INTRODUCTION Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have various roles in inflammatory states. They seem to be able to modulate endothelial barriers and regulate the activity of chemokines and cytokines. The timely development of the levels during severe sepsis and thereafter have not been investigated. In addition it was of interest to study alterations of MMP-levels in intact skin, as the skin is t...

Blister beetles (Meloidae) are cosmopolitan in distribution except from New Zealand, Antarctica and most Polynesian islands. They act as minor pests for some crops and as major pests for others under certain conditions in several parts of the world. The present work reviews the most important agronomic impacts of various beetle species in different African, Asian, European and American countrie...

The pharmacokinetics of the broad-spectrum penicillin Bay k 4999 were studied in six healthy male volunteers. A 2-g dose was given by the intravenous route. The tissue penetration of the antibiotic was studied by both dermabrasion and blister techniques. A total of 26.4% of the drug was recovered in the urine in 24 h, 79% of this being excreted in the first 2 h. The elimination half-life in ser...

Copyright © 2012 Frederick Furness Publishing 16 In this paper, Thomas Dries, PhD, Market Development Manager Europe, Healthcare & Packaging, Honeywell Specialty Materials, considers the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry in implementing a blister packaging strategy that: protects advanced solid oral drug delivery systems from physical or chemical degradation; creates market advantag...

Although the blister model for the Orion Nebula is widely accepted, an alternative model, where the optical appearance of the nebula is primarily determined by self-extinction, continues to be considered by some and has never specifically been disproven. I summarize the characteristics of the two models and show that the evidence falls overwhelmingly against the self-extinction model and in fav...

A 500-mg dose of the quinoline ciprofloxacin was administered orally to each of six healthy male volunteers, after which the concentrations of this agent in serum and blister fluid were measured. Absorption appeared to be rapid, with a mean peak level of 2.4 micrograms/ml attained 1.25 h after administration. The serum elimination half-life was 3.9 h. The agent penetrated blister fluid well, th...

BACKGROUND Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa is an incurable, often fatal mucocutaneous blistering disease caused by mutations in COL7A1, the gene encoding type VII collagen (C7). On the basis of preclinical data showing biochemical correction and prolonged survival in col7 −/− mice, we hypothesized that allogeneic marrow contains stem cells capable of ameliorating the manifestations o...

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Beetles of the family Meloidae (blister beetles) are often reported in pharmacological literature because of their content of cantharidin. Cantharidin has a long history in human medicine and was commonly applied in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, although its use has been progressively abandoned since then. Contrary to most, even common, large species of C...

The purpose of this study is to compare scanning electron microscopy findings of the blister roof in three distinct bullous diseases: one intraepidermal acantholytic (pemphigus foliaceus); one due to hemidesmosomal dysfunction (bullous pemphigoid); and one secondary to anchoring fibril dysfunction - type VII collagen (dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa). In pemphigus foliaceus, acantholytic pheno...

In this paper, we propose a high-accuracy, highspeed method for recognizing pharmaceutical blister packs. In the proposed method, we first rank reference images of blister packs stored in a database for a given query image by using a simple voting process based on a nearest-neighbor search for local features. Next, we evaluate the results in ranking order by similarity of shape and color with r...