Respiratory and lung irritants can be a by-product of the surgical pyrolysis of human tissues. Seven prostate tissues were collected during the transurethral resection of a prostate (TURP). Tissue samples, pyrolyzed in a pyrolysis sampling system, were collected and analyzed for the characterization of aerosols in the surgical smoke. In the pyrolyzed particulate matter (PM) from the TURP, Cholestra-3,5-diene was identified as the most dominant component along with 9-methylanthracene, hentriacontane, and dotriacontane based on the mass fragment structure determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). As a molecular marker, Cholesta-3,5-diene can be associated with a cytotoxic in primary human oral keratinocytes (HOK). In this research, the presence of Cholestra-3,5-diene is reported for the first time as a by-product of surgical pyrolysis.

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Two semi-continuous Sunset carbon analyzers, with different peak inert mode temperatures (615 and 740℃), were simultaneously operated to measure fine particulate organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) using a thermal optical transmittance method at an urban site in Beijing, China, from 16 August to 3 September 2006 during the CAREBeijing 2006 campaign. Excellent agreements were obtained between the collocated semi-continuous carbon analyzers, with slopes of 1.02 (R2 = 0.91) for OC and 1.06 (R2 = 0.93) for EC, resulting in very similar average EC/total carbon (TC) ratios of ∼0.36. These results imply that the different peak inert mode (100% helium) temperatures did not cause significant biases on the semi-continuous OC and EC measurements. However, it was found that the EC/TC ratio was greatly influenced by the accumulated refractory particles remaining on a quartz filter (PM refractory). Fresh quartz filters, with low PM refractory loadings, which is defined as a laser correction factor ≥0.94, gave ∼8-10% lower EC/TC ratios than aged quartz filters with high PM refractory loadings. The linear regression slope between EC and optically measured EC (OPT-EC) was much higher with fresh quartz filters (slope = 1.03, R2 = 0.96) than aged quartz filters (slope = 0.89, R2 = 0.95), suggesting the underestimation of EC on fresh quartz filters by ∼15% compared to those measured on aged quartz filters. Authentic standard humic-like substances (HULIS) on the clean quartz filter showed the highest extent of pyrolyzed organic carbon (POC) formation (47.4% in total detected carbon mass), followed by those on the Asian dust loaded quartz filter (37%) and the refractory urban pollutant loaded quartz filter (34.1%), indicating that the Asian dust and refractory urban pollutant reduced the POC formation from the HULIS. Thus, this study suggested that the PM refractory loading plays an important role in the semi-continuous OC and EC measurements by altering the degree of POC formation in the inert atmosphere

BackgroundThe mechanism behind an increased risk of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) remains largely unknown. In our previous study, we identified that inter-α-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4 (ITI-H4) is highly expressed at a modified molecular weight of 36 kDa in serum derived from RPL patients. Yet, the precise molecular mechanism and pathways by which the short form of ITI-H4 carries out its function remain obscure.MethodsHuman sera and peripheral blood mononucleated cells (PBMCs) were collected from patients and normal controls to compare the expression levels of ITI-H4 and plasma kallikrein (KLKB1). Flow cytometric assay was performed to measure inflammatory markers in sera and culture supernatants. Furthermore, to investigate the functions of the two isoforms of ITI-H4, we performed migration, invasion, and proliferation assays.FindingsIn the current study, we showed that ITI-H4 as a biomarker of RPL could be regulated by KLKB1 through the IL-6 signaling cascade, indicating a novel regulatory system for inflammation in RPL. In addition, our study indicates that the two isoforms of ITI-H4 possess opposing functions on immune response, trophoblast invasion, and monocytes migration or proliferation.InterpretationThe ITI-H4 (∆N688) might be a crucial inflammatory factor which contributes to the pathogenesis of RPL. Moreover, it is expected that this study would give some insights into potential functional mechanisms underlying RPL.FundThis study was supported by the Ministry of Health & Welfare of the Republic of Korea (HI18C0378) through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.