Characterization of the structure of human skin substitutes by infrared microspectroscopy

The skin acts mainly as a protective barrier from the external environment, thanks to the stratum corneum which is the outermost layer of the skin. As in vitro tests on skin are essential to elaborate new drugs, the development of skin models closer to reality becomes essential. It is now possible to produce in vitro human skin substitutes through tissue engineering by using the self-assembly method developed by the Laboratoire d’Organogénèse Expérimentale. In the present work, infrared microspectroscopy imaging analyses were performed to get in-depth morpho-spectral characterization of the three characteristic layers of human skin substitutes and normal human skin, namely the stratum corneum, living epidermis, and dermis. An infrared spectral analysis of the skin is a powerful tool to gain information on the order and conformation of the lipid chains and the secondary structure of proteins. On one hand, the symmetric stretching mode of the lipid methylene groups (2,850 cm^?1) is sensitive to the acyl chain conformational order. The evolution profile of the frequency of this vibrational mode throughout the epidermis suggests that lipids in the stratum corneum are more ordered than those in the living epidermis. On the other hand, the frequencies of the infrared components underneath the envelop of the amide I band provide information about the overall protein conformation. The analysis of this mode establishes that the proteins essentially adopt an α-helix conformation in the epidermis, probably associated with the presence of keratin, while modifications of the protein content are observed in the dermis (extracellular matrix made of collagen). Finally, the lipid organization, as well as the protein composition in the different layers, is similar for human skin substitutes and normal human skin, confirming that the substitutes reproduce essential features of real skin and are appropriate biomimetics.     

Gelatin‐Alginate Gels and Their Enzymatic Modifications: Controlling the Delivery of Small Molecules

The release of molecules entrapped within biogels is dictated by diffusion laws. Innovative biogel architectures are conceived and tested to control small molecule delivery from gelatin gels. The ionic interactions modulate the release of small molecules. Alginate is then added to gelatin gels and further hydrolyzed; the influence of viscosity is discussed. Next, various mixed gels are compared, such as a gelatin‐alginate IPN and the original architecture of an alginate gel entrapped in a gelatin gel with or without a polysaccharidase. The relative influence of ionic interactions and diffusional constraints on the delivery of small charged molecules is explored, and a solution for controlling diffusion is proposed for any situation.

     

Quantification of 31 illicit and medicinal drugs and metabolites in whole blood by fully automated solid-phase extraction and ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

An efficient method for analyzing illegal and medicinal drugs in whole blood using fully automated sample preparation and short ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) run time is presented. A selection of 31 drugs, including amphetamines, cocaine, opioids, and benzodiazepines, was used. In order to increase the efficiency of routine analysis, a robotic system based on automated liquid handling and capable of handling all unit operation for sample preparation was built on a Freedom Evo 200 platform with several add-ons from Tecan and third-party vendors. Solid-phase extraction was performed using Strata X-C plates. Extraction time for 96 samples was less than 3 h. Chromatography was performed using an ACQUITY UPLC system (Waters Corporation, Milford, USA). Analytes were separated on a 100 mm?×?2.1 mm, 1.7 μm Acquity UPLC CSH C₁₈ column using a 6.5 min 0.1 % ammonia (25 %) in water/0.1 % ammonia (25 %) in methanol gradient and quantified by MS/MS (Waters Quattro Premier XE) in multiple-reaction monitoring mode. Full validation, including linearity, precision and trueness, matrix effect, ion suppression/enhancement of co-eluting analytes, recovery, and specificity, was performed. The method was employed successfully in the laboratory and used for routine analysis of forensic material. In combination with tetrahydrocannabinol analysis, the method covered 96 % of cases involving driving under the influence of drugs. The manual labor involved in preparing blood samples, solvents, etc., was reduced to a half an hour per batch. The automated sample preparation setup also minimized human exposure to hazardous materials, provided highly improved ergonomics, and eliminated manual pipetting.

Determination of asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginines in human plasma by HPLC with electrochemical detection

A new HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginines and l ‐arginine in human plasma. After SPE and evaporation of the eluate, the samples were derivatised with an o‐phthaldialdehyde reagent containing 3‐mercaptopropionic acid. The derivatives formed were analysed by isocratic RP‐HPLC with electrochemical detection at +320 mV. The mobile phase consisted of 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 6.1) containing 10% v/v acetonitrile, the flow rate was 1 mL/min. The retention times of all compounds including monomethylarginine (internal standard) were <24 min. The LODs (S/N 3:1) were 0.012 μM for both dimethylarginines and 0.013 μM for l ‐arginine; the linearity of the method was from 0.1 to 20 μM for both dimethylarginines and from 1 to 200 μM for l ‐arginine. Absolute extraction recoveries measured for all analytes ranged from 85 to 88%.     

A Theoretical Exploration of the Potential of ICAR ATRP for One‐ and Two‐Pot Synthesis of Well‐Defined Diblock Copolymers

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are performed to investigate the capability of ICAR ATRP for the synthesis of well‐defined poly(isobornyl acrylate‐b‐styrene) block(‐like) copolymers using one‐pot semi‐batch and two‐pot batch procedures. The block copolymer quality is quantified via a block deviation (〈BD〉) value. For 〈BD〉 values lower than 0.30, the quality is defined as good and for well‐chosen polymerization conditions the formation of homopolymer chains upon addition of the second monomer can be suppressed. A better block quality is obtained when isobornyl acrylate is polymerized first. For lower Cu levels a one‐pot semi‐batch procedure allows a much faster ATRP and better control over the polymer properties than a two‐pot batch procedure.

     

Efficient Synthesis of New Nucleoside Analogues with a Methylenecyclobutane Unit

Synthesis of eight nucleoside analogues 4–11 with a methylenecyclobutane unit is described. Wittig reaction with 2‐hydroxymethylcyclobutanone 12 gave a mixture of Z (13) and E (14) derivatives, which was separated before functional modifications. The heterocyclic moieties were introduced via a Mitsunobu reaction either on the saturated chain or on the unsaturated chain. When adenine was used in this reaction, only the N‐9 substitution products were obtained. Removal of the protecting groups provided the target products.     

Local Hartree–Fock orbitals using a three‐level optimization strategy for the energy

Using the three‐level energy optimization procedure combined with a refined version of the least‐change strategy for the orbitals—where an explicit localization is performed at the valence basis level—it is shown how to more efficiently determine a set of local Hartree–Fock orbitals. Further, a core–valence separation of the least‐change occupied orbital space is introduced. Numerical results comparing valence basis localized orbitals and canonical molecular orbitals as starting guesses for the full basis localization are presented. The results show that the localization of the occupied orbitals may be performed at a small computational cost if valence basis localized orbitals are used as a starting guess. For the unoccupied space, about half the number of iterations are required if valence localized orbitals are used as a starting guess compared to a canonical set of unoccupied Hartree–Fock orbitals. Different local minima may be obtained when different starting guesses are used. However, the different minima all correspond to orbitals with approximately the same locality. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.