Conversion of brain cytosol profile from fetal to adult type during the perinatal period: Taurine-NAA exchange

Mammals face drastic environmental changes at birth. Appropriate adjustments of various systems must take place rapidly to accommodate this once in a life time event. The brain undergoes significant adjustments as well, the most obvious of which is in its need to meet the drastic increase in energy consumption at the neuronal cell membrane due to the explosive increase in neural activities after birth. Actual changes were found to be taken place in two systems, namely, acid base balance control and cytosolic energy transport. The adjustments are accomplished by converting cytosol microenvironment from a taurine rich fetal type environment to an N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) rich adult type environment during the post-natal period. High concentrations of taurine are necessary to provide effective buffering in the fetal brain, because the fetus cannot utilize the adult type of pCO₂ dependent acid–base balance control system, namely respiration driven pCO₂ changes. To accommodate the significantly higher demand of energy consumption at the membrane due to the increased neuronal activities, taurine has to be replaced by NAA, since the latter facilitates HEP transport from mitochondria to the membrane by passive diffusion.     

Heterogeneous polymerization with polyaspartate macromonomer having vinyl pendant groups. I. Synthesis of macromonomer and dispersion copolymerization of styrene

Sodium polyaspartate (PAspNa) derivatives with vinylbenzyl pendant groups (VBA‐PAspNa) were synthesized by reaction of poly(succinimide) (PSI) and vinylbenzylamine (VBA), and hydrolysis by sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. VBA‐PAspNa is a macromonomer with multiple vinyl groups in the side chain. Submicron sized polymeric particles were prepared by dispersion copolymerization of styrene with VBA‐PAspNa in a mixture of ethanol and water. Particle diameter decreased with increasing concentration and vinyl group fraction of VBA‐PAspNa. When compared with the particle diameter prepared using PAspNa or benzylamine‐modified PAspNa (BA‐PAspNa) as a dispersion stabilizer without vinyl groups, the particles prepared with VBA‐PAspNa were an order smaller than those prepared with PAspNa or BA‐PAspNa. The particles after refinement show an adequate negative ζ‐potential. From this result, we clarified the presence of PAspNa chains anchored onto the particle surface. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 762–770, 2009     

Role of dispersion stabilizer with hydroxy groups in preparation of monodisperse polylactide microspheres

Monodisperse poly(D ,L ‐lactide) (PDLLA) microspheres were prepared by dispersion polymerization of D ,L ‐lactide in xylene/heptane (1/2, v/v) with poly[(dodecyl methacrylate)‐co‐(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate)] (P(DMA‐co‐HEMA)) as a dispersion stabilizer. P(DMA‐co‐HEMA) contains hydroxy groups, which act as an initiation group for pseudoanionic dispersion polymerization. The best coefficient of variation (CV) values concerning particle diameter distribution and the particle diameter of obtained PDLLA microspheres were 3.7% and 5.3 μm, respectively. The particle diameter decreased with increasing concentration of P(DMA‐co‐HEMA) and HEMA maintained low CV (<10%) values. As a result, monodisperse PDLLA microspheres ranging from 1.3 to 5.3 μm were obtained. In addition, it was found that monodisperse PDLLA microspheres were obtained by sufficient capture of growing polymers and monomers in the particle growth stage. Therefore, the HEMA concentration in P(DMA‐co‐HEMA) strongly affecting the capturing capability is the most important factor. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 5230–5240, 2009     

Palladium-catalyzed Mizoroki-Heck reaction of allyl aryl ethers with aryl iodides using phosphine-free hydrazone ligands

Palladium-catalyzed Mizoroki-Heck reaction of allyl aryl ethers with aryl iodides gave aryl cinnamyl ethers using a catalytic amount of Pd(OAc)₂ in DMF at 50 °C with phosphine-free hydrazone as a ligand in good yields.     

Rapid determination of oxidized methionine residues in recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry with in‐source collision‐induced dissociation

The primary structure of the deteriorated recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor (rhbFGF) was determined by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI‐QTOF‐MS) with in‐source collision‐induced dissociation (CID). The rhbFGFs before and after treatment with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) were separated using an ACQUITY UPLC BEH300 C18 column (1.7 µm, 150 mm × 2.1 mm i.d.) with a gradient elution of a mixture of water/acetonitrile containing 0.1% formic acid. The separated proteins were then detected by a SYNAPT? High Definition Mass Spectrometry? system (SYNAPT‐MS). Two methionine (Met) residues in the rhbFGF structure were oxidized to Met‐sulfoxide (Met‐O) in 0.03% H₂O₂ at pH 2.0. As the result, three peaks, except for the peak of rhbFGF, appeared on the chromatogram. The three proteins corresponding to each peak were estimated as the denatured rhbFGFs including the Met‐O residue(s) with TOF‐MS. Furthermore, the position of the Met‐O residue(s) was efficiently identified by UPLC/ESI‐QTOF‐MS using the in‐source CID technique. The proposed method seems to be very useful for the structural elucidation of proteins, because the oxidized Met residues in rhbFGF were easily and rapidly identified. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.