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C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2), also called monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 17(MCP-1) is a key β-chemokine involved in the migration of monocytes and macrophages, playing 18 a significant role in the inflammatory responses in the airways. We aimed to assess the serum 19 levels of MCP-1/CCL2 in a pilot cross-sectional study of Bulgarian children with bronchial asthma 20(BA) and cystic fibrosis (CF). Forty-two children were recruited to the study as follows: twenty 21 with BA, twelve with CF and ten healthy children. Serum MCP-1/CCL2 levels were measured 22 using ELISA. We found higher serum level of MCP-1/CCL2 in children with BA (191.09±64.96 23 pg/ml) and CF (258.51±76.45 pg/ml) compared to healthy children (70.30±64.30 pg/ml, p=0.022, and 24 p=0.068, respectively). Younger patients with BA had higher levels of MCP-1/CCL2, as well as 25 children with CF, with levels decreasing gradually with age. We observed also higher levels of 26MCP-1/CCL2 in children with moderate to severe BA compared to mild BA. We documented the 27 significantly higher level of MCP-1/CCL2 in children with these chronic pulmonary diseases than 28 in healthy controls, which suggesting that investigation of serum MCP-1/CCL2 levels could turn 29 out to be beneficial for the severity of the disease.

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High performance liquid chromatography diode array detector and Ion trap MS combined with some statistical methods was developed for the quality control of Mallotus apelta with malloapelta B as marker compound. In the ESI-MS experiment, both negative and positive ESI modes were used for the detection of malloapelta B. All the results showed that the developed fingerprint assay was specific and could further serve for quality identification and quantitative the content of malloapelta B in the Mallotus sample.

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