Adhesion between molecules and calcium oxalate crystals: critical interactions in kidney stone formation

Kidney stones are crystal aggregates, most commonly containing calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystals as the primary constituent. Notably, in vitro studies have suggested that anionic molecules or macromolecules with substantial anionic functionality (e.g., carboxylate) play an important role in crystal aggregation and crystal attachment to renal epithelial cells. Furthermore, kidney stones contain measurable amounts of carboxylate-rich proteins that may serve as adhesives and promote aggregation of COM crystals. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements of adhesion forces between tip-immobilized molecules and the COM (100) surface in aqueous media, described herein, reveal the effect of functional groups on adhesion and support an important role for the carboxylate group in processes responsible for kidney stone formation, specifically macromolecule-mediated adhesion of COM crystals to cells and crystal aggregation. The presence of poly(aspartic acid) during force measurements results in a reduction in the adhesion force measured for carboxylate-modified tips, consistent with the blocking of binding sites on the COM (100) surface by the carboxylate-rich polymer. This competitive binding behavior mimics the known reduction in attachment of COM crystals to renal epithelial cells in the presence of carboxylate-rich urinary macromolecules. These results suggest a feasible methodology for identifying the most important crystal surface-macromolecule combinations related to stone formation.     

A novel biological strategy for morphology control of PbWO4 crystals in tomato extract

PbWO(4) crystals were readily synthesized by reacting lead oxide (PbO(2)) with sodium tungstate (Na(2)WO(4)·2H(2)O) at room temperature in the presence of tomato extract. Biomolecules such as vitamins, proteins in the extract played both the roles of reductant and template. The size and morphology of the PbWO(4) crystals could be controlled by adjusting the concentration of the reactants. When the concentration ratio of PbO(2) and Na(2)WO(4) was increased, the morphologies of the products varied from spherical to fusiform. Room-temperature fluorescence spectra indicated the products had a slight blue shift compared to the solid structure, which may be due to the structure defects in the crystals. The possible mechanism of PbWO(4) crystal growth in tomato extract was discussed.     

Polyethylene single crystals: Melting and morphology

Determination of important thermodynamic and physical properties of polymers has often been frustrated by the tendency of these materials to reorganize when heated. A novel technique has been developed which permits a more careful examination of the relationships existing between melting and morphology of single crystals. This has lead to the observation that high molecular weight polymers possess much narrower melting ranges than had been previously reported. By using this technique it has been possible to identify distinct transition temperatures for {100} and {110} fold sectors. DTA and DSC data have been previously reported for dried down single crystals. The applicability of this data to single crystals as they exist in suspension is questioned.     

Simulation of calcium oxalate stone in vitro

Urolithiasis constitutes a serious health problem that affects a significant section of mankind. Between 3% and 14% of the population, depending on the geographical region, suffer from this illness[1]. For example, the incidence of urolithiasis in Florida in the United States of America was 15.7 in 100000 people and increased to 20.8 in 1996. Urolithiasis remains a major medical prob-lem in China, especially in Guangdong Province. A survey in 1997 in Shenzhen City, the most southern city i…     

Nanoparticles in nematic liquid crystals: interactions with nanochannels

A mesoscale theory for the tensor order parameter Q is used to investigate the structures that arise when spherical nanoparticles are suspended in confined nematic liquid crystals (NLCs). The NLC is "sandwiched" between a wall and a small channel. The potential of mean force is determined between particles and the bottom of the channels or between several particles. Our results suggest that strong NLC-mediated interactions between the particles and the sidewalls of the channels, on the order of hundreds of k(B)T, arise when the colloids are inside the channels. The magnitude of the channel-particle interactions is dictated by a combination of two factors, namely, the type of defect structures that develop when a nanoparticle is inside a channel, and the degree of ordering of the nematic in the region between the colloid and the nanochannel. The channel-particle interactions become stronger as the nanoparticle diameter becomes commensurate with the nanochannel width. Nanochannel geometry also affects the channel-particle interactions. Among the different geometries considered, a cylindrical channel seems to provide the strongest interactions. Our calculations suggest that small variations in geometry, such as removing the sharp edges of the channels, can lead to important reductions in channel-particle interactions. Our calculations for systems of several nanoparticles indicate that linear arrays of colloids with Saturn ring defects, which for some physical conditions are not stable in a bulk system, can be stabilized inside the nanochannels. These results suggest that nanochannels and NLCs could be used to direct the assembly of nanoparticles into ordered arrays with unusual morphologies.     

