What is claimed is:
1. A histamine measuring apparatus for quantitatively analyzing the concentration of histamine, comprising:
a vessel having at the bottom thereof a recess for holding an oocyte which expresses histamine receptors;
first and second electrodes for inserting into said oocyte;
a circuitry for measuring the potential of membrane of said oocyte by means of said first electrode and for flowing a current through said second electrode to said oocyte to maintain the membrane potential of said oocyte at a predetermined constant level;
a fine reacting tube with an antigen immobilized onto the inner surface thereof; and
flowing tubes for flowing a sample together with some buffer solution into said fine reacting tube to promote a histamine releasing reaction therein and for transferring the solution containing released histamine into said vessel to make contact with said oocyte in said vessel;
wherein said circuitry detects the electric response from said oocyte caused by the contact with said solution in order to determine the concentration of histamine released by the histamine releasing reaction occurred in said fine reacting tube.
2. A histamine measuring apparatus according to claim 1, in which:
said sample is a whole blood sample or mast cell suspension without pretreatment.
3. A histamine measuring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
a temperature controller device for controlling the temperature of said fine reacting tube to a predetermined temperature level.
4. A histamine measuring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
a temperature controller device for controlling the temperature of said fine reacting tube to a temperature ranging from 30 C. to 45 C.
5. A histamine measuring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
a tubing connected to said vessel for infusing buffer solution thereto and a tubing for purging the content of said vessel.
6. A histamine measuring apparatus for quantitatively analyzing the concentration of histamine, comprising:
a vessel having at the bottom thereof a recess for holding an oocyte, which expresses histamine receptors;
a fine reacting tube with an antigen immobilized onto the inner surface thereof;
flowing tubes for flowing a sample together with some buffer solution into said fine reacting tube to promote a histamine releasing reaction therein and for transferring the solution containing released histamine into said vessel to make contact with said oocyte in said vessel; and
a circuitry for detecting electric response of said oocyte caused by the contact with said solution;
wherein said apparatus determines the concentration of histamine released by the histamine releasing reaction occurred in said fine reacting tube.
7. A histamine measuring apparatus according to claim 6, in which:
said sample is a whole blood sample or mast cell suspension without pretreatment.
8. A histamine measuring apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:
a temperature controller device for controlling the temperature of said fine reacting tube to a temperature ranging from 30 C. to 45 C.
9. A histamine measuring method for determining the concentration of histamine, comprising the steps of:
holding in a recess at the bottom of a vessel an oocyte that expresses histamine receptors;
measuring the potential of membrane of said oocyte by means of first electrode inserted into said oocyte to stabilize the membrane potential of said oocyte at a predetermined level by driving a current through second electrode inserted into said oocyte;
infusing a sample into a fine reacting tube having an antigen immobilized on the inner surface thereof to promote a histamine releasing reaction;
transferring the solution containing histamine released in said fine reacting tube to said vessel to make contact with said oocyte in said vessel;
detecting an electric response of said oocyte caused by the contact with said solution; and
determining the concentration of histamine released by said histamine releasing reaction in said fine reacting tube.
10. A histamine measuring method according to claim 9, in which:
said sample is a whole blood sample or mast cell suspension without pretreatment.
11. A histamine measuring method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of:
controlling the temperature of said fine reacting tube at a predetermined temperature level.
12. A histamine measuring method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of:
controlling the temperature of said fine reacting tube to a temperature ranging from 30 C. to 45 C.
13. A histamine measuring method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of:
determine the concentration (A) of histamine released by said histamine releasing reaction in said fine reacting tube by means of a predefined calibration curve obtained by stimulating said oocyte with a plurality of known concentrations of histamine to detect the electric response of said oocyte to predefine the correlation between said electric response and said plurality of known concentrations of histamine.
14. A histamine measuring method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of:
determining the histamine releasing rate given by
(AC)3
where B is a histamine concentration given by the quantitative measurement of histamine contained in the cells in said sample and released by freezing and thawing the sample stimulated by the antigen, C is a concentration of free histamine released without stimulation after adding some buffer solution instead of the antigen into the sample.
15. A histamine measuring method for determining the concentration of histamine comprising the steps of:
holding in a recess at the bottom of a vessel an oocyte that expresses histamine receptors;
infusing a sample into a fine reacting tube having an antigen immobilized on the inner surface thereof to promote a histamine releasing reaction;
transferring the solution containing histamine released in said fine reacting tube to said vessel to make contact with said oocyte in said vessel;
detecting an electric response of said oocyte caused by the contact with said solution; and
determining the concentration of histamine released by said histamine releasing reaction in said fine reacting tube.
16. A histamine measuring method according to claim 15, in which:
said sample is a whole blood sample or mast cell suspension without pretreatment.
