Implantable osmotic pump

There have been recent studies on the importance of NO in modulating skin blood flow in both normal animals and in inflammatory models. Khan etiU. (1993), using laser-Doppler techniques, showed that the NOS inhibitor L-NAME inhibited rabbit ear blood flow. It was possible to do this chronically for up to 2 weeks using implanted osmotic pumps. Pons et id. (1993) also used laser Doppler to show that the vasodilator eflFect of LPS in rabbit skin, which mimics the efiect of Gram-negative bacteria, was likely to involve both i-NOS and IL-1. We have already discussed the damaging eflPects of neutrophils... 

Larson et al. (1996) investigated the ability of acute chloroform vapor exposure to produce toxicity and regenerative cell proliferation in the liver of female B6C3F, mice. Groups of 5 animals were exposed to 0, 0.3, 2, 10, 30, or 90 ppm chloroform via inhalation for 6 hours a day for 4 consecutive days. Animals were administered BrdU via an implanted osmotic pump, and cell proliferation was quantitated as the percentage of cells in S-phase (LI) measured by immunohistochemical detection of BrdU-labeled nuclei. 

Figure 12.19 Drug delivery curves obtained with an implantable osmotic pump [30], Reprinted from F. Theeuwes and S.I. Yum, Principles of the Design and Operation of Generic Osmotic Pumps for the Delivery of Semisolid or Liquid Drug Formulations, Ann. Biomed. Eng. 4, 343, 1976, with permission of Biomedical Engineering Society...

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