Melamine and its potential toxicity have drawn increased attention since a 2008 crisis in China in which milk, infant formula, and other foods were illegally laced with the chemical in order to increase their apparent protein content. That contamination affected an estimated 294,000 infants and children, with more than 50,000 hospitalizations and at least 6 deaths. In a new analysis of specific...

* The views presented in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Food and Drug Administration. 1 This chemistry background paper briefly summarizes key information on melamine related to past contamination incidents, uses, chemical structures and physicochemical properties (including the related triazines: cyanuric acid, ammeline and ammelide), manufacturing processes...

BACKGROUND Allergic contact dermatitis caused by polyester resin is considered to be rare. OBJECTIVES To describe 11 new patients diagnosed with occupational contact allergy to components of polyester resin systems in 1994-2009. METHODS Data on occupations, patch test results, symptoms and exposure to polyester products were retrieved from patient files, covering 1994 to February 2015. RE...

A novel mechanism of hybrid assembly of molecules on surfaces is proposed stemming from interactions between molecules and on-surface metal atoms which eventually got trapped inside the network pores. Based on state-of-the-art theoretical calculations, we find that the new mechanism relies on formation of molecule-metal atom pairs which, together with molecules themselves, participate in the as...

Recent outbreaks of nephrolithiasis and acute kidney injury among children in China have been linked to ingestion of milk-based infant formula contaminated with melamine. These cases provide evidence in humans for the nephrotoxicity of melamine, which previously had been described only in animals. The consequences of this outbreak are already severe and will likely continue to worsen. Herein we...

1. The degradative pathway of melamine (1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine) was examined in Pseudomonas sp. strain A. 2. The bacterium grew with melamine, ammeline, ammelide, cyanuric acid or NH+4 as sole source of nitrogen, and each substrate was entirely metabolized. Utilization of ammeline, ammelide, cyanuric acid or NH+4 was concomitant with growth. But with melamine as substrate, a transient in...

The recent melamine crisis in China has pointed out a serious deficiency in current food control systems, namely, they specifically focus on selected known compounds. This targeted approach allowed the presence of melamine in milk products to be overlooked for a considerable time. To avoid such crises in the future, we propose that nontargeted screening methods need to be developed and applied....

Changes of neural oscillations at a variety of physiological rhythms are effectively associated with cognitive performance. The present study investigated whether the directional indices of neural information flow (NIF) could be used to symbolize the synaptic plasticity impairment in hippocampal CA3-CA1 network in a rat model of melamine. Male Wistar rats were employed while melamine was admini...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the renal outcomes of children after exposure to low dose melamine in Hong Kong. DESIGN Cross sectional study. SETTING Special assessment centres, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS 3170 children (1422 girls and 1748 boys) aged 12 years or less referred from territory-wide primary care clinics after daily consumption for one month or more of milk products tainted with melami...

Melamine is an organic nitrogenous compound widely used as an industrial chemical, and it has been recently reported by us that melamine has a toxic effect on the female reproductive system in mice, and renders females subfertile; the molecular basis, however, has not been adequately assessed. In the present study, we explore the underlying mechanism regarding how melamine compromises fertility...