Layer by layer buildup of polysaccharide films: physical chemistry and cellular adhesion aspects

The formation ofpolysaccharide films based on the alternate deposition of chitosan (CHI) and hyaluronan (HA) was investigated by several techniques. The multilayer buildup takes place in two stages: during the first stage, the surface is covered by isolated islets that grow and coalesce as the construction goes on. After several deposition steps, a continuous film is formed and the second stage of the buildup process takes place. The whole process is characterized by an exponential increase of the mass and thickness of the film with the number of deposition steps. This exponential growth mechanism is related to the ability of the polycation to diffuse "in" and "out" of the whole film at each deposition step. Using confocal laser microscopy and fluorescently labeled CHI, we show that such a diffusion behavior, already observed with poly(L-lysine) as a polycation, is also found with CHI, a polycation presenting a large persistence length. We also analyze the effect of the molecular weight (MW) of the diffusing polyelectrolyte (CHI) on the buildup process and observe a faster growth for low MW chitosan. The influence of the salt concentration during buildup is also investigated. Whereas the CHI/HA films grow rapidly at high salt concentration (0.15 M NaCl) with the formation of a uniform film after only a few deposition steps, it is very difficult to build the film at 10(-4) M NaCl. In this latter case, the deposited mass increases linearly with the number of deposition steps and the first deposition stage, where the surface is covered by islets, lasts at least up to 50 bilayer deposition steps. However, even at these low salt concentrations and in the islet configuration, CHI chains seem to diffuse in and out of the CHI/HA complexes. The linear mass increase of the film with the number of deposition steps despite the CHI diffusion is explained by a partial redissolution of the CHI/HA complexes forming the film during different steps of the buildup process. Finally, the uniform films built at high salt concentrations were also found to be chondrocyte resistant and, more interestingly, bacterial resistant. Therefore, the (CHI/HA) films may be used as an antimicrobial coating.     

Contributions to the theory of domination,independence and irredundance in graphs

A vertex x in a subset X of vertices of an undirected graph is redundant if its closed neighbourhood is contained in the union of closed neighbourhoods of vertices of X?{x}. In the context of a communications network, this means that any vertex which may receive communications from X may also be informed from X?{x}. The lower and upper irredundance numbers ir(G) and IR(G) are respectively the minimum and maximum cardinalities taken over all maximal sets of vertices having no redundancies. The domination number γ(G) and upper domination number Γ(G) are respectively the minimum and maximum cardinalities taken over all minimal dominating sets of G. The independent domination number i(G) and the independence number β(G) are respectively the minimum and maximum cardinalities taken over all maximal independent sets of vertices of G.A variety of inequalities involving these quantities are established and sufficient conditions for the equality of the three upper parameters are given. In particular a conjecture of Hoyler and Cockayne [9], namely $\text{i+β?2p + 2δ - 2}\text{2pδ}$, is proved.     

Study of molecular line parameters down to very low temperature

The impact of precise spectroscopic measurements on the P(9) multiplet in the ν₃ band of ¹²CH₄, obtained using a newly developed cold Herriott cell coupled with a tunable diode laser spectrometer, is examined in the context of remote sensing of methane in the atmosphere. More specifically, the influence of the air-broadening temperature dependence, of line narrowing and of line-mixing effects is assessed when fitting high resolution atmospheric spectra recorded from a balloon in the solar occultation mode. This is achieved by considering residuals and retrieved methane volume mixing ratio profiles. By combining data from previous studies together with new measurements, the expression for the temperature dependence of the broadening coefficient has been revisited. It is shown that a correcting factor applied to the usual law gives better results, when considering all the available measurements from room temperature down to about 10–20 K, as compared to the usual expression of the width versus temperature. These results clearly demonstrate that collision broadening is more sensitive to long-range attractive forces when the temperature is decreased. PACS 33.70.Jg; 34.20.-b     

Polychloroformiate de vinyle: Support inerte de principes actifs,fixation et hydrolyse in vitro de sympathomimétiques

The chemical modification of poly(vinyl chloroformate) with sympathomimetics (phenyl ethylamine, ephedrine, p-hydroxyephedrine and p-hydroxymorephedrine) has been investigated. We have found convenient conditions to obtain soluble modified polymers with nearly quantitative substitution. The use of labelled compounds has shown that the rate and the yield of fixation on the polymer are independent of the nature of the amine. Kinetics in vitro of cleavage has shown that the rates of hydrolysis in stomacal, intestinal and enzymatic media are very low and similar; the observed variations seem to result from differences in solubility of the various modified polymers.     

In-Vivo Soft Tissues Mechanical Characterization: Volume-Based Aspiration Method Validated on Silicones

Experimental Mechanics - Simulating the deformations of soft tissues has gained importance in recent years due to the development of 3D patient-specific biomechanical models in the context of...     

A class of small molecules that inhibit TNFalpha-induced survival and death pathways via prevention of interactions between TNFalphaRI, TRADD, and RIP1

Small-molecule library screening to find compounds that inhibit TNFalpha-induced, but not interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta)-induced, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) expression in lung epithelial cells identified a class of triazoloquinoxalines. These compounds not only inhibited the TNFalpha-induced nuclear factor kappaB (NFkappaB) survival pathway but also blocked death-pathway activation. Such dual activity makes them unique against other known NFkappaB-pathway inhibitors that inhibit only a subset of TNFalpha signals leading to increased TNFalpha-induced cytotoxicity. Interestingly, these compounds inhibited association of TNFalpha receptor (TNFalphaR) I with TNFalphaR-associated death domain protein (TRADD) and receptor interacting protein 1 (RIP1), the initial intracellular signaling event following TNFalpha stimulation. Further study showed that they blocked ligand-dependent internalization of the TNFalpha-TNFalphaR complex, thereby inhibiting most of the TNFalpha-induced cellular responses. Thus, compounds with a triazoloquinoxaline scaffold could be a valuable tool to investigate small molecule-based anti-TNFalpha therapies.     

On the Pentomino Exclusion Problem

In this paper we are interested in the Pentomino Exclusion Problem due to Golomb: Find the minimum number of unit squares to be placed on a k\times n chessboard so as to exclude all pentominoes . Using an appropriate definition of density of a tiling, we obtain the asymptotic value of this number, and we establish this number for the k\times n chessboard when k≤ 4 . Received June 7, 1999, and in revised form March 1, 2001. Online publication August 9, 2001.     

Arbres avec un nombre maximum de sommets pendants

This article is an attempt to study the following problem: Given a connected graph G, what is the maximum number of vertices of degree 1 of a spanning tree of G? For cubic graphs with n vertices, we prove that this number is bounded by $\text{1}\text{4}\text{n}$ and $\text{1}\text{2}\text{(n ? 2)}$.