RESEARCH ON ELECTRICAL-PROPERTIES OF AMPHIPHILIC LIPID-MEMBRANES BY MEANS OF INTERDIGITAL ELECTRODES

Lipids are the main component of all cell membranes and also important mimetic materials. Moreover, it was found recently that they can be used as sensitive membranes for olfactory and taste sensors. Hence the understanding of lipid resistance is important both in sensors and in life sciences. Thirteen lipids were examined by means of interdigital electrodes with narrow gaps of 20-50 mu m, made by IC technology. The membrane lateral resistance in air, resisting electrical voltage, the influence of impurities on resistance and the resistance change in acetic acid vapour are presented for the first time. It is shown that the electrical resistivity for self-assembling lipids depends on their duration of being in an electric field and the content of the conductive impurities. The interdigital electrode is a transducer as well as a powerful tool for researching biomaterials and mimicking materials. The conducting mechanism of lipids is discussed. This method is also suitable for some polymer membranes.

Effects of oriented substrates on cell morphology, the cell cycle, and the cytoskeleton in Ros 17/2.8 cells

Absence of gravity or microgravity influences the cellular functions of bone forming osteoblasts. The underlying mechanism, however, of cellular sensing and responding to the gravity vector is poorly understood. This work quantified the impact of vector-directional gravity on the biological responses of Ros 17/2.8 cells grown on upward-, downward- or edge-on-oriented substrates. Cell morphology and nuclear translocation, cell proliferation and the cell cycle, and cytoskeletal reorganization were found to vary significantly in the three orientations. All of the responses were duration-dependent. These results provide a new insight into understanding how osteoblasts respond to static vector-directional gravity.

Melatonin in Chinese medicinal herbs

Melatonin is a highly conserved molecule that not only exists in animals, but also is present in bacteria, unicellular organisms and in plants. Since melatonin is an antioxidant, in plants melatonin was speculated to protect them from intrinsic and environmental oxidative stress. More importantly, melatonin in edible plants inevitably enters animals and human through feed and food. In this study, more than 100 Chinese medicinal herbs were analyzed using the methods of solid phase extraction and HPLC-FD on-line with MS to determine whether melatonin is present in these commonly used herbs. Melatonin was detected in majority of these plants. Sixty-four of them contain melatonin in excess of 10 ng per gram dry mass. Melatonin levels in several herbs are in excess of 1000 ng/g. It is well known that normal average physiological plasma levels of melatonin are only 10-60 pg/mL. These high level-melatonin containing plants are traditionally used to treat diseases which presumably involve free radical damage. The current study provides new information concerning one potentially effective constituent present in a large number of medicinal herbs. The results suggest that these herbs should be reevaluated in reference to their nutritional and medicinal value. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Changes in individual plant traits and biomass allocation in alpine meadow with elevation variation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Plant traits and individual plant biomass allocation of 57 perennial herbaceous species, belonging to three common functional groups (forbs, grasses and sedges) at subalpine (3700 m ASL), alpine (4300 m ASL) and subnival (>= 5000 m ASL) sites were examined to test the hypothesis that at high altitudes, plants reduce the proportion of aboveground parts and allocate more biomass to belowground parts, especially storage organs, as altitude increases, so as to geminate and resist environmental stress. However, results indicate that some divergence in biomass allocation exists among organs. With increasing altitude, the mean fractions of total biomass allocated to aboveground parts decreased. The mean fractions of total biomass allocation to storage organs at the subalpine site (7%+/- 2% S.E.) were distinct from those at the alpine (23%+/- 6%) and subnival (21%+/- 6%) sites, while the proportions of green leaves at all altitudes remained almost constant. At 4300 m and 5000 m, the mean fractions of flower stems decreased by 45% and 41%, respectively, while fine roots increased by 86% and 102%, respectively. Specific leaf areas and leaf areas of forbs and grasses deceased with rising elevation, while sedges showed opposite trends. For all three functional groups, leaf area ratio and leaf area root mass ratio decreased, while fine root biomass increased at higher altitudes. Biomass allocation patterns of alpine plants were characterized by a reduction in aboveground reproductive organs and enlargement of fine roots, while the proportion of leaves remained stable. It was beneficial for high altitude plants to compensate carbon gain and nutrient uptake under low temperature and limited nutrients by stabilizing biomass investment to photosynthetic structures and increasing the absorption surface area of fine roots. In contrast to forbs and grasses that had high mycorrhizal infection, sedges had higher single leaf area and more root fraction, especially fine roots.