Si-O bonded interactions in silicate crystals and molecules: a comparison

Bond critical point, local kinetic energy density, G(rc), and local potential energy density, V(rc), properties of the electron density distributions, rho(r), calculated for silicates such as quartz and gas-phase molecules such as disiloxane are similar, indicating that the forces that govern the Si-O bonded interactions in silica are short-ranged and molecular-like. Using the G(rc)/rho(rc) ratio as a measure of bond character, the ratio increases as the Si-O bond length, the local electronic energy density, H(rc)= G(rc) + V(rc), and the coordination number of the Si atom decrease and as the accumulation of the electron density at the bond critical point, rho(rc), and the Laplacian, inverted Delta2 rho(rc), increase. The G(rc)/rho(rc) and H(rc)/rho(rc) ratios categorize the bonded interaction as observed for other second row atom M-O bonds into discrete categories with the covalent character of each of the M-O bonds increasing with the H(rc)/rho(rc) ratio. The character of the bond is examined in terms of the large net atomic charges conferred on the Si atoms comprising disiloxane, stishovite, quartz, and forsterite and the domains of localized electron density along the Si-O bond vectors and on the reflex side of the Si-O-Si angle together with the close similarity of the Si-O bonded interactions observed for a variety of hydroxyacid silicate molecules and a large number of silicate crystals. The bond critical point and local energy density properties of the electron density distribution indicate that the bond is an intermediate interaction between Al-O and P-O bonded interactions rather than being a closed-shell or a shared interaction.     

Phase diagrams and morphology of polymer-dispersed liquid crystals: An analysis

Thermal and morphological studies of polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) for various compositions of liquid crystalline material 4-undecyloxybenzoic acid (UDBA) in two polymer matrices, polyvinylidenefluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene P(VdF–HFP) or polyethylene oxide (PEO), have been carried out using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarising optical microscopy (POM). Phase diagrams for different series of PDLCs have been analysed using the Flory–Huggins theory of isotropic mixing and the Maier–Saupe–McMillan theory, to include the anisotropic contributions. Mesogenic transitions of UDBA are observed to be greatly influenced when dispersed in these polymers. The morphologies and miscibility studies of these PDLCs suggest that UDBA is highly miscible in PEO, only partially miscible in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), but almost immiscible in P(VdF–HFP).     

Dissolved urate salts out calcium oxalate in undiluted human urine in vitro: implications for calcium oxalate stone genesis

Hyperuricosuria has long been documented as a predisposing factor to calcium oxalate (CaOx) stone pathogenesis. However, its mechanism is still without sound scientific foundation. Previously, we showed that hyperuricosuria, simulated by the addition of dissolved sodium urate, promotes the crystallization of CaOx. In the present study, we demonstrate that the urate's effect on the crystallization is attributable to its salting out CaOx from solution. Furthermore, analysis of urines revealed that their metastable limit decreased with increases in the product of the prevailing concentrations of calcium and urate: this has implications for CaOx stone genesis. We also outline anti-salting out strategies for future research for the prevention and/or treatment of CaOx calculi.     

Solute-solvent interactions and chiral induction in liquid crystals

The induction of a cholesteric phase by doping an achiral nematic liquid crystal with an enantiopure solute is a phenomenon that, as in all general supramolecular phenomena of chiral amplification, depends in a subtle way on intermolecular interactions. The micrometric helical deformation of the phase director in the cholesteric phase is generated by the interplay of anisotropy and chirality of probe-medium interactions. In the case of a flexible chiral dopant, the solvent can influence the twisting power in two ways, difficult to disentangle: it is responsible for the solute orientational order, an essential ingredient for the emergence of phase chirality; but also it can affect the dopant conformational distribution and then the chirality of the structures present in the solution. In this work we have investigated methyl phenyl sulfoxide, a flexible, chiral molecule that, when dissolved in different nematics, can produce cholesteric phases of opposite handedness. This peculiar, intriguing sensitivity to the environment makes MPS a suitable probe for a thorough investigation of the effects of solute-solvent interactions on chiral induction in liquid crystals. NMR experiments in various nematic solvents have been performed in addition to twisting power measurements. From the analysis of partially averaged 1H-1H and 13C-1H dipolar couplings, the effects of solvent on solute conformation and orientational order are disentangled, and this information is combined with the modeling of the chirality of intermolecular interactions, within a molecular field theory. The integration of different techniques allows an unprecedented insight into the role of solvent in mediating the chirality transfer from molecule to phase.     

