are reported. Representative polymer classes were defined on the basis of chemical structure, technological function, migration behaviour and market share. These classes were characterized by analytical methods. Analytical techniques were investigated for identification of potential migrants. High-temperature gas chromatography was shown to be a powerful method and 1H-magnetic resonance provided a convenient fingerprint of plastic materials. Volatile compounds were characterized by headspace techniques, where it was shown to be essential to differentiate volatile compounds desorbed from those generated during the thermal desorption itself. For metal trace analysis, microwave mineralization followed by atomic absorption was employed. These different techniques were introduced into a systematic testing scheme that is envisaged as being suitable both for industrial control and for enforcement laboratories. Guidelines will be proposed in the second part of this paper.

Chromatography, Gas↗

PubMed2001

Assessment of the retention properties of poly(vinyl alcohol) stationary phase for lipid class profiling in liquid chromatography.

Potentialities of polymerized vinyl alcohol on silica gel were assessed for class separation of simple lipids, sphingolipids, glyceroglycolipids and phospholipids by high-performance liquid chromatography. A screening of pure solvents in binary gradient elution and a chemometric approach was used to define a rugged two segment linear gradient formed from four solvents for total lipid class separation. Triethylamine and formic acid were added in all mobile phase components for acidic phospholipid separation and evaporative light scattering response enhancement. Simple analytical procedures are described for the analysis of complex lipid materials.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗

PubMed2000

Plasma-based sterilization: effect on surface and bulk properties and hydrolytic stability of reprocessed polyurethane electrophysiology catheters.

Plasma-based sterilization is a promising alternative to ethylene oxide (EO) for reprocessing of electrophysiology catheters. To assess its safety in terms of material damage, modifications of surface and bulk properties as well as hydrolytic stability of sterilized catheters were evaluated. Polyurethane (PU) single-use electrophysiology catheters were subjected to one, five, and ten sterilization cycles by Sterrad-100S and Plazlyte, as well as by pure EO for comparison. Surface analysis techniques (ATR-FTIR, XPS, DCA) showed oxidation limited to the near-surface layer induced by both plasma-based sterilizers, whereas EO induced slight but deeper alkylation. Using bulk analysis techniques (RP-HPLC, SEC), oligomer alteration was observed after all three sterilization techniques, without modification of molecular weights. Hydrolytic stability of catheters was slightly changed by plasma-based sterilization, with a small increase in released oligomers. Finally, although Plazlyte and Sterrad are both plasma-based techniques, they induced different impacts on catheters, such as the degradation of an additive with Sterrad, and a clear difference in coloration with Plazlyte.

Catheterization↗

PubMed2000

Retention behaviour of ceramides in sub-critical fluid chromatography in comparison with non-aqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography.

This study was devoted to the development of an analytical method for ceramide analysis in packed subcritical fluid chromatography (pSubFC). Monofunctional grafted silica support was found to be more suitable for ceramide analysis. Five Kromasil columns were coupled and the parameters, temperature, pressure and percentage of organic modifier in CO2 were optimised, considering selectivity and analysis time. The final conditions were 31 degrees C, 6% of methanol (MeOH) and 13 MPa. In these conditions the selectivity for structural differences (methylene group, unsaturation or two different bases) were studied. As classically observed, the methylene selectivity decreased with the increase of the eluotropic strength. Moreover, unlike in non-aqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography (NARP-LC), adding a further unsaturation and two further methylene groups on ceramide results to an increase of retention in pSubFC. Moreover, this last technique allowed to separate ceramides with the same total number of carbons containing unsaturated fatty acids, when the distribution of carbon number of the two chain is very different. These results had enabled to plot retention chart in order to predict ceramide structure in view to identify additional ceramide. This retention chart was finally compared with the one already obtained in NARP-LC.

Ceramides↗

PubMed2000

One-step capillary isoelectric focusing for the separation of the recombinant human immunodeficiency virus envelope glycoprotein glycoforms.

