A Practical Approach for the In Vitro Safety and Efficacy Assessment of an Anti-Ageing Cosmetic Cream Enriched with Functional Compounds

(1) Background: Cosmeceuticals are topical products applied to human skin to prevent skin ageing and maintain a healthy skin appearance. Their effectiveness is closely linked to the compounds present in a final formulation. In this article, we propose a panel of in vitro tests to support the efficacy assessment of an anti-ageing cream enriched with functional compounds. (2) Methods: biocompatibility and the irritant effect were evaluated on reconstructed human epidermis (RHE) and corneal epithelium (HCE) 3D models. After a preliminary MTT assay, normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) and keratinocytes (HaCaT) were used to evaluate the extracellular matrix (ECM) protein synthesis, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) production. (3) Results: data collected showed good biocompatibility and demonstrated the absence of the irritant effect in both 3D models. Therefore, we demonstrated a statistical increase in collagen and elastin productions in NHDF cells. In HaCaT cells, we highlighted an anti-inflammatory effect through a reduction in IL-6 levels in inflammatory stimulated conditions. Moreover, the reduction of MMP-1 production after UV-B radiation was demonstrated, showing significant photo-protection. (4) Conclusion: a multiple in vitro assays approach is proposed for the valid and practical assessment of the anti-ageing protection, anti-inflammatory and biocompatible claims that can be assigned to a cosmetic product containing functional compounds.     

Numerical study of flow-induced vibrations of cylinders under the action of nonlinear energy sinks (NESs)

An isolated two-dimensional circular cylinder with two linear degrees of freedom, parallel and perpendicular to the free-stream direction, and owning a nonlinear energy sink (NES) is investigated by fluid–structure interaction (FSI) simulations to assess vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) at moderate Reynolds numbers. Subsequently, the wake-induced vibration (WIV) of a pair of identical cylinders under the action of two NES in a tandem arrangement and in a proximity–wake interference regime is explored using the same approach. The NES parameters (mass, nonlinear stiffness and damping) are investigated to determine their effects on the dynamic response of a single degree of freedom (in transverse flow direction) coupled system by a reduced-order model based on an experimentally validated van der Pol oscillator. The CFD model coupled with FSI method is also validated against VIV experimental data for an isolated cylinder in a uniform flow. The study is aimed to investigate the effect of the passive suppression NES device on VIV and WIV. The amplitude response, trajectories of cylinder motion and temporal evolutions of vortex shedding are obtained by conducting a series of numerical simulations. It is found that placing a tuned NES in the cylinders can provide good suppression effect; however, the effectiveness is function of the reduced velocity.     

Efficient removal of DNA from proteomic samples prior to two-dimensional map analysis

Several methods have been described in the literature for removal of DNA from protein samples prior to proteome analysis. They in general involve protein precipitation techniques. In other protocols, DNAse treatment is suggested prior to precipitation of proteins in excess acetone. All these methods have been evaluated and found to perform poorly in DNA removal, as illustrated by two-dimensional (2D) maps where horizontal and vertical sample streaking are still substantial. Such removal is in general necessary in tissue lysates and especially when analysing sub-cellular organelles, such as nuclei, where the high DNA levels strongly interfere with proteome analysis. Another method is proposed here for efficient DNA removal: two-phase extraction of DNA in chloroform/phenol/isoamyl alcohol, a procedure commonly used to rid DNA samples of protein contaminants, but rarely applied to protein preparation. This extraction is not very efficient if performed at slightly acidic to neutral pH values, but it performs extremely well at pH values of 9.5 or higher. The 2D maps thus obtained of Escherichia coli lysates as well as extracts from purified nuclei of eukaryotic cells are not only devoid of any vertical or horizontal streaking, but exhibit many more spots, especially in the alkaline region of the 2D gels, suggesting that these basic proteins were in general lost to proteome analysis due to co-precipitation in tenacious protein–DNA complexes. It is hypothesized that the alkaline pH values adopted in the two-phase extraction help to fully disrupt any residual DNA–protein complexes, due to strong Coulombic repulsion.     

Metal ion distribution between water and river sediment: speciation model and spectroscopic validation

Natural sediments show sequestering properties that can lead to a process of self-purification of aquatic environment from metal pollution. The study of the interaction between metal ions and sediment particles enhances what is known about the distribution and bioavailability of heavy metals in natural systems. Our contribution concerns the characterisation of the sequestering ability of a River Po sediment with regard to calcium(II), magnesium(II), cadmium(II), nickel(II) and copper(II), in fixed experimental conditions, through pH-metric and spectrometric measurements. A batch titration procedure was adopted and, in each solution, after equilibration, both pH and pM (M = Ca(II), Mg(II), Cd(II), Ni(II), Cu(II)) (via Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectroscopy, ICP-OES) values were measured. The experimental data were first processed with a specific software to evaluate the concentration and protonation constants of the sediment ligand site(s). The speciation model was then assessed, together with the values of complexation constants, for the different sediment/metal cation systems. In order to better characterise the copper(II)-sediment interaction and to obtain more information about the nature of ligand site(s) involved, EPR (Electronic Paramagnetic Resonance) measurements were also made on the dry sediment before and after reaction with copper(II) ions.     

On weak*-extensible Banach spaces

We study the stability properties of the class of weak*-extensible spaces introduced by Wang, Zhao, and Qiang showing, among other things, that weak*-extensibility is equivalent to having a weak*-sequentially continuous dual ball (in short, w*SC) for duals of separable spaces or twisted sums of w*SC spaces. This shows that weak*-extensibility is not a 3$3$-space property, solving a question posed by Wang, Zhao, and Qiang. We also introduce a restricted form of weak*-extensibility, called separable weak*-extensibility, and show that separably weak*-extensible Banach spaces have the Gelfand–Phillips property, although they are not necessarily w*SC spaces.     

A general stereoselective enamine mediated alkylation of α-substituted aldehydes

We herein present a general enamine-mediated α-alkylation of α-substituted aldehydes with carbenium ions for the stereoselective construction of quaternary stereogenic centers.     

Elasticity of flexible and semiflexible polymers with extensible bonds in the Gibbs and Helmholtz ensembles

Stretching experiments on single molecules of arbitrary length opened the way for studying the statistical mechanics of small systems. In many cases in which the thermodynamic limit is not satisfied, different macroscopic boundary conditions, corresponding to different statistical mechanics ensembles, yield different force-displacement curves. We formulate analytical expressions and develop Monte Carlo simulations to quantitatively evaluate the difference between the Helmholtz and the Gibbs ensembles for a wide range of polymer models of biological relevance. We consider generalizations of the freely jointed chain and of the worm-like chain models with extensible bonds. In all cases we show that the convergence to the thermodynamic limit upon increasing contour length is described by a suitable power law and a specific scaling exponent, characteristic of each model.     

A closure approximation for nematic liquid crystals based on the canonical distribution subspace theory

 A closure approximation for nematic polymers is presented. It approximates the fourth rank order tensor in terms of lower rank tensors, and is derived in the framework of the canonical distribution subspace theory. This approach requires a choice of the class of distributions: Here the set of Bingham distributions is chosen, as already introduced by Chaubal and Leal (1998). The closure is written in a generic frame of reference, and in an explicit form, so that it can be easily implemented. Such formulation also permits studying the closure approximation with continuation tools, which rather completely describe the system dynamics. The predictions can then be compared with those obtained with the exact model. The shear flow is considered as a test, since this flow condition appears to be the most demanding for closure approximations for nematic polymers. Received: 30 November 1999/Accepted: 30 November 1999