Phenylene-ethynylene macrocycles as model systems of interchromophoric interactions in pi-conjugated macromolecules

Unraveling the complex photophysics of macromolecular pi-conjugated systems requires both the development of suitable model systems to access a particular subset of a material's parameter space and the choice of matching spectroscopic techniques. We address the question of the strength of interchromophoric interactions in macromolecular systems by studying the fluorescence depolarization kinetics of a family of prototypical conjugated macrocycles. Shrinking the size of the molecular system decelerates fluorescence depolarization even though the radius of gyration decreases. Although the smaller macrocycles show faster rotational diffusion, the larger compounds exhibit an additional initial depolarization mechanism, attributed to intramolecular interchromophoric energy transfer. Comparison with fragments of the molecule illustrates that the larger macrocycles can be interpreted as bichromophoric systems, whereas the effectively parallel chromophoric elements of the smaller ring are indistinguishable in terms of polarization. The potential role of strong interchromophoric interaction is discussed. The results illustrate a subtle link between interchromophoric arrangement and ultrafast fluorescence depolarization, phenomena, which are often considered in the context of conjugated polymers: chromophoric alignment can potentially counteract the effect of polarization memory loss through energy transfer.     

Perturbation expansion of macromolecules with realistic pair interactions in three and four dimensions

We calculated the first-order perturbation expansion of the mean-square end-to-end distance of polymers in three and four space dimensions. The segments of the chain were assumed to interact via a pair potential with a short-range repulsive and an additional attractive part. For a purely repulsive potential, the well-known results of the δ-function-pseudopotential approach are recovered, whereas the inclusion of an attractive part leads to a non-vanishing contribution even for a vanishing binary cluster integral.     

Bistability in Fc-PTM crystals: the role of intermolecular electrostatic interactions

Fc-PTM is a valence tautomeric radical, where the ferrocene (Fc) group, a good electron donor, is linked by an ethylenic spacer to a perchlorotriphenylmethyl radical (PTM(*)), a good electron acceptor. In solution this compound exists mainly in the neutral Fc-PTM(*) form which can be photoexcited through an intramolecular electron transfer to the zwitterionic Fc(+*)-PTM(-) form. By contrast, in crystals of Fc-PTM at room temperature both the neutral and the zwitterionic forms coexist, pointing to a true bistability phenomenon. We rationalize these findings accounting for the role of intermolecular electrostatic interactions in Fc-PTM crystals. In fact the energy of the zwitterionic Fc(+*)-PTM(-) form is lowered in the crystal by attractive electrostatic intermolecular interactions and the cooperative nature of these interactions explains the observed coexistence of neutral Fc-PTM(*) and zwitterionic Fc(+*)-PTM(-) species. The temperature evolution of Mossbauer spectra of Fc-PTM is quantitatively reproduced adopting a bottom-up modeling strategy that combines a molecular model, derived from optical spectra of Fc-PTM in solution, with a model for intermolecular electrostatic interactions, supported by quantum-chemical calculations. Fc-PTM then offers the first experimental demonstration of bistability induced by electrostatic interactions in crystals of valence tautomeric donor-acceptor molecules.     

The structure and morphology of some mesophase polymers with flexible and stiff macromolecules

Comparative analysis of the temperature behavior and phase composition of linear flexible-chain polyfluoroalkoxyphosphazene and linear stiff-chain copolyester was carried out using X-ray diffraction at elevated temperatures and DSC measurements. The main idea of the study was to examine the nature of noncrystalline phases of such mesomorphic materials and to identify their structure and specific features of the morphology. The data obtained show that both flexible-and stiff-chain polymers despite the fact, whether their macromolecules contain or not contain mesogenic groups, are able to form columnar mesophases, whereas the formation of typically LC nematic and smectic states is the inherent structural feature only of stiff-chain polymeric systems, which exhibit peculiar aperiodic layer structures.     

Longitudinal growth of polymer crystals from flowing solutions V.: Structure and morphology of fibrillar polyethylene crystals

