Open tubular capillary electrochromatography: A useful microreactor for collagen I glycation and interaction studies with low-density lipoprotein particles

Diabetes, a multifunctional disease and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized countries, strongly associates with the development and progression of atherosclerosis. One of the consequences of high level of glucose in the blood circulation is glycation of long-lived proteins, such as collagen I, the most abundant component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in the arterial wall. Glycation is a long-lasting process that involves the reaction between a carbonyl group of the sugar and an amino group of the protein, usually a lysine residue. This reaction generates an Amadori product that may evolve in advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs, as reactive molecules, can provoke cross-linking of collagen I fibrils. Since binding of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) to the ECM of the inner layer of the arterial wall, the intima, has been implicated to be involved in the onset of the development of an atherosclerotic plaque, collagen modifications, which can affect the affinity of native and oxidized LDL for collagen I, can promote the entrapment of LDLs in the intima and accelerate the progression of atherosclerosis.In this study, open tubular capillary electrochromatography is proposed as a new microreactor to study in situ glycation of collagen I. The kinetics of glycation was first investigated in a fused silica collagen I-coated capillary. Dimethyl sulphoxide, injected as an electroosmotic flow marker, gave information about the charge of coating. Native and oxidized LDL, and selected peptide fragments from apolipoprotein B-100, the protein covering LDL particles, were injected as marker compounds to clarify the interactions between LDLs and the glycated collagen I coating. The method proposed is simple and inexpensive, since only small amounts of collagen and LDL are required. Atomic force microscopy images complemented our studies, highlighting the difference between unmodified and glycated collagen I surfaces.     

Development and characterization of a magnetic bead-quantum dot nanoparticles based assay capable of Escherichia coli O157:H7 quantification

The development and characterization of a magnetic bead (MB)-quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles based assay capable of quantifying pathogenic bacteria is presented here. The MB-QD assay operates by having a capturing probe DNA selectively linked to the signaling probe DNA via the target genomic DNA (gDNA) during DNA hybridization. The signaling probe DNA is labeled with fluorescent QD₅₆₅ which serves as a reporter. The capturing probe DNA is conjugated simultaneously to a MB and another QD₆₅₅, which serve as a carrier and an internal standard, respectively. Successfully captured target gDNA is separated using a magnetic field and is quantified via a spectrofluorometer. The use of QDs (i.e., QD₅₆₅/QD₆₅₅) as both a fluorescence label and an internal standard increased the sensitivity of the assay. The passivation effect and the molar ratio between QD and DNA were optimized. The MB-QD assay demonstrated a detection limit of 890 zeptomolar (i.e., 10⁻²¹ mol L⁻¹) concentration for the linear single stranded DNA (ssDNA). It also demonstrated a detection limit of 87 gene copies for double stranded DNA (dsDNA) eaeA gene extracted from pure Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 culture. Its corresponding dynamic range, sensitivity, and selectivity were also presented. Finally, the bacterial gDNA of E. coli O157:H7 was used to highlight the MB-QD assay's ability to detect below the minimum infective dose (i.e., 100 organisms) of E. coli O157:H7 in water environment.     

Microcalorimetric study on expression of foreign genes in Bacillus thuringiensis

The thermogenic curves of the aerobic metabolism of the three strains of Bacillus thuringiensis B.t. A, B.t. B and B.t. C have been determined by using an LKB-2277 BioActivity Monitor. B.t. A was the host bacterium without foreign gene. B.t. B and B.t. C were constructed by transforming different foreign genes into the host B.t. A, respectively. B.t. B expressed erythromycin resistant gene, while B.t. C expressed both erythromycin resistant gene and tyrosinase gene. The heat flow rate of these strains is B.t. A> B.t. B >B.t. C. These results indicated that there is obvious interrelation between expression of foreign genes and heat flow rate of B.t. strains. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Production of recombinant bleaching enzymes from thermophilic microorganisms in fungal hosts

Cost-effective production of enzymes for industrial processes makes the appropriate selection of the host-vector expression system critical. We have developed two systems for the bulk production of bleaching enzymes from thermophiles. Kluyveromyces lactis has been developed as a secretion host employing expression vectors based on the 2μ-like plasmid pKD1 of Kluyveromyces drosophilarium. Our second system involves the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei. Fusion and nonfusion vectors have been constructed using the strong cellobiohydrolase 1 (cbh1) promoter. The KEX2 protease cleavage site and a 6 × HIS-tag have been incorporated to facilitate both cleavage and purification of the mature foreign proteins.     

EQCM技术对电子传递促进机制的研究

本文报道了腺嘌呤存在时对超氧化物歧化酶在金丝电极上电化学行为的影响。并从电化学石英晶体微天平技术的测量结果,初步讨论了腺嘌呤对促进超氧化物歧化酶电子传递过程的作用机制。     

Cloning of Promoter of Chinese Bean GRP 1.8 Gene and Characterization of Its Function in Transgenic Tobacco Plants

IntroductionVascular cells that are determined to becometracheary elements undergo a very distinct celldifferentiation.In contrast to many other types ofplant cells that can dedifferentiate and evenultimately form a new plant,cells determined tobecome tracheary elements are programmed to die.Glycine- rich proteins belong to a class ofstructural cell wall proteinsthatcontain about60 %glycine on the molar basis. Glycine- rich proteinsare localized in cell walls of bean[1] .Glycine- richprotein1…     

Nitrido-Sodalithe. II. Synthese,Struktur und Eigenschaften von M(6+(y/2)–x)H2x[P12N24]Zy mit M = Fe,Co, Ni,Mn; Z = Cl,Br, I; 0 ≤ x ≤ 4; y ≤ 2

Nitrido-Sodalites. II. Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Properties of M_{(6+(y/2)–x)}H_2x[P₁₂N₂₄]Z_y with M = Fe, Co, Ni, Mn; Z = Cl, Br, I; 0 ≤ x ≤ 4; y ≤ 2 The nitrido sodalites M_{(6+(y/2)–x)}H_2x[P₁₂N₂₄]Z_y with M = Fe, Co, Ni, Mn; Z = Cl, Br, I; 0 ≤ x ≤ 4; y ≤ 2 are obtained by the reaction of HPN₂ or [PN(NH₂)₂]₃ with the metal halogenide MZ₂ (T = 700°C). The compounds are isotypic to Zn_(7–x)H_2x[P₁₂N₂₄]Cl₂. An increase of the ionic radii of the cations or anions results in an expansion of the lattice which is caused by an increase of the P? N? P angle. The influence of the cation is more dominant than that of the anion. By reacting [PN(NH₂)₂]₃ with metal halogenide (MZ₂) hydrogen free, X-ray amorphous products are obtained. The formation of the chloride-containing P? N-sodalite in this reaction begins at temperatures below 450°C.     

A rapid and simple method for the isolation of mutant variants regulating tissue-specific expression of the tni gene through drug selection

TnINEO fusion gene was constructed by fusing 3.4-kbp of quailTnI genomic DNA sequences spanning the promoter to exon 5 and aneo gene in frame. A myoblast cell line was established after transfection of pTnINEO. Since this cell line was passaged several times, a high frequency of neomycin (G418) sensitivity conversion was detected. Two drug-resistant variants were analyzed through genomic Southern blot and S1 nuclease protection assay. One variant has a mutation(s) in the regulatory element that activated the dormantTnI promoter-enhancer in myoblast, and the other has shown the genomic rearrangement. This result presented the possibility of isolating factor(s) that activate the muscle-specificTnI promoter simply by screening drug-resistant cells having appropriate mutations.