One-step capillary isoelectric focusing was investigated as a rapid method to resolve the glycoforms of the heterogeneous recombinant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) envelope glycoprotein (rgp 160sMN/LAI). The separation was performed in a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) coated capillary using a mixture of ampholyte of narrow and wide pH range. A combination of saccaharose and 3-(cyclohexylamino)-1-propanesulfonic acid was shown to be the most efficient additive to avoid protein precipitation which occurs at a pH close to its pI. Although the calibration curve [isoelectric point (pI) vs. migration times] showed a non-linear relationship, an adequate linearity could be yielded for short pI ranges permitting to exhibit the acidic character of the different glycoforms of the rgp 160s MN/LAI (pI from 4.00 to 4.95). Reproducibility evaluated by comparing the performance of a polyacrylamide and a PVA coated capillary showed that low RSD values were obtained for intra-day (0.5 to 1.9%) and inter-day (1.6 to 7.6%) measurements using the PVA capillary. Moreover, the long term stability of the PVA capillary was demonstrated by measuring the variation of migration times of the protein markers for a long period of use. Finally, this method was able to differentiate the glycoform pattern of two close glycoproteins such as the rgp 160 of two sub-populations of the virus HIV-1.

Electrophoresis, Capillary↗

PubMed2000

A sensitive mapping strategy for monitoring the reproducibility of glycan processing in an HIV vaccine, RGP-160, expressed in a mammalian cell line.

The external envelope glycoprotein (gp160) of HIV-1 is a candidate for vaccines against AIDS. Most of the surface of the molecule is shielded by carbohydrate and the structures and locations of these glycans may be important in defining the immunogenicity of the viral coat. Here we report a sensitive mapping strategy for profiling and analysing the N-glycosylation of gp160, based on chemical release of glycans, fluorescent labelling and HPLC analysis. This approach has been validated in terms of establishing the reproducibility of all steps in the analytical procedure and on overall reproducibility on a run-to-run and day-to-day basis. The validated analysis technique was used to monitor the consistency of N-glycosylation of one rgp 160 vaccine candidate produced in baby hamster kidney (BHK) cell culture. It was demonstrated that the variation in the glycan profiles of 6 different lots was not statistically significant.

AIDS Vaccines↗

PubMed2000

Interactions between chitosan and glycosaminoglycans (chondroitin sulfate and hyaluronic acid): physicochemical and biological studies.

Chitosan is a polysaccharide well known for its numerous and interesting biological properties, indeed, it is a biocompatible, bioresorbable and bioactive biopolymer. It is therefore often introduced in the human body, where it happens to be in contact with glycosaminoglycans (GAG's), especially chondroitin sulfates and hyaluronic acid which play important part in living media. Thus it seems interesting to consider systems associating chitosan and GAG's. The aim of our work is to study the mechanism of formation of biomaterials constituted of chitosan and GAG's which could have interesting biological properties such as improving the wound-healing acceleration and the cellular assistance for skin and cartilage recovery. In the same time, it was interesting to try to understand what can happen when chitosan is introduced in a natural surrounding containing GAG's. In a first part, the complexes between chitosan and GAG's were characterised by various physicochemical techniques: pH-metry, conductometry and Infra-red spectrometry. They appeared to be polyelectrolyte complexes obtained by the formation of polyanion-polycation interactions held between ammonium functions of chitosan and carboxylate and/or sulfate groups of GAG's. The complexes formed are very strong and can, in some cases, even conduct to the deprotonation of carboxylic functions. In a second part we considered the biological properties of the complexes previously obtained. The hydrolysis activity in presence of specific enzymes was investigated. We also studied the cytocompatibility of chitosan alone and its complexes with the two considered GAG's toward two kinds of cells (chondrocytes and keratinocytes). At the end of the work, a short animal experimentation on rats was performed allowing the comparison between in vitro and in vivo results.

Animals↗

PubMed1999

Postcolumn fluorescence as an alternative to evaporative light scattering detection for ceramide analysis with gradient elution in non-aqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography.

Ceramide analysis was developed with gradient elution in non-aqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) or postcolumn fluorescence detection. Fluorescence detection (excitation, 360 nm; emission, 425 nm) after postcolumn formation of mixed assemblies between eluted ceramides and 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene was developed. In comparison with ELSD, fluorescence detection allows a better detection of the minor species ceramide from ceramide type III (commercial mixture of non-hydroxy fatty acid-sphingosine) and appears to be more sensitive for quantitation of ceramides at low concentrations. The fluorescence response is linear over a wide range of injected amount of ceramide III (expressed as stearoyl-phytosphingosine): 10 ng to 1000 ng. The response of ELSD is non linear but can be linearized in double logarithmic coordinates for calculations over a narrow range, e.g. between 10 to 350 ng ceramide III injected. The lower quantitation limits of these two detectors are similar: 5 ng ceramide III was injected.

Ceramides↗

PubMed1999

A multi-mode chromatographic method for the comparison of the N-glycosylation of a recombinant HIV envelope glycoprotein (gp160s-MN/LAI) purified by two different processes.

