Background: Alpinia officinarum (A. officinarum) is known to exhibit a beneficial effect for anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-hyperlipidemic effects. However, no sufficient research data are available on the cardiovascular effect of A. officinarum. Thus, in this study, we investigate whether A. officinarum extract has direct effects on vascular reactivity. Methods: To examine whether A. officinarum extract affects vascular functionality, we measured isometric tension in rat mesenteric resistance arteries using a wire myograph. After arteries were pre-contracted with high-K+ (70 mM), phenylephrine (5 µM), or U46619 (1 µM), A. officinarum extract was treated. Results: A. officinarum extract induced vasodilation in a concentration-dependent manner, and this effect was endothelium independent. To further investigate the mechanism, we incubated arteries in a Ca2+-free and high-K+ solution, followed by the cumulative addition of CaCl2 (0.01–2.5 mM) with or without A. officinarum extract (30 µg/mL). Pre-treatment of A. officinarum extract reduced the contractile responses induced by cumulative administration of Ca2+, which suggests that extracellular Ca2+ influx was inhibited by the treatment of A. officinarum extract. These results were associated with a reduction in phosphorylated MLC20 in VSMCs treated with A. officinarum extract. Furthermore, eucalyptol, an active compound of A. officinarum extract, had a similar effect as A. officinarum extract, which causes vasodilation in mesenteric resistance arteries. Conclusion: A. officinarum extract and its active compound eucalyptol induce concentration-dependent vasodilation in mesenteric resistance arteries. These results suggest that administration of A. officinarum extract could exert beneficial effects to treat high blood pressure. 相似文献
Detergents are extensively used for membrane protein manipulation. Membrane proteins solubilized in conventional detergents are prone to denaturation and aggregation, rendering downstream characterization of these bio-macromolecules difficult. Although many amphiphiles have been developed to overcome the limited efficacy of conventional detergents for protein stabilization, only a handful of novel detergents have so far proved useful for membrane protein structural studies. Here, we introduce 1,3-acetonedicarboxylate-derived amphiphiles (ACAs) containing three glucose units and two alkyl chains as head and tail groups, respectively. The ACAs incorporate two different patterns of alkyl chain attachment to the core detergent unit, generating two sets of amphiphiles: ACA-As (asymmetrically alkylated) and ACA-Ss (symmetrically alkylated). The difference in the attachment pattern of the detergent alkyl chains resulted in minor variation in detergent properties such as micelle size, critical micelle concentration, and detergent behaviors toward membrane protein extraction and stabilization. In contrast, the impact of the detergent alkyl chain length on protein stability was marked. The two C11 variants (ACA-AC11 and ACA-SC11) were most effective at stabilizing the tested membrane proteins. The current study not only introduces new glucosides as tools for membrane protein study, but also provides detergent structure–property relationships important for future design of novel amphiphiles.Newly developed amphiphiles, designated ACAs, are not only efficient at extracting G protein-coupled receptors from the membranes, but also conferred enhanced stability to the receptors compared to the gold standards (DDM and LMNG).相似文献
We propose a simple way, called the arrival time approach, of finding the queue length distributions for M/G/1-type queues with generalized server vacations. The proposed approach serves as a useful alternative to understanding complicated queueing processes such as priority queues with server vacations and MAP/G/1 queues with server vacations. 相似文献
Amyloid proteins that undergo self-assembly to form insoluble fibrillar aggregates have attracted much attention due to their role in biological and pathological significance in amyloidosis. This study aims to understand the amyloid aggregation dynamics of insulin (INS) in H2O using two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) spectroscopy. Conventional IR studies have been performed in D2O to avoid spectral congestion despite distinct H–D isotope effects. We observed a slowdown of the INS fibrillation process in D2O compared to that in H2O. The 2D-IR results reveal that different quaternary structures of INS at the onset of the nucleation phase caused the distinct fibrillation pathways of INS in H2O and D2O. A few different biophysical analysis, including solution-phase small-angle X-ray scattering combined with molecular dynamics simulations and other spectroscopic techniques, support our 2D-IR investigation results, providing insight into mechanistic details of distinct structural transition dynamics of INS in water. We found the delayed structural transition in D2O is due to the kinetic isotope effect at an early stage of fibrillation of INS in D2O, i.e., enhanced dimer formation of INS in D2O. Our 2D-IR and biophysical analysis provide insight into mechanistic details of structural transition dynamics of INS in water. This study demonstrates an innovative 2D-IR approach for studying protein dynamics in H2O, which will open the way for observing protein dynamics under biological conditions without IR spectroscopic interference by water vibrations.This study aims to understand the structural transition dynamics of INS during amyloid aggregation in H2O using 2D-IR spectroscopy. The results show that distinct fibrillations in D2O and H2O originated from different quaternary structures of INS.相似文献
In this paper we exclude the scenario of the apparition of finite time singularity in the form of self-similar singularities
in the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations, assuming suitable integrability conditions on the vorticity and the magnetic field.
