Nuclear proteome analysis of undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem and germ cells

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and embryonic germ cells (EGCs) provide exciting models for understanding the underlying mechanisms that make a cell pluripotent. Indeed, such understanding would enable dedifferentiation and reprogrammation of any cell type from a patient needing a cell therapy treatment. Proteome analysis has emerged as an important technology for deciphering these biological processes and thereby ESC and EGC proteomes are increasingly studied. Nevertheless, their nuclear proteomes have only been poorly investigated up to now. In order to investigate signaling pathways potentially involved in pluripotency, proteomic analyses have been performed on mouse ESC and EGC nuclear proteins. Nuclei from ESCs and EGCs at undifferentiated stage were purified by subcellular fractionation. After 2‐D separation, a subtractive strategy (subtracting culture environment contaminating spots) was applied and a comparison of ESC, (8.5 day post coïtum (dpc))‐EGC and (11.5 dpc)‐EGC specific nuclear proteomes was performed. A total of 33 ESC, 53 (8.5 dpc)‐EGC, and 36 (11.5 dpc)‐EGC spots were identified by MALDI‐TOF‐MS and/or nano‐LC‐MS/MS. This approach led to the identification of two isoforms (with and without N‐terminal acetylation) of a known pluripotency marker, namely developmental pluripotency associated 5 (DPPA5), which has never been identified before in 2‐D gel‐MS studies of ESCs and EGCs. Furthermore, we demonstrated the efficiency of our subtracting strategy, in association with a nuclear subfractionation by the identification of a new protein (protein arginine N‐methyltransferase 7; PRMT7) behaving as proteins involved in pluripotency.     

Salicylaldoxime in manganese(III) carboxylate chemistry: Synthesis, structural characterization and physical studies of hexanuclear and polymeric complexes

The use of salicylaldehyde oxime (H₂salox) in manganese(III) carboxylate chemistry has yielded new members of the family of hexanuclear compounds presenting the [Mn₆(μ₃-O)₂(μ₂-OR)₂]¹²⁺ core, complexes [Mn^III₆(μ₃-O)₂(O₂CPh)₂(salox)₆(L₁)₂(L₂)₂] (L₁ = py, L₂ = H₂O (1); L₁ = Me₂CO, L₂ = H₂O (2); L₁ = L₂ = MeOH (3)). Addition of NaOMe to the acetonitrile reaction mixture, afforded the 1D complex [Mn^III₃Na(μ₃-O)(O₂CPh)₂(salox)₃(MeCN)]_n (4), whereas addition of NaClO₄ to the acetone reaction mixture afforded an analogous 1D complex [Mn^III₃Na(μ₃-O)(O₂CPh)₂(salox)₃(Me₂CO)]_n (5). The structures of 1–3 present the [Mn₆(μ₃-O)₂(μ₂-OR)₂]¹²⁺ core and can be described as two [Mn₃(μ₃-O)]⁷⁺ triangular subunits linked by two μ₂-oximato oxygen atoms of the salox²⁻ ligands, which show the less common μ₃-κ²O:κO′:κN coordination mode. The benzoato ligands are coordinated through the usual syn,syn-μ₂-κO:κO′ mode. The 1D polymeric structures of 4 and 5 consist of alternating [Mn₃(μ₃-O)]⁷⁺ subunits and Na⁺ atoms linked through two μ₃-κ²O:κO′:κN and one μ₄-κ²O:κ²O′:κN salox²⁻ ligands as well as one syn,anti-μ₂-κO:κO′ benzoato ligand. DC and AC magnetic susceptibility studies on 1 revealed the stabilization of an S = 4 ground state, and indications of single-molecule magnetism behavior, whereas the DC experimental data from polycrystalline sample of 5 are indicative of antiferromagnetic interactions within the [Mn₃] subunit. Solid state ¹H NMR data of 1 were used to probe the spin-lattice relaxation of the system.     

Description of the response of a fiber optic velocity sensor applied to capillary gas chromatography

This paper explores the response of a novel fiber optics sensor allowing real-time determination of the migration rate of vapor zones in capillary gas chromatography. The sensitivity is related to the gradient of the vapor zone distribution in the capillary and it is highest when vapor zones show steep variations in concentration. The expected linearity between the height of the velocity peaks and the response of a thermal conductivity detector is demonstrated experimentally. The sensor can be used to infer an approximate value of the analyte diffusion coefficient from the time response. Finally, the time evolution of the envelope of the optical signal is explained with experimental evidences.     

Electrospinning of a functional perfluorinated block copolymer as a powerful route for imparting superhydrophobicity and corrosion resistance to aluminum substrates

Superhydrophobic aluminum surfaces with excellent corrosion resistance were successfully prepared by electrospinning of a novel fluorinated diblock copolymer solution. Micro- and nanostructuration of the diblock copolymer coating was obtained by electrospinning which proved to be an easy and cheap electrospinning technology to fabricate superhydrophobic coating. The diblock copolymer is made of poly(heptadecafluorodecylacrylate-co-acrylic acid) (PFDA-co-AA) random copolymer as the first block and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as the second one. The fluorinated block promotes hydrophobicity to the surface by reducing the surface tension, while its carboxylic acid functions anchor the polymer film onto the aluminum surface after annealing at 130 °C. The PAN block of this copolymer insures the stability of the structuration of the surface during annealing, thanks to the infusible character of PAN. It is also demonstrated that the so-formed superhydrophobic coating shows good adhesion to aluminum surfaces, resulting in excellent corrosion resistance.     

