\n\nMethods In nine healthy volunteers, 15 min

and 4 h planar thoracic scintigrams and conjugate whole-body scans were performed up to 48 h following intravenous injection of 185 MBq I-123-MIBG. The subjects were given both nca and ca I-123-MIBG. Early heart/mediastinal ratios (H/M), late H/M ratios and myocardial washout were calculated. The fraction of administered activity in ten source organs was quantified from the attenuation-corrected geometric mean counts in conjugate views. Radiation-absorbed doses were estimated with OLINDA/EXM software.\n\nResults Both early and late H/M were higher for nca I-123-MIBG (ca I-123-MIBG early H/M 2.46 +/- 0.15 vs nca I-123-MIBG 2.84 +/- 0.15, p = 0.001 and ca I-123-MIBG late H/M 2.69 +/- 0.14 vs nca I-123-MIBG Selleckchem HKI 272 3.34 +/- 0.18, p = 0.002). Myocardial washout showed a longer retention time for nca I-123-MIBG (p < 0.001). The effective dose equivalent (adult male model) for nca I-123-MIBG

was similar to that for ca I-123-MIBG (0.025 +/- 0.002 mSv/MBq vs 0.026 +/- 0.002 mSv/MBq, p = 0.055, respectively).\n\nConclusion No-carrier-added I-123-MIBG yields a higher relative myocardial uptake and is associated with a higher myocardial retention. This difference between nca I-123-MIBG and ca I-123-MIBG in myocardial uptake did not result in major differences in estimated absorbed doses. Therefore, nca I-123-MIBG is to be preferred BI 2536 over ca I-123-MIBG for the assessment of cardiac sympathetic activity.”
“Eicosanoids are products of arachidonic acid metabolism and have numerous biological roles. The present study aimed to ivnestigate the fole of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX)- and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)-

dependent enzymatic pathways in the pathogenesis of porcine parasitic bronchopneumonia caused by Metastrongylus spp. Pulmonary tissue samples from healthy control and parasitized pigs VX-689 were proessed for histophathological, immunohistochemical and bichemical investigations. In control animals, immunohistochemistry demonstrated that 5-LOX and COX-2 expression was almost exclusively limited to the bronchiolar epithelial cells. Paratsitized pigs had greated 5-LOX- and COX-2- specific immunoreactivity, involging a wide range or cell types within foci of granulamatous and eosinophilic bronchopneumonia. Biochemical investigations demonstrated the presence of 5-LOX (and the realted product Leukotriene B(4)) and COX-2 (and the related product prostaglandin E(2); PGE(2)) in all tissues under study. COX-2 activity and PGE(2) concentration were significantly higher in diseased lungs compared with normal healthy controls. These findings demonstrate that 5-LOX and COX-2 are differentially expressed in normal versus lungworm-infected lungs and therefore suggest that both biochemical pathways are likely to be involved in the pathogenesis of parcine parasitic bronchopneumonia (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd.