Vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cell culture on NaOH-treated poly(epsilon-caprolactone) films: a preliminary study for vascular graft development

Tissue engineering offers the potential of providing vessels that can be used to replace diseased and damaged native blood vessels. The endothelization of a synthetic vascular graft minimizes the failures associated with blood clotting and platelet activation. The aim of this study was to culture vascular-derived endothelial and smooth muscle cells on both untreated and NaOH-treated poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) films, a biocompatible and bio-resorbable polymer, and to evaluate the behavior of both cell types as a preliminary study for vascular graft development. PCL films were prepared by hot pressing; characterized by DSC, IR, SEM, and scanning force microscopy; and treated with NaOH to increase the surface hydrophilicity before cell culture. Endothelial and smooth muscle cells, isolated from pig cava vein, were characterized by immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy studies of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and alpha-smooth muscle actin. Good adhesion, growth, viability and morphology of both the endothelial and smooth muscle cells on PCL films were obtained, but a light stimulation of mitochondrial activity was observed during short culture times. NaOH treatment improved the adhesion and enhanced the proliferation in both cell types. This verified the possible use of this modified polymer as a support in the preparation of a synthetic vascular graft. [Diagram: see text] SEM micrograph of smooth muscle cells cultured on NaOH-treated PCL film. (Original magnification: 1000x).     

Effects of allylic and homoallylic substituents on the ring closing metathesis reaction used to synthesise simplified eleuthesides

During the course of our synthetic studies towards simplified eleuthesides, we have found that p-methoxyphenyl (PMP) protected allylic alcohols are compatible with the RCM reaction and can give better yields than the corresponding free allylic alcohols.     

Determination of lithium in human serum by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

An efficient method was developed for the determination of nanogram levels of lithium in biological samples. Serum samples from human subjects from southeastern Spain, treated or not treated with lithium carbonate, were analyzed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The samples were previously treated with a matrix modifier consisting of 0.1% Triton X-100 and injected through a graphite tube with L'vov platform. The Li concentrations measured by the procedure described for the 3 certified reference samples used were not significantly different (p > 0.05) than certified levels. Sample recoveries and variability during several days, with coefficients of variation from 4.00 to 14.8%, demonstrated the reliability and accuracy of this technique. Mean Li concentration determined in the serum of individuals with psychiatric disorders treated with Li (n = 117, 5.077 +/- 1.795 microg Li/mL) was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that in individuals not treated with Li (n = 24, 1.902 +/- 2.054 ng Li/mL).     

Density and Speed of Sound for Binary Mixtures of a Cyclic Ether with a Butanol Isomer

Densities and speeds of sound of the binary mixtures 1,3-dioxolane + 1-butanol, 1,3-dioxolane + 2-butanol, 1,4-dioxane + 1-butanol, and 1,4-dioxane + 2-butanol have been measured at 25 and 40°C. The excess molar volumes and excess isentropic compressibility coefficients were calculated from experimental data and fitted to a Redlich–Kister polynomial function. Results were analyzed in terms of molecular interactions and compared with literature data.     

Structure of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives established by high-perfomance liquid chromatography with photodiode-array detection

Summary The present paper describes the development of a method for the differentiation of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives by HPLC with photodiode-array detection. Furthermore spectral data of the compounds under investigation are given. Whereas p-coumaric acid derivatives are distinguishable from caffeic and ferulic acid derivatives by the positions of their spectrum maxima and their convexity interval value, it is not possible to distinguish between caffeic and ferulic acid derivatives because of overlapping spectrum maxima and convexity interval values.     

Lipase from a Brazilian StrainPenicillium citrinum Cultured in a Simple and Inexpensive Medium st]Heat-Denaturation, Kinetics, and pH Stability

This work is a study of lipase production by a Brazilian strain ofPenicillium citrinum using an inexpensive and simple medium without organic nitrogen sources and of some important industrial properties, including thermostability in relation to ionic strength. The maximal lipase activity (1585 U/L) was obtained whenPenicillium citrinum was cultured on 0.75% ammonium sulfate complemented with minerals salts instead of yeast extract. Although this activity was about 55% lower than that produced in medium with yeast extract (2850 U/L), the specific activity (7.8 U/mg proteins) was higher than that obtained with the yeast extract (4.9 U/mg proteins). The morphology of fungus changed totally, with yeast extract there are smooth, solid, and spherical pellets whereas on ammonium sulfate there are small “hairy” pellets uniformly suspended in the medium. The effect of ferrous (Fe⁺⁺) ions was carried out using medium MA with and without Fe⁺⁺ ions. Lipase production byPenicillium citrinum in medium MA requires Fe⁺⁺ ions, the absence of which caused a decreased of about 50% in the specific activity (3.5 U/mg proteins). The utilization of commercial, locally available oils as carbon sources, such as soybean oil (236 U/L) and corn oil (74 U/L) resulted in lower activity compared to olive oil, showing that lipase production byPenicillium citrinum is specifically induced by olive oil. Potassium concentration in the medium can effects the production of lipase (1 mM (1585 U/L), 10 mM (1290 U/L), and 30 mM (1238 U/L), 50 mM (195 U/L), and 100 mM (2 U/L). The crude culture filtered was susceptable to thermal deactivation. It was stable at pH 6.0, but was not stable at the optimum pH (8.0-8.5) at 50 mM. At the low ionic concentration (1-25 mM) this lipase was stable at low pH (3.5-4.0). The activation energy was 22.4 ±2.2 Kcal. mol 1.     

