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Robust and easy-to-use NMR sensor technology is proposed for accurate, on-site determination of fat and protein contents in milk. The two parameters are determined using fast consecutive 1H and 35Cl low-field NMR experiments on milk samples upon the 1:1 addition of a low-cost contrast solution. Reliable and accurate measurements are obtained without tedious calibrations and the need for extensive database information and may readily be conducted by non-experts in production site environments. This enables on-site application at farms or dairies, or use in laboratories harvesting significant reductions in costs and time per analysis as compared to wet-chemistry analysis. The performance is demonstrated for calibration samples, various supermarket milk products, and raw milk samples, of which some were analyzed directly in the milking room. To illustrate the wide application range, the supermarket milk products included both conventionally/organically produced, lactose-free milk, cow's, sheep's and goat's milk, homogenized and unhomogenized milk, and a broad nutrient range (0.1–9% fat, 1–6% protein). Excellent agreement between NMR measurements and reference values, without corrections or changes in calibration for various products and during extensive periods of experiment conduction (4 months) demonstrates the robustness of the procedure and instrumentation. For the raw milk samples, correlations between NMR and IR, NMR and wet-chemistry, as well as IR and wet-chemistry results, show that NMR, in terms of accuracy, compares favorably with the other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of a probiotic acidified milk product on the blood serum metabolite profile of patients suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) compared to a non-probiotic acidified milk product was investigated using 1H NMR metabonomics. For eight weeks, IBS patients consumed 0.4 L per day of a probiotic fermented milk product or non-probiotic acidified milk. Both diets resulted in elevated levels of blood serum L-lactate and 3-hydroxybutyrate. Our results showed identical effects of acidified milk consumption independent of probiotic addition. A similar result was previously obtained in a questionnaire-based evaluation of symptom relief. A specific probiotic effect is thus absent both in the patient subjective symptom evaluations and at the blood serum metabolite level. However, there was no correspondence between symptom relief and metabolite response on the patient level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrast agents have been widely used in medicine to enhance contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Among them, super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) have been reported to have low risk in clinical use. In our study, F127-Folate coated SPION was fabricated in order to efficiently target tumors and provide imaging contrast in MRI. SPION alone have an average core size of 15 nm. After stabilizing with Pluronic F127, the nanoparticles reached a hydrodynamic size of 180 nm and dispersed well in various kinds of media. The F127-Folate coated SPION were shown to specifically target folate receptor expressing cancer cells by flow cytometry analysis, confocal laser scanning microscope, as well as in vitro MRI. Furthermore, in vivo MRI images have shown the enhanced negative contrast from the F127-Folate coated SPION in tumor-bearing mice. In conclusion, our F127-Folate coated SPION have shown great potential as a contrast agent in MRI, as well as in the combination with drug delivery for cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]