Claudio Nastruzzi

APPLICATION OF A NEW, SIMPLE AND ECONOMIC COLORIMETRIC METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF NON-ESTERIFIED FATTY ACIDS IN VEGETABLE OILS

Abstract The amount of non-esterified fatty acids in eight different vegetable oil samples has been determined by two different methods: (a) with a standard titration procedure, and (b) with a new colorimetric method which utilizes phenol red solubilized in reverse micelles. The results obtained by the two methods are in good agreement, although the standard deviation in the case of the phenol red method is significantly higher compared with the conventional titration. The main advantage of the new colorimetric method is an economic one: only small amounts of oil samples (less than 0·1 ml) are required and a comparably small amount of organic solvent (less than 5 ml isooctane) is needed.

Differential effects of liposome-entrapped desferrioxamine on proliferation and erythroid differentiation of murine erythroleukemic friend cells

It is known that iron chelators (such as desferrioxamine) are potent inhibitors of both cell proliferation and erythroid differentiation. We have shown with in vitro studies that in the case of tumor cells desferrioxamine is even more efficient in inhibiting cell proliferation when entrapped in liposomes consisting of egg yolk phosphatidylcholine. At the same time liposome-entrapped desferrioxamine retains only a slight effect on hexamethylenebisacetamide induction of erythroid differentiation and hemoglobin accumulation of murine erythroleukemic Friend cells. Based on these findings, we propose liposome-entrapped desferrioxamine as potential antineoplastic agent as well as a specific chemical for the study of both iron metabolism and distribution in normal and neoplastic cells. In addition, unlike free desferrioxamine, the liposome-entrapped drug could also be used in combination with inducers of differentiation. With respect to this issue, it is possible that liposome-entrapped desferrioxamine, might permit erythroid differentiation of both neoplastic cells as well as normal stem cells.