Local stimulation of cultured myocyte cells by femtosecond laser-induced stress wave

When an 800 nm femtosecond laser is tightly focused into cell culture medium a stress wave is generated at the laser focal point. Since the stress wave localizes in a few tens of μm, it is possible to locally stimulate single cells in vitro. In this work, several kinds of cultured mammalian cells, HeLa, PC12, P19CL6, and C2C12, were stimulated by the stress wave and the cell growth after the stress loading with the laser irradiation was investigated. In comparison with the control conditions, cell growth after the laser irradiation was enhanced for the cells of C2C12 and P19CL6, which can differentiate into myocytes, and suppressed for PC12 and HeLa cell lines. These results suggest a possibility of cell growth enhancement due to myogenic cells response to the femtosecond laser-induced stress.     

Dehydrative Allylation between Aldehydes and Allylic Alcohols through Synergistic N-Heterocyclic Carbene/Palladium Catalysis

Dehydrative allylation between widely available aldehydes and allylic alcohols to afford β,γ-unsaturated ketones was enabled by a synergistic merger of a thiazolium N-heterocyclic carbene catalyst and a palladium-bisphosphine catalyst.     

Molecular Recognition of Medium-size Lactones by Enclathration of Cholic Acid

Abstract

Molecular recognitions of medium size lactones by enclathration of cholic acid (CA) are described. Size and location of the substituents on the lactone rings play an important role for enclathration. Lactones within the limited steric dimensions are included in CA, and larger or smaller ones are not included to give guest-free crystals of CA. Moreover, CA partially separates one enantiomer from racemic lactones by recystallization. X-ray crystallographic studies reveal that all included lactones form the β-trans type bilayer structure having a pentagonal void channel with a side pocket. The cross-sections illustrate that the lactone rings are incorporated in the center of the channel and that the substituents of the guests are fixed in the side pockets. The asymmetric channel enables CA to discriminate size and chirality of medium size lactones.     

Adsorption characteristics of monomeric/gemini surfactant mixtures at the silica/aqueous solution interface

The adsorption of the monomeric/gemini surfactant mixtures at the silica/aqueous solution interface has been characterized on the basis of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) data. The gemini surfactant employed in this study was cationic 1,2-bis(dodecyldimethylammonio)ethane dibromide (12-2-12). This surfactant was mixed with monomeric surfactants (dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB), and octaoxyethylenedodecyl ether (C(12)EO(8))) in the presence of an added electrolyte (NaBr). The key finding in our current study is that the addition of the gemini surfactant (12-2-12) makes significant impact on the adsorption properties even when the mole fraction of 12-2-12 is quite low in the surfactant mixtures. This is suggested by the experimental results that (i) the QCM-D adsorption isotherms measured for the monomeric/gemini surfactant mixtures shift to the region of lower surfactant concentrations compared with the monomeric single systems; (ii) the adsorbed layer morphology largely depends on the mole fraction of 12-2-12 in the surfactant mixtures, and the increased 12-2-12 mole fraction results in the less curved surface aggregates; and (iii) the addition of 12-2-12 yields a relatively rigid adsorbed layer when compared with the layer formed by the monomeric single systems. These adsorption properties result from the fact that the more favorable interaction of 12-2-12 with the silica surface sites drives the overall surfactant adsorption in these mixtures, which is particularly obvious in the region of low surfactant concentrations and at the 12-2-12 low mole fractions. We believe that this knowledge should be important when considering the formulation of gemini surfactants into various chemical products.     

Studies toward an ideal fluorescence method to measure palladium in functionalized organic molecules: effects of sodium borohydride, temperature, phosphine ligand, and phosphate ions on kinetics

Residual metals in fine chemicals are currently detected by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, which requires expensive instrumentation and does not have high-throughput capabilities. Although fluorescent probes can be amenable to high-throughput analyses of metals, the utility of such analyses is limited due to the lack of generality. Herein, we report a significant improvement (≈19-fold) to our previously reported catalysis-based fluorescent probe for palladium. Specifically, we found that slightly elevated temperature dramatically improved the generality of the method and that the deallylation reaction of the nonfluorescent compound 1 was accelerated by phosphate ions in aqueous media. This method was capable of detecting 0.2 ppb palladium. We demonstrated reasonably accurate palladium detection in various active pharmaceutical ingredients and highly functionalized organic compounds.     

Highly selective recognition of adenine nucleobases by synthetic hosts with a linked five-six-five-membered triheteroaromatic structure and the application to potentiometric sensing of the adenine nucleotide

A new structure for an adenine-selective host molecule, featuring the pertinent link of five-six-five-membered heteroaromatic rings and two carbamoyl NH sites, was developed. This structure provides a correctly oriented array of complementary hydrogen bonding sites for the adenine nucleobase, which exploits both Watson-Crick and Hoogsteen-type interactions. The complexation with adenine nucleobases by multiple hydrogen bonding was supported by (1)H NMR spectroscopy. This type of host displayed high selectivity in complexation, with an accompanying fluorescent response to lipophilized adenosine in CHCl(3). Furthermore, a remarkably selective potentiometric response was attained for adenosine 5'-monophosphate over 5'-GMP, 5'-CMP, and 5'-UMP by using an ion-selective electrode with a PVC-supported solvent polymeric membrane. This indicates recognition of water-soluble nucleotide guests through the membrane-water interface. These findings are expected to form a reliable basis for the development of artificial sensing systems for mononucleotides in biological systems.     

Construction of superhydrophobic surfaces by fibrous aggregation of perfluoroalkyl chain-containing organogelators

Superhydrophobic surfaces, characterized by water contact angles greater than 150 degrees, can be produced by means of intermediate organogels, which were formed by perfluoroalkyl chain-containing organogelators with volatile organic solvents.