Capillary microextraction (CME) and its application to trace elements analysis and their speciation.
As a solvent-free miniaturized sample preparation technique, capillary microextraction (CME) has been hyphenated with different analytical instruments for trace elements analysis of environmental, biological, food and pharmaceutical samples. This review discusses the fundamentals and recent development of CME, including the theoretical basis, extraction modes (packed, open-tubular and monolithic CME) and capillary materials for CME. The emphasis is placed on the application of CME to trace/ultra-trace elements analysis and their speciation. Existing coating/monolithic materials used for CME are summarized together with a detailed overview of their preparation methods.
Background ::: Spontaneously metastatic xenograft models of cancer are infrequent and the few that exist are resource intensive. In xenografts, caliper measurements can be used to determine primary tumor burden and response to therapy but in metastatic disease models determination of the presence of metastatic disease, metastatic burden, and response to therapy are difficult, often requiring serial necropsy. In this study we characterized the development of visceral metastases in a patient derived xenograft model (PDXM) using in vivo imaging.