17. A histamine measuring method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of:
controlling the temperature of said fine reacting tube to a temperature ranging from 30 C. to 45 C.
18. A histamine measuring method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of:
determine the concentration (A) of histamine released by said histamine releasing reaction in said fine reacting tube by means of a predefined calibration of curve obtained by stimulating said oocyte with a plurality of known concentrations of histamine to detect the electric response of said oocyte to predefine the correlation between said electric responses and said plurality of known concentrations of histamine.
19. A histamine measuring method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of:
determining the histamine releasing rate given by
(AC)B
where B is a histamine concentration given by the quantitative measurement of histamine contained in the cells in said sample and released by freezing and thawing the sample stimulated by the antigen, C is a concentration of free histamine released without stimulation after adding some buffer solution instead of the antigen into the sample.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for forming nanosized metal particles, comprising:
(i) dispersing a plurality of metal precipitates in a suitable solvent, each of said metal precipitates comprising at least one metal compound; and
(ii) adding to said solvent an effective amount of at least one peroxide to form a product consisting essentially of a plurality of nanosized metal particles in said solvent, wherein said metal precipitates are selected from the group consisting of metal oxalates, metal sulfides, metal sulfates, metal oxides, metal hydroxides, metal carbonates and combinations thereof.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ratio of metal precipitate to solvent is about 100 mg metal contents to 0.010-3.0 liters solvent.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said metal is at least one noble metal.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said at least one noble metal is selected from the group consisting of Re, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Os, Ir, Pt, Au and combinations thereof.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said solvent is selected from the group consisting of water, lower alkyl alcohols, lower alkyl substituted aromatics and combinations thereof.
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said solvent comprises a lower alkyl alcohol selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, isopropanol and combinations thereof.
7. The method according to claim 5, wherein said alkyl substituted aromatic is toluene.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said metal precipitate comprises at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Re, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Os, Ir, Pt and Au.
9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said metal precipitate is formed by reacting a source of metal ions with a base.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said base is selected from the group consisting of oxalate, carbonate, hydroxide and combinations thereof.
11. The method according to claim 9, wherein said source of metal ions is silver and said base carbonate or hydroxide.
12. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one metal compound is selected from the group consisting of silver carbonate and gold oxide.
13. The method according to claim 1, wherein said solvent contains no surfactant or at least one surfactant andor wetting agent.
14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising bubbling an inert gas through said solvent.
15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said inert gas is argon or nitrogen.
16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of said solvent is above ambient temperature.
17. The method according to claim 16, wherein said temperature is 50\xb0 C. to 100\xb0 C.
18. The method according to claim 1, further comprising separating said nanosized metal particles by centrifugation or filtration.
19. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one peroxide is hydrogen peroxide.
20. The method according to claim 1, further comprising sonicating said solvent and said plurality of metal precipitates prior to adding said at least one peroxide.
21. The method according to claim 1, wherein a first portion of said at least one peroxide is added to said solvent and subsequently at least a second portion of at least one peroxide is added to said solvent.
22. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one peroxide is added to said solvent in a single step.
23. A method for forming nanosized metal particles, comprising:
(i) dispersing a plurality of metal precipitates in a suitable solvent, each of said metal precipitates comprising at least one metal compound; and
(ii) adding to said solvent an effective amount of at least one peroxide to form a product consisting essentially of a plurality of nanosized metal particles in said solvent, wherein said solvent toluene.
24. A method for forming nanosized metal particles, comprising:
(i) dispersing a plurality of metal precipitates in a suitable solvent, each of said metal precipitates comprising at least one metal compound; and
(ii) adding to said solvent an effective amount of at least one peroxide to form a product consisting essentially of plurality of nanosized metal particles in said solvent, wherein said at least one metal compound is selected from the group consisting of silver carbonate and gold oxide.
25. A method for forming nanosized metal particles, comprising:
(i) dispersing a plurality of metal precipitates in a suitable solvent, each of said metal precipitates comprising at least one metal compound;
(ii) adding to said solvent an effective amount of at least one peroxide to form a product consisting essentially of a plurality of nanosized metal particles in said solvent; and
(iii) bubbling an inert gas through said solvent.
26. The method according to claim 25, wherein said inert gas is argon or nitrogen.
27. A method for forming nanosized metal particles, comprising:
(i) dispersing a plurality of metal precipitates in a suitable solvent, each of said metal precipitates comprising at least one metal compound;
(ii) adding to said solvent an effective amount of at least one peroxide to form a product consisting essentially of a plurality of nanosized metal particles in said solvent; and
(iii) sonicating said solvent and said plurality of metal particles prior to adding said at least one peroxide.