We also consider the more refined possibility of asymptotically self-similar singularities, where the local classical solution
converges to the self-similar profile as we approach the possible time of singularity. The scenario of asymptotically self-similar
singularity is also excluded under suitable conditions on the profile. In the two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics the magnetic
field evolution equations reduce to a divergence free transport equation for a scalar stream function. This helps us to improve
the above nonexistence theorems on the self-similar singularities, in the sense that we require merely weaker integrability
conditions on the profile in order to prove the results. 相似文献
Summary: We report on a new route to synthesize polymeric carbon nanotube‐polyurethane (PU) nanocomposites. Multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) functionalized by chemical modification were incorporated as a crosslinker in prepolymer, which was prepared from a reaction of 4,4′‐methylene bis(phenylisocyanate) and poly(ε‐caprolactone)diol. The reinforcing effect of carbon nanotubes in crosslinked MWNT‐PU nanocomposites was more pronounced as compared to that in conventional MWNT‐PU nanocomposites. The optimum content of chemically modified MWNTs for crosslinking with polyurethane was determined to be approximately 4 wt.‐% in our samples, based on observation of a NCO peak in FT‐IR spectroscopy. MWNT‐crosslinked polyurethane containing 4 wt.‐% modified MWNTs showed the highest modulus and tensile strength among the composites and pure PU. The presence of functionalized MWNTs in the polymeric nanocomposite yielded enhancement in the thermal stability due to crosslinking of the MWNTs with PU.
Possible configuration for MWNT‐PU nanocomposite molecules and FT‐IR spectra of samples obtained during reaction of prepolymer with functionalized MWNTs (second step). 相似文献
We measured optical absorption and time resolved photoluminescence decay properties of the PPV nanotubes and nanowires which were prepared by CVD polymerization using templates. When compared with bulk PPV films, their nano objects showed different optical properties, long photoluminescence decay time and higher photoluminescence efficiencies. 相似文献
Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - Gracilaria verrucosa, red seaweed, is a promising biomass for bioethanol production due to its high carbohydrate content. The optimal hyper thermal (HT)... 相似文献
The presence of an abnormal amount of Cu2+ in the human body causes various health issues. In the current study, we synthesized a new naphthoquinolinedione-based probe (probe 1) to monitor Cu2+ in different water systems, such as tap water, lakes, and drain water. Two triazole units were introduced into the probe via a click reaction to increase the binding affinity to a metal ion. In day-light, probe 1 dissolved in a mixed solvent system (HEPES: EtOH = 1:4) showed a vivid color change from light greenish-yellow to pink in the presence of only Cu2+ among various metal ions. In addition, the green luminescence and fluorescence emission of the probe were effectively bleached out immediately after Cu2+ addition. The limit of detection (LOD) of the probe was 0.5 µM when a ratio-metric method was used for metal ion detection. The fluorescence titration data of the probe with Cu2+ showed a calculated LOD of 41.5 pM. Hence, probe 1 possesses the following dual response toward Cu2+ detection: color change and fluorescence quenching. Probe 1 was also useful for detecting Cu2+ spiked in tap/lake water as well as the cytoplasm of live HeLa cells. The current system was investigated using ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy as well as density functional theory calculations (DFT). 相似文献