Precise dipolar coupling constant distribution analysis in proton multiple-quantum NMR of elastomers

In this work we present an improved approach for the analysis of (1)H double-quantum nuclear magnetic resonance build-up data, mainly for the determination of residual dipolar coupling constants and distributions thereof in polymer gels and elastomers, yielding information on crosslink density and potential spatial inhomogeneities. We introduce a new generic build-up function, for use as component fitting function in linear superpositions, or as kernel function in fast Tikhonov regularization (ftikreg). As opposed to the previously used inverted Gaussian build-up function based on a second-moment approximation, this method yields faithful coupling constant distributions, as limitations on the fitting limit are now lifted. A robust method for the proper estimation of the error parameter used for the regularization is established, and the approach is demonstrated for different inhomogeneous elastomers with coupling constant distributions.     

Selectivity among two lectins: probing the effect of topology, multivalency and flexibility of "clicked" multivalent glycoclusters

The design of multivalent glycoconjugates has been developed over the past decades to obtain high-affinity ligands for lectin receptors. While multivalency frequently increases the affinity of a ligand for its lectin through the so-called "glycoside cluster effect", the binding profiles towards different lectins have been much less investigated. We have designed a series of multivalent galactosylated glycoconjugates and studied their binding properties towards two lectins, from plant and bacterial origins, to determine their potential selectivity. The synthesis was achieved through copper(I)-catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) under microwave activation between propargylated multivalent scaffolds and an azido-functionalised carbohydrate derivative. The interactions of two galactose-binding lectins from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA-IL) and Erythrina cristagalli (ECA) with the synthesized glycoclusters were studied by hemagglutination inhibition assays (HIA), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration microcalorimetry (ITC). The results obtained illustrate the influence of the scaffold's geometry on the affinity towards the lectin and also on the relative potency in comparison with a monovalent galactoside reference probe.     

Cocrystallization of adamantane‐1,3‐dicarboxylic acid and 4,4′‐bipyridine

The cocrystallization of adamantane‐1,3‐dicarboxylic acid (adc) and 4,4′‐bipyridine (4,4′‐bpy) yields a unique 1:1 cocrystal, C₁₂H₁₆O₄·C₁₀H₈N₂, in the C2/c space group, with half of each molecule in the asymmetric unit. The mid‐point of the central C—C bond of the 4,4′‐bpy molecule rests on a center of inversion, while the adc molecule straddles a twofold rotation axis that passes through two of the adamantyl C atoms. The constituents of this cocrystal are joined by hydrogen bonds, the stronger of which are O—H...N hydrogen bonds [O...N = 2.6801 (17) Å] and the weaker of which are C—H...O hydrogen bonds [C...O = 3.367 (2) Å]. Alternate adc and 4,4′‐bpy molecules engage in these hydrogen bonds to form zigzag chains. In turn, these chains are linked through π–π interactions along the c axis to generate two‐dimensional layers. These layers are neatly packed into a stable crystalline three‐dimensional form via weak C—H...O hydrogen bonds [C...O = 3.2744 (19) Å] and van der Waals attractions.     

Eu(Ⅲ)、Tb(Ⅲ)、Ho(Ⅲ)、Tm(Ⅲ)和Lu(Ⅲ)与N,N′-二(邻羟基亚甲基)乙二胺配合物的研究

Dutt曾合成稀土离子与N,N′-二(邻羟基亚甲基)乙二胺的稀土双希夫碱配合物。但未见报道Eu(Ⅲ),Tb(Ⅲ),Ho(Ⅲ),Tm(Ⅲ),Lu(Ⅲ)与双希夫碱N,N′-二(邻羟基亚甲基)乙二胺的配合物。本工作合成了这5种双希夫碱配合物。 所用稀土氧化物纯度大于99.9%(上海跃龙化工厂)。水杨醛(CP,用前经减压蒸馏提纯)。稀土硝酸盐Ln(NO_3)_3·xH_2_由稀土氧化物与硝酸反应制得。其余试剂均为分析纯。 仪器为Perkin-Elmer 240-C元素分析仪;Nicolet-5DX型红外光谱仪,KBr压片;岛津UV-     

Cleavage of the C---Se bond of cyclic selenoacetals derived from 4-t-butyl cyclohexanone with butyllithiums and tin and silyl hydrides

Selenoacetals derived from 1,3-propanediselenol and 1,2-ethanediselenol are much less prone to be cleaved by butyllithiums than their open chain analogues. The stereochemistry of the products resulting from these reactions as well as from the cleavage of the C---Se bond under radical conditions is disclosed.     

(Vapor + liquid) equilibrium data for (carbon dioxide + 1,1-difluoroethane) system at temperatures from (258 to 343) K and pressures up to about 8 MPa

Accurate thermo-physical data are of utmost interest for the development of new efficient refrigeration systems. Carbon dioxide (R744) and 1,1-difluoroethane (R152a) are addressed here. Isothermal (vapor + liquid) equilibrium data are reported herein for (R744 + R152a) binary system in the (258–343) K temperature range and in the (0.14 to 7.65) MPa pressure range. A reliable “static-analytic” method taking advantage of two online ROLSI? micro capillary samplers is used for all thermodynamic measurements. The data are correlated using our in-house ThermoSoft thermodynamic model using the Peng–Robinson equation of state, the Mathias–Copeman alpha function, the Wong–Sandler mixing rules, and the NRTL model.