Preparation and Characterization of Compositions Based on PbO-MgO-Nb2O5 Using the Sol-Gel Method

Lead Magnesium Niobate, Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ (PMN), is an important relaxor ferroelectric material. A significant problem exists, however, in the preparation of this material: it is very difficult to prepare pure phase, without the presence of a pyrochlore impurity phase which degrades the dielectric properties. Depending on the processing conditions, the amount of pyrochlore phase varies.Considering the ternary diagram PbO-MgO-Nb₂O₅, different compositions have been prepared by a simple sol-gel method at room temperature using Pb(CH₃COO)₂, Mg(CH₃COO)₂, Nb(OC₂H₅)₅ as precursors. After the heat treatment, the samples obtained were analyzed by XRD and EPMA with the purpose of studying the compositions formed.From the analysis of these results, it seems to be that the appearance of pyrochlore can be related to the reactivity of the MgO and/or the presence of other phases of the binary system PbO-Nb₂O₅. An excess of Pb and Mg is necessary for compositions to be formed near the PMN. The control of the amount of these two elements is very important because an excess of MgO would lead to rich compositions in Mg as a secondary phase.     

Supramolecular helical mesomorphic polymers. Chiral induction through H-bonding

The work described here concerns a challenge of general interest in supramolecular chemistry: the achievement of chiral helical organizations with controlled structures. This work provides a strategy to obtain supramolecular polymers in which a chiral helical conformation has been induced by a noncovalent association, that is, through hydrogen bonding. Polycatenar 2,4,6-triarylamino-1,3,5-triazines, which organize into columnar mesophases and are susceptible to H-bonding interactions, were chosen as a starting point to build up the chiral supramolecular structure. The stacking of these mesogens has been forced to wind in a helical way by means of H-bond association with (R)-3-methyladipic acid, within the mesophase. The optically active columnar organization has been studied in depth by optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction, and circular dichroism. Formation of stable complexes between the triazine units and (R)-3-methyladipic acid has also been investigated by means of NMR diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) experiments in chloroform.     

Broad-band spectroscopy of a vanadyl porphyrin: a model electronuclear spin qudit

We explore how to encode more than a qubit in vanadyl porphyrin molecules hosting a S = 1/2 electronic spin coupled to a I = 7/2 nuclear spin. The spin Hamiltonian and its parameters, as well as the spin dynamics, have been determined via a combination of electron paramagnetic resonance, heat capacity, magnetization and on-chip magnetic spectroscopy experiments performed on single crystals. We find low temperature spin coherence times of micro-seconds and spin relaxation times longer than a second. For sufficiently strong magnetic fields (B > 0.1 T, corresponding to resonance frequencies of 9–10 GHz) these properties make vanadyl porphyrin molecules suitable qubit realizations. The presence of multiple equispaced nuclear spin levels then merely provides 8 alternatives to define the ‘1’ and ‘0’ basis states. For lower magnetic fields (B < 0.1 T), and lower frequencies (<2 GHz), we find spectroscopic signatures of a sizeable electronuclear entanglement. This effect generates a larger set of allowed transitions between different electronuclear spin states and removes their degeneracies. Under these conditions, we show that each molecule fulfills the conditions to act as a universal 4-qubit processor or, equivalently, as a d = 16 qudit. These findings widen the catalogue of chemically designed systems able to implement non-trivial quantum functionalities, such as quantum simulations and, especially, quantum error correction at the molecular level.

We show that a sizeable electronuclear entanglement of the S = 1/2 and I = 7/2 spins of a vanadyl porphyrin provides the conditions to act as a universal 4-qubit processor, and thus implement quantum error correction at the molecular level.     

A Method for Clustering and Screening of Long-dimensional Chemical Data Based on Fingerprints and Similarity Measurements

A method for the treatment of long-dimensional chemical data arrays is presented in this work with the aim of maximising classification models. The method is based on the construction of fingerprints and the subsequent generation of a similarity matrix. The similarity calculation has been modified through a scaling process to take into account different significance shown by the variables. The method was applied to spectral measurements of wines and several aspects were studied, namely: threshold considered in the construction of fingerprints and patterns, weighting factor used for scaling, normalisation method, etc. The application of both Principal Components Analysis and Soft-Independent Modelling of Class Analogies to the similarity matrices gave better classifications of the information than those obtained using original data.