Alveolar fractal box dimension inversely correlates with mean linear intercept in mice with elastase-induced emphysema

Mary P Andersen1, A Read Parham1, J Clifford Waldrep1,2, Wayland N McKenzie1, Rajiv Dhand1,21Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Environmental Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Missouri, 2Research Services, Harry S Truman Memorial VA Hospital, Columbia, MO, USARationale: A widely applicable model of emphysema that allows efficient and sensitive quantification of injury is needed to compare potential therapies.Objectives: To establish such a model, we studied the relationship between elastase dose and the severity of emphysema in female C57BL/6J mice. We compared alveolar fractal box dimension (DB), a new measure which is an assessment of the complexity of the tissue, with mean linear intercept (Lm), which is commonly used to estimate airspace size, for sensitivity and efficiency of measurement.Methods: Emphysema was induced in female C57BL/6J mice by administering increasing intratracheal doses of porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE). Changes in morphology and static lung compliance (CL) were examined 21 days later. Correlation of DB with Lm was determined in histological sections of lungs exposed to PPE. The inverse relationship between DB and Lm was supported by examining similar morphological sections from another experiment where the development of emphysema was studied 1 to 3 weeks after instillation of human neutrophil elastase (HNE).Results: Lm increased with PPE dose in a sigmoidal curve. CL increased after 80 or 120 U/kg body weight (P < 0.05), but not after 40 U/kg, compared with the control. DB progressively declined from 1.66 ± 0.002 (standard error of the mean) in controls, to 1.47 ± 0.006 after 120 U PPE/kg (P < 0.0001). After PPE or HNE instillation, DB was inversely related to Lm (R = –0.95, P < 0.0001 and R = –0.84, P = 0.01, respectively), with a more negative slope of the relationship using HNE (P < 0.0001).Conclusion: Intratracheal instillation of increasing doses of PPE yields a scale of progression from mild to severe emphysema. DB correlates inversely with Lm after instillation of either PPE or HNE and yields a rapid, sensitive measure of emphysema after elastase instillation.Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary emphysema, lung morphometry, lung complianc

A preliminary pharmacokinetic study of liposomal leuprolide dry powder inhaler: A technical note

The developed liposomal DPI of LEU (LLEUn-DPI) demonstrated approximately 50% bioavailability compared with SC route. The studies justify the role of the pulmonary route as a promising alternative to the presently available SC route. The components of liposomal vesicles may be suitably changed to achieve higher bioavailability. Pulmonary delivery of LEU is expected to help in improving patient compliance, self-administration and avoiding the complications related to injection procedure. The developed LEU-DPI may be employed for both male and female contraception and treatment of prostate cancer in men and early puberty in children. In women it may be used for ovarian, endometrial, pancreas, and breast cancer; endometriosis; Uterine Leiomyoma; and anemia due to uterine fibroid tumors. However, the role of LEU-DPI in clinical practice can only be justified only after in vivo studies on 2 species of animals followed by extensive clinical trials

Proliposome Powders for the Generation of Liposomes: the Influence of Carbohydrate Carrier and Separation Conditions on Crystallinity and Entrapment of a Model Antiasthma Steroid

Formulation effects on the entrapment of beclometasone dipropionate (BDP) in liposomes generated by hydration of proliposomes were studied, using the high-density dispersion medium deuterium oxide in comparison to deionized water (DW). Proliposomes incorporating BDP (2 mol% of the lipid phase consisting of soya phosphatidylcholine (SPC) and cholesterol; 1:1) were manufactured, using lactose monohydrate (LMH), sorbitol or D-mannitol as carbohydrate carriers (1:5 w/w lipid to carrier). Following hydration of proliposomes, separation of BDP-entrapped liposomes from the unentrapped (free) BDP at an optimized centrifugation duration of 90 min and a centrifugation force of 15,500g were identified. The dispersion medium was found to have a major influence on separation of BDP-entrapped liposomes from the unentrapped drug. Entrapment efficiency values were higher than 95% as estimated when DW was used. By contrast, the entrapment efficiency was 19.69 ± 5.88, 28.78 ± 4.69 and 34.84 ± 3.62% upon using D2O as a dispersion medium (for LMH-, sorbitol- and D-mannitol-based proliposomes, respectively). The similarity in size of liposomes and BDP crystals was found to be responsible for co-sedimentation of liposomes and free BDP crystals upon centrifugation in DW, giving rise to the falsely high entrapment values estimated. This was remedied by the use of D2O as confirmed by light microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)HNMR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and entrapment studies. This study showed that carrier type has a significant influence on the entrapment of BDP in liposomes generated from proliposomes, and using D2O is essential for accurate determination of steroid entrapment in the vesicles