In Vivo Biological Behavior of Polymer Scaffolds of Natural Origin in the Bone Repair Process

Autologous bone grafts, used mainly in extensive bone loss, are considered the gold standard treatment in regenerative medicine, but still have limitations mainly in relation to the amount of bone available, donor area, morbidity and creation of additional surgical area. This fact encourages tissue engineering in relation to the need to develop new biomaterials, from sources other than the individual himself. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of an elastin and collagen matrix on the bone repair process in critical size defects in rat calvaria. The animals (Wistar rats, n = 30) were submitted to a surgical procedure to create the bone defect and were divided into three groups: Control Group (CG, n = 10), defects filled with blood clot; E24/37 Group (E24/37, n = 10), defects filled with bovine elastin matrix hydrolyzed for 24 h at 37 °C and C24/25 Group (C24/25, n = 10), defects filled with porcine collagen matrix hydrolyzed for 24 h at 25 °C. Macroscopic and radiographic analyses demonstrated the absence of inflammatory signs and infection. Microtomographical 2D and 3D images showed centripetal bone growth and restricted margins of the bone defect. Histologically, the images confirmed the pattern of bone deposition at the margins of the remaining bone and without complete closure by bone tissue. In the morphometric analysis, the groups E24/37 and C24/25 (13.68 ± 1.44; 53.20 ± 4.47, respectively) showed statistically significant differences in relation to the CG (5.86 ± 2.87). It was concluded that the matrices used as scaffolds are biocompatible and increase the formation of new bone in a critical size defect, with greater formation in the polymer derived from the intestinal serous layer of porcine origin (C24/25).     

Invertible point transformations,Painlevé test,and the second Painlevé transcendent

The techniques of invertible point transformations and the Painlevé analysis can be used to construct integrable ordinary differential equations. We compare both techniques for the second Painlevé transcendent.     

Zur Kenntnis der kolloidchemischen Eigenschaften des Humus

Ohne ZusammenfassungMeinem verehrten Lehrer, Herrn Prof. Dr. H. Pallmann — auf dessen Anregung diese Arbeit ausgeführt würde — möchte ich für die mir zuteil gewordene Förderung und die wertvollen Ratschläge bestens danken.     

Arsenic determination in marine sediment using ultrasound for sample preparation.

This work deals with As determination in marine sediment using ultrasound for sample preparation. It is shown that As can be quantitatively extracted from marine sediment using 20% (v/v) HCl and sonication. The slurry is centrifuged and the analyte is determined in the supernatant by hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry (HG AAS). A flow injection (FI) system is employed for hydride generation, with 0.5% (m/v) NaBH(4) used as reducdant and a 20% (v/v) HCl used as sample carrier. The limit of quantification is 1.6 microg g(-1) of As, which is based on 800 microl of sample solution and 0.200 g of sample mass in a volume of 50 mL. Certified and non certified marine sediment samples were analyzed; the results were in accordance with the certified or reference values. Speciation analysis by HPLC-ICP-MS showed that As(V) is the only detectable As species present in the supernatant of the centrifuged sample.     

Specific carbon-13 labelling of leucine residues in human growth hormone.

Biosynthetic human growth hormone specifically 13C-labelled in the carbonyl positions of all 26 leucine residues has been obtained by recombinant DNA techniques using 13C-labelled leucine and an E. coli strain that requires leucine. It is shown that, on the whole, the labelling is specific with no significant mislabelling as would have been the case had the 13C-labelled leucine been metabolized.     

Electron screening in backward elastic scattering

Abstact: The elastic scattering cross sections, σ (E,θ), for the systems He+Ta and He+W have been measured at θ_lab=165° and E _lab=76.1 keV to 3.988 MeV using targets with a thickness of a few atomic layers. The results are smaller than the results given by the Rutherford scattering law, σ_R(E,θ), due to the effects of electron screening and can be described by σ(E,θ)/σ_R(E,θ)=(1+U_e/E)⁻¹, where U _e is an atomic screening potential energy. The deduced average value, U _e=28 ± 3 keV, is consistent with the Moliére- and Lenz-Jensen-models as well as electron binding energies. Received: 25 May 1998