NMR-based metabonomic study on the subacute toxicity of aristolochic acid in rats

The subacute toxicity of aristolochic acid (AA) was investigated by H-1 NMR spectroscopic and pattern recognition (PR)-based metabonomic methods. Model toxins were used to enable comparisons of the urinary profiles from rats treated with known toxicants and AA at various time intervals. Urinary H-1 NMR spectra were data-processed and analyzed by pattern recognition method. The result of visual comparison of the spectra showed that AA caused a renal proximal tubular and papillary lesion and a slight hepatic impair. Pattern recognition analysis indicated that the renal proximal tubule lesion was the main damage induced by AA, and the renal toxicity induced by AA was a progressive course with the accumulation of dosage by monitoring the toxicological processes from onset, development and part-recovery. These results were also supported by the conventional clinical biochemical parameters.

Effect of alginic acid decomposing bacterium on the growth of Laminaria japonica (Phaeophyceae)

We collected the diseased blades of Laminaria japonica from Yantai Sea Farm from October to December 2002, and the alginic acid decomposing bacterium on the diseased blade was isolated and purified, and was identified as Alterornonas espejiana. This bacterium was applied as the causative pathogen to infect the blades of L. japonica under laboratory conditions. The aim of the present study was to identify the effects of the bacterium on the growth of L. japonica, and to find the possibly effective mechanism. Results showed that: (1) The blades of L. japonica exhibited symptoms of lesion, bleaching and deterioration when infected by the bacterium, and their growth and photosynthesis were dramatically suppressed. At the same time, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation enhanced obviously, and the relative membrane permeability increased significantly. The contents of malonaldehyde (MDA) and free fatty acid in the microsomol membrane greatly elevated, but the phospholipid content decreased. Result suggested an obvious peroxidation and deesterrification in the blades of L. japonica when infected by the bacterium. (2) The simultaneous assay on the antioxidant enzyme activities demonstrated that superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) increased greatly when infected by the bacterium, but glutathione peroxidase (Gpx) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) did not exhibit active responses to the bacterium throughout the experiment. (3) The histomorphological observations gave a distinctive evidence of the severity of the lesions as well as the relative abundance in the bacterial population on the blades after infection. The bacterium firstly invaded into the endodermis of L. japonica and gathered around there, and then resulted in the membrane damage, cells corruption and ultimately, the death of L. japonica.

An Amino Acid Substitution Matrix for Protein Conformation Identification

Amino acid substitution matrices play an essential role in protein sequence alignment, a fundamental task in bioinformatics. Most widely used matrices, such as PAM matrices derived from homologous sequences and BLOSUM matrices derived from aligned segments of PROSITE, did not integrate conformation information in their construction. There are a few structure-based matrices, which are derived from limited data of structure alignment. Using databases PDB_SELECT and DSSP, we create a database of sequence-conformation blocks which explicitly represent sequence-structure relationship. Members in a block are identical in conformation and are highly similar in sequence. From this block database, we derive a conformation-specific amino acid substitution matrix CBSM60. The matrix shows an improved performance in conformational segment search and homolog detection.

Preparation And Tribology Studies of Alkyl Carboxylic Acid Monolayer Films on Pei-Coated Glass Substrate

首次在涂敷PEI的玻璃表面上制备了癸酸及全氟癸酸的单分子层膜。研究了成膜机理及摩擦特性。结果表明。脱水剂DCCD促进了癸酸或全氟癸酸与PEI酞胺化的反应。导致两种羧酸在PEI表面产生了靠化学键（酞胺键）连接的稳定的单分子层膜,摩擦、磨损实验表明。单分子层有机膜的摩擦特性受膜的组成、表面能及有序性和堆积密度的重要影响。表面能越低,有序性和堆积密度越高。摩擦系数越低。与碳氢化合物相比。碳氟化合物形成的有序膜具有更高的强度和抗磨性能。

Preparation and Tribological Studies of Stearic Acid Self-Assembled Monolayers on Polymer-Coated Silicon Surface

We present a good alternative method to improve the tribological properties of polymer films by chemisorbing a long-chain monolayer on the functional polymer surface. Thus, a novel self-assembled monolayer is successfully prepared on a silicon substrate coated with amino-group-containing polyethyleneimine (PEI) by the chemical adsorption of stearic acid (STA) molecules. The formation and structure of the STA-PEI film are characterized by means of contact-angle measurement and ellipsometric thickness measurement, and of Fourier transformation infrared spectrometric and atomic force microscopic analyses. The micro- and macro-tribological properties of the STA-PEI film are investigated on an atomic force microscope (AFM) and a unidirectional tribometer, respectively. It has been found that the STA monolayer about 2.1-nm thick is produced on the PEI coating by the chemical reaction between the amino groups in the PEI and the carboxyl group in the STA molecules to form a covalent amide bond in the presence of N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD) as a dehydrating regent. By introducing the STA monolayer, the hydrophilic PEI polymer surface becomes hydrophobic with a water contact angle to be about 105degrees. Study of the time dependence of the film formation shows that the adsorption of PEI is fast, whereas at least 24 h is needed to generate the saturated STA monolayer. Whereas the PEI coating has relatively high adhesion, friction, and poor anti-wear ability, the STA-PEI film possesses good adhesive resistance and high load-carrying capacity and anti-wear ability, which could be attributed to the chemical structure of the STA-PEI thin film. It is assumed that the hydrogen bonds between the molecules of the STA-PEI film act to stabilize the film and can be restored after breaking during sliding. Thus, the self-assembled STA-PEI thin film might find promising application in the lubrication of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).

Effects of Molecular Length, Ortientation and Amino Acid Mutation on Kinetics of Selectin/Ligand interactions

Receptor/ligand interactions are basic issues to cell adhesion, which are important to many physiological and pathological processes such as lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity, tumor metastasis and inflammatory reactionl. Selectin/carbohydrate ligand bindings have been found to mediate the fast rolling of leukocytes on activated endothelial monolayer. Kinetic rate and binding affinity constants are essential determinants of cell adhesion...