Creatine kinase B deficient neurons exhibit an increased fraction of motile mitochondria

Background  

Neurons require an elaborate system of intracellular transport to distribute cargo throughout axonal and dendritic projections. Active anterograde and retrograde transport of mitochondria serves in local energy distribution, but at the same time also requires input of ATP. Here we studied whether brain-type creatine kinase (CK-B), a key enzyme for high-energy phosphoryl transfer between ATP and CrP in brain, has an intermediary role in the reciprocal coordination between mitochondrial motility and energy distribution. Therefore, we analysed the impact of brain-type creatine kinase (CK-B) deficiency on transport activity and velocity of mitochondria in primary murine neurons and made a comparison to the fate of amyloid precursor protein (APP) cargo in these cells, using live cell imaging.     

Frohlich interaction and associated resonance enhancement in nanostructured copper oxide films

Nanostructured copper oxide films were prepared by the oxidation of copper films by thermal evaporation of metallic copper. Analysis of HRTEM images showed that the films of Cu₂O and CuO phases had. The band gap of the nanostructured sample of Cu₂O was suitable for resonance scattering by intraband Fröhlich interaction in this sample. Micro‐Raman studies revealed an intense resonance Raman peak corresponding to a forbidden mode of Cu₂O. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.