Summary Longitudinal fibrillar polyethylene crystals grown from xylene solutions subjected to simple shear flow have been investigated by various X-ray diffraction and electron microscopic techniques. The macrofibers with diameters in the micron range are composed of elementary fibrils of two basically different types. They may consist of either striated fibrils of the shishkebab type or smooth fibrils. The latter morphologies were obtained when the crystallization was carried out at temperatures above approximately 114 °C and the fibrillar crystals were allowed to grow longitudinally at the surface of the rotor of a Couette type instrument at a sufficiently high speed.The average spacings between the lamellae of the shish-kebabs as derived from the maximum in the small-angle X-ray scattering curve correspond remarkably well to the values obtained from transmission electron micrographs. The lateral dimensions of the elementary fibrils were acquired from equatorial line-broadening analysis of electron diffraction spots, wide-angle X-ray diffractograms, dark-field images and Guinier plots.They varied from 260 Å for fibrillar polyethylene crystals grown at 103 °C to approximately 150 Å for fibers formed at 118 °C The lateral crystallite size was also found to diminish at higher growth rates. Under the latter conditions the growth is accompanied by an extensive coil deformation as reflected by the presence of a considerable amount of the triclinic crystal modification.Dark-field electron microscopy indicates that the lengths of the crystallite blocks are of the order of 250–350 Å for fibers grown at 103 °C and 450 Å and longer for fibers formed at 118 °C. These values are in agreement with those obtained from the broadening of the (002) electron diffraction spots.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Bericht befaßt sich mit der Untersuchung von longitudinalen Polyäthylen-Faserkristallen, gewachsen aus Xylollösungen in einer Scherströmung, mit Hilfe verschiedener Röntgen-Diffraktions- und elektronenmikroskopischer Techniken. Die Makrofasern mit Durchmessern von einigen Mikron enthalten Elementar-Fibrillen von 2 grundsätzlilch verschiedenen Typen. Sie enthalten entweder gestreifte Fibrillen, die wie Schaschlik-Strukturen erscheinen, oder glatte Fibrillen.Die letztgenannten glatten Fibrillen wurden erhalten, wenn die Kristallisation bei Temperaturen oberhalb ungefahr 114 °C ausgeführt wurde und die Faserkristalle die Möglichkeit hatten, longitudinal an der Oberfläche des Rotors eines Apparates vom Couette-Typ zu wachsen, wobei der Rotor genügend rasch rotierte.Der mittlere Abstand zwischen den Lamellen der Schaschlik-Struktur, berechnet aus dem Maximum der Weitwinkel-Streuungskurve, stand in sehr guter Übereinstimmung mit den Werten der elektronenmikroskopischen Beobachtungen im Durchlicht. Die lateralen Dimensionen wurden aus der Verbreiterung der Reflexe erhalten, aus Weitwinkel-Aufnahmen Bowie aus Dunkelfeld- und Guinier-Aufnahmen.Die Abstände waren 260 Å für Polyäthylen-Faserkristalle, gewachsen bei einer Temperatur von 103 °C, und ungefähr 150 Å für Fasern entstanden bei 118 °C. Die laterale Kristallitgröße verringerte sich bei höheren Wachstumsgeschwindigkeiten. Unter den letztgenannten Verhältnissen ist das Wachstum verbunden mit größerer Knäuelverformung, was sich durch die Anwesenheit eines erheblichen Anteils von trikliner Kristallmodifikation bemerkbar macht.Dunkelfeld-elektronenmikroskopische Untersuchung hat gezeigt, daß die Länge der Kristallanteile von einer Größenordnung von 250–350 Å für Fasern, gewachsen bei 103 °C, and 450 Å und länger für Fasern entstanden bei 118 °C ist. Diese Werte stehen in guter Übereinstimmung mit den Werten, erhalten aus Verbreiterung der (002) Elektronen-Beugungsbilder.

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With 13 figures and 2 tables     

Effect of salt on the inter- and intramolecular hydrophobic interactions of macromolecules

The effect of salt on the structure of a low density lipoprotein (LDL) and on the reversible polymerization of bovine serum albumin (BSA) reduced with 2-mercaptoethanol was investigated by means of ultracentrifugal analysis. The chaotropic anion, e.g., SCN^– and I^–, at 5M completely disrupted the LDL structure and effectively dissociated BSA oligomers at lower concentrations. The parallelism between the anion order of these effects and that of the chaotropic effect suggested that the observed salt effects are primarily based on the disruption of hydrophobic interactions. The cation effectiveness disrupting the LDL structure followed the order of their promoting effect on the water structure, i.e., Li⁺>Na⁺>K⁺>Cs⁺. However, Cs⁺ was most effective in dissociating BSA oligomers, and this was attributed to the -complex formation with the aromatic amino acid side chains which otherwise contribute to the promotion of the intermolecular hydrophobic association.     

Anharmonic interactions and Fermi resonance in crystals CS2

The Raman spectrum of crystal CS₂ in the ω₁; 2ω₂ Fermi resonance region is discussed using the Green function formalism. Single site cubic anharmonicity strongly perturbs the manifold of ω₂+w₂ excitations. Conditions for th appearance of resonances and bound states are analyzed in terms of coupling strength and relative distance of unpertubed ω₁ and 2ω₂ levels. The experimental Raman spectrum is intepreted assuming that a resonance is present near the edge of the two-phonon continuum. Using known molecular parameters and a dipole-dipole intermolecular potential a good agreement is obtained between the calculated and observed Raman spectrum both as to the band positions and intensities.     

Polarization interactions in lattice dynamics of molecular crystals

The contribution to lattice dynamics of molecular crystals of polarization interactions due to dipoles induced by the molecular multipolar field has been evaluated by calculation of the lattice frequencies of crystalline ammonia. It has been found that this contribution is small but not negligible.