The glycosylation pattern of a recombinant gp160s-MN/LAI variant of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was studied in relation to two alternative purification techniques one of which involves an immunoprecipitation step. For analysis a multi-mode high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method which combines gel permeation chromatography on the RAAM 2000 GlycoSequencer, weak anion exchange chromatography and normal phase chromatography was developed and profiles were obtained for the fluorescently-labelled glycans released from the two gp160s-MN/LAI preparations. Charged glycans accounted for 77 and 80% of the total glycans for the IAP- and SP-purified samples, respectively. The acidic character of these glycans was mainly due to the presence of sialic acids. However, following sialidase treatment, residual charged glycans were still found. No differences were found in the glycan distributions of the two gp160s-MN/LAI preparations either in their degree of sialylation or in their relative proportion of each separated structure. Although this did not reach statistical significance, a lower proportion of large glycan structures regardless of their charge status was found on the gp160s-MN/LAI prepared by the procedure which involved an immunoaffinity chromatography step.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Electrophoretic methods for process monitoring and the quality assessment of recombinant glycoproteins.

In many ways electrophoretic techniques appear ideal for quality monitoring of proteins and are thus well suited for the analysis of recombinant glycoproteins. The requirements of high throughput, comparative analysis and resolution of many variants are met by several electrophoretic techniques. A wide variety of such techniques are available to biotechnologists in the rapidly developing area of recombinant glycoproteins. It is the aim of this review to specifically cover recent work which has been applied to the analysis of DNA-derived glycoproteins, both from a process control standpoint and final product validation. All major areas of electrophoresis including sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), isoelectric focusing and techniques utilizing capillary electrophoresis are covered, with emphasis on analysis of glycoforms and oligosaccharide profiles of recombinant glycoproteins. As illustration, actual examples rather than standard glycoproteins are given to indicate the potential and limitations which may be encountered. It is anticipated that this review will prove a useful and practical guide to the latest developments by indicating the relevant merits of different methods.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Investigation of micelles and anionic cyclodextrins as pseudostationary phases for the capillary electrophoresis separation of oligosaccharides derivatized with 2-amino-benzamide.

Oligomers of glucose and oligosaccharides released from glycoproteins were derivatized with 2-aminobenzamide. As this fluorophore imparts no charge to the oligosaccharides, several strategies were investigated to achieve capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation of both neutral and charged derivatized glycans. Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) with the addition of anionic surfactants was evaluated as a first approach: sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) produced the best separation of the oligoglucose fragments, where the migration was inversely related to their degree of polymerization. To demonstrate the applicability of this method for complex carbohydrate analysis, oligosaccharide mixtures derived from ribonuclease B (RNase B) and alpha-acid glycoprotein (alpha-AGP) were analyzed. A satisfactory separation for the high-mannose structures found in RNase B could be obtained, whereas charged oligosaccharides from alpha-AGP were poorly resolved. Cyclodextrin-modified CE was chosen as the second approach: the effect of the addition of sulfobutylether-beta-cyclodextrin (SBE-beta-CD) or sulfobutylether-gamma-cyclodextrin (SBE-gamma-CD) on the electrophoretic mobilities and resolution of neutral and charged oligosaccharides was then studied. Selectivity of sialylated structures could be further improved by using anionic cyclodextrins (CDs) instead of micelles. However, this latter approach failed to baseline-resolve the different high-mannose structures of RNase B. A successful separation of the complex mixture of oligosaccharides from alphaalpha-AGP was obtained with the addition of 4% of SBE-gamma-CD and triethylamine (TEA) in a phosphate buffer, pH 6.7.

Anions↗

PubMed1998

Chitosan-chondroitin sulfate and chitosan-hyaluronate polyelectrolyte complexes: biological properties.

In this work, we compare some biological properties of a highly deacetylated chitosan to those obtained with the materials made from its polyelectrolyte complexes with various GAG's such as chondroitin-sulfates and hyaluronic acid. The hydrolysis of the complexes by means of the specific hydrolytic enzymes is studied. Cell-adhesion and cell-proliferation on these materials is compared to that obtained with a pure chitosan material. Finally, a series of in vivo experiments is performed to test the wound-healing properties of this kind of complexes. All the results agree to show that chitosan has a protective effect against GAG's hydrolysis by their specific enzymes but only at pH's different from the optimal pH of the enzyme considered. In addition, they also agree to confirm that a pure chitosan material gives the best results in connection with cell-attachment and cell-proliferation or wound healing. Nevertheless, whatever the case, no adverse effect was observed with the polyelectrolyte complexes GAG's-chitosan.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

Capillary electrophoresis of glycosaminoglycan-derived disaccharides: application to stability studies of glycosaminoglycan chitosan complexes.