Electrochemiluminescence detection with integrated indium tin oxide electrode on electrophoretic microchip for direct bioanalysis of lincomycin in the urine

In this article, an antibiotic, lincomycin was determined in the urine sample by microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) with integrated indium tin oxide (ITO) working electrode based on electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection. This microchip CE-ECL system can be used for the rapid analysis of lincomycin within 40 s. Under the optimized conditions, the linear range was obtained from 5 to 100 muM with correlation coefficient of 0.998. The limit of detection (LOD) of 3.1 muM was obtained for lincomycin in the standard solution. We also applied this method to analyzing lincomycin in the urine matrix. The limit of detection of 9.0 muM was obtained. This method can determine lincomycin in the urine sample without pretreatment, which demonstrated that it is a promising method of detection of lincomycin in clinical and pharmaceutical area.

Determination of ranitidine in urine by capillary electrophoresis-electrochemiluminescent detection

The fast analysis of ranitidine is of clinical importance in understanding its efficiency and a patient's treatment history. In this paper, a novel determination method for ranitidine based on capillary electrophoresis-electrochemiluminescence detection is described. The conditions affecting separation and detection were investigated in detail. End-column detection of ranitidine in 5 mM Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) solution at applied voltage of 1.20 V was performed. Favorable ECL intensity with higher column efficiency was achieved by electrokinetic injection for 10 s at 10 kV. The R.S.D. values of ECL intensity and migration time were 6.38 and 1.84% for 10(-4) M and 6.01 and 0.60% for 10(-5) M, respectively. A detection limit of 7 x 10(-8) M (S/N = 3) was achieved. The proposed method was applied satisfactorily to the determination of ranitidine in urine in 6 min.

SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND CATALYTIC BEHAVIOR OF LA2-XSRXCOO4+/-LAMBDA (X=0-2) IN COMPLETE OXIDATION

A series of mixed oxides La2-xSrxCoO4+/-lambda (x=0-2) with varying x values was synthesized. The crystal structure of this series of mixed oxides was studied by using XRD. The result showed that when x=0.25-1.5 the mixed oxides possessing K2NiF4 structure are formed. The valences of the transition metal Co and the relation between +/-lambda content and x value by using chemical analysis method have been measured, too. The redox property of this series of mixed oxides and different kinds of oxygen species were studied by IR, TPD, TPR, XPS and SEM methods. The catalytic activity in the complete oxidation of CO and CH4 was investigated and the relationships between the activity, composition and structure of the mixed oxides have been elucidated.

STEREOCHEMICAL CONTROL IN PROPYLENE POLYMERIZATION WITH A ASYMMETRICALLY SUBSTITUTED TITANOCENE/METHYLALUMINOXANE CATALYST

A new mono-substituted titanocene, (eta(5)-cyclopentadienyl) [eta(5)-(1-(4-methoxyphenyl) cyclohexyl) cyclopentadienyl] dichlorotitanium (I), has been prepared via a novel modified synthesis, and its X-ray crystal structure has been determined. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with cell constants a=0.968 0(5) nm, b=1.284 6(5) nm, c=1.694 4(6) nm, Z=4, R=0.066. The I/methylaluminoxane (MAO) catalyst system produces at different polymerization temperatures either an isotactic or a syndiotactic polypropylene, both of which have the combined influence of enantiomorphic-site control and chain-end control, or an atactic polypropylene controlled by Bernoullian propagation mechanism.

EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR ELUCIDATION OF STRUCTURES OF ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS

An expert system for the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds-ESESