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T Trotter

Publications and source records attributed to T Trotter.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

The comet assay in clinical practice.

The comet assay is a single-cell gel electrophoresis technique that measures DNA damage in individual cells. Since radiation produces 3-4 times more DNA damage in well-oxygenated cells compared with hypoxic cells, this assay can quantify the fraction of radiation-resistant hypoxic cells found in many solid tumours. This paper summarizes our results with 73 accessible metastatic tumours irradiated with palliative intent. Hypoxic fractions ranged from 0.0 to 0.67 with a mean of 0.15; 62% of these advanced tumours showed a hypoxic fraction > 0.05. Comparisons between two sequential aspirates in 33 tumours gave a slope of 0.92 (r2 = 0.88), suggesting that a single aspirate is generally representative of the tumour. A limitation, however, is that the hypoxic fraction could not be measured in clinical samples given a conventional dose of 2 Gy.

Animals↗

Heterogeneity in human tumour hypoxic fraction using the comet assay.

The alkaline comet assay has previously been used to estimate the fraction of radiobiologically hypoxic cells in tumours from patients undergoing palliative radiotherapy for advanced breast and head and neck cancer. Results obtained from fine needle aspirate biopsies (FNABs) using this method indicate considerable heterogeneity in hypoxic fraction between tumours. Heterogeneity between 3 aspirates taken from the same 10 tumours immediately following single doses of 3.5 to 5 Gy is now examined. Results indicate that a single fine needle aspirate is reasonably representative for DNA damage and DNA content. However, difficulties were encountered in obtaining an adequate sample of tumour cells after the final radiation treatment. The average hypoxic fraction decreased from 14% after the first dose to 9% after the last dose, and in 3 tumours which could be evaluated after both the first and last fraction, the hypoxic fraction decreased in two but increased in the third. Rejoining of DNA strand breaks was observed between sequential aspirates indicating that pooling of samples for analysis may not be advisable using this method.

Biopsy, Needle↗

A study of the effect of Picolax on body weight, cardiovascular variables and haemoglobin concentration.

This study compared the effect of Picolax when administered for large bowel preparation in combination with preoperative fasting on body weight, haemoglobin concentration, haematocrit, and cardiovascular variables with matched subjects who were fasted before surgery. Picolax resulted in significantly greater weight loss, increases in haemoglobin concentration combined with cardiovascular changes suggesting hypovolaemia in the Picolax group. Intravenous fluid replacement is recommended in patients receiving Picolax.

Adult↗

Effect of cysteamine on secretion of gastrin and somatostatin from the rat stomach.

Cysteamine (beta-mercaptoethylamine HCl) administration to rats induces a hypergastrinemia and a reduction in gastric tissue somatostatin content. The possibility that this reduction may contribute to the elevated gastrin levels has been investigated in the isolated perfused rat stomach. Cysteamine (1 mM) rapidly increased immunoreactive gastrin release to levels ranging between 41% and 125% above basal. Increasing the dose to 10 mM caused a 1148% increase in immunoreactive gastrin. Secretion of somatostatinlike immunoreactivity did not change. Perfusion of gastric inhibitory polypeptide (1 nM) induced a sustained increase in somatostatinlike immunoreactivity secretion and a transient rise in gastrin. Addition of 10 mM cysteamine during gastric inhibitory polypeptide perfusion caused a 300% increase in immunoreactive gastrin. These levels were lower than in response to cysteamine alone. The results demonstrate that cysteamine can stimulate immunoreactive gastrin secretion without any change in somatostatinlike immunoreactivity release. When somatostatinlike immunoreactivity secretion is stimulated by an agent such as gastric inhibitory polypeptide, the cysteamine-induced release of immunoreactive gastrin is attenuated, suggesting the presence of a functional linkage between somatostatin and gastrin under these conditions.

Animals↗