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) was used to separate the disaccharides produced by chondroitinase digestion of chondroitin sulfates. The main disaccharides formed upon depolymerization have identical charge and mass. Baseline resolution of these two compounds was achieved by selecting appropriate concentration and pH of a borate buffer. Validation of the method showed a good linearity of the response and a very satisfactory reproducibility of migration times with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 0.4%. The reproducibility of peak areas was improved by using an internal standardization. The addition of cinnamic acid (internal standard) to the incubation medium allowed us to perform kinetic measurements of the depolymerization while keeping a baseline resolution of the two main disaccharides analyzed during the complete digestion course even when their concentration in the incubation medium increased. Application of this method to the comparison of the rate of hydrolysis of chondroitin sulfate and of a complex associating chondroitin sulfate with chitosan showed clearly that, at the physiological pH, chitosan protected the chondroitin sulfate from depolymerization. This phenomenon was more pronounced as the pH of the incubation medium was far from the optimum pH activity of the chondroitinase.

Chitin↗

PubMed1997

Physicochemical characterization of different batches of ethylated beta-cyclodextrins.

Different ethylated beta-cyclodextrin (Et-beta-CD) derivatives were obtained by various synthetic routes and their chemical structures and physical properties were elucidated. The aqueous solubility studies were carried out at 25 and 37 degrees C. A gas phase chromatography analysis, with head space extraction, was developed to detect the presence of residual solvents in the dry preparations. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry allowed the determination of the average degree of substitution and the molecular mass of the Et-beta-CDs. Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis was used to elucidate the relationship between the solubility behavior and substituted positions of ethyl groups on the CD glucopyranose units. Finally, this paper deals with different physico-chemical methods used to fully characterize the different batches of Et-beta-CD to correlate the data obtained with the pharmacotechnical behavior of these cyclodextrins.

Alkylation↗

PubMed1996

[Characterization and simultaneous assay of polymers and additives composing multilayer plastic material for pharmaceutical use by FTIR].

Multilayer plastic materials provide useful solutions for primary pharmaceutical formulae (maintaining physical properties, compatibility with contents, protection against exterior agents). Fourier transform infrared spectometry is an ideal method to identify and quantify the different polymers and additives. Each functional group has a characteristic band which can be selected and rapidly identified for routine quality control. The proportional quantities of each polymers in the multilayer system can be determined directly using the characteristic bands for each functional group. The technique was applied to the analysis of heat-formed platelets made of polyvinyl chloride and polyvinylidene chloride.

Equipment Contamination↗

PubMed1994

The evolving role of Hox genes in arthropods.

Comparisons between Hox genes in different arthropods suggest that the diversity of Antennapedia-class homeotic genes present in modern insects had already arisen before the divergence of insects and crustaceans, probably during the Cambrian. Hox gene duplications are therefore unlikely to have occurred concomitantly with trunk segment diversification in the lineage leading to insects. Available data suggest that domains of homeotic gene expression are also generally conserved among insects, but changes in Hox gene regulation may have played a significant role in segment diversification. Differences that have been documented alter specific aspects of Hox gene regulation within segments and correlate with alterations in segment morphology rather than overt homeotic transformations. The Drosophila Hox cluster contains several homeobox genes that are not homeotic genes--bicoid, fushi-tarazu and zen. the role of these genes during early development has been studied in some detail. It appears to be without parallel among the vertebrate Hox genes. No well conserved homologues of these genes have been found in other taxa, suggesting that they are evolving faster than the homeotic genes. Relatively divergent Antp-class genes isolated from other insects are probably homologues of fushi-tarazu, but these are almost unrecognisable outside of their homeodomains, and have accumulated approximately 10 times as many changes in their homeodomains as have homeotic genes in the same comparisons. They show conserved patterns of expression in the nervous system, but not during early development.

Animals↗

PubMed1994

Magnetic resonance features in carbon monoxide poisoning.

The authors describe unusual magnetic resonance findings due to carbon monoxide poisoning in a 34-year-old woman. With T2-weighted imaging, increased signal intensity was observed bilaterally in the putamen and the caudate nucleus. Lesions of high signal intensity in the globus pallidus, which have been previously reported, were also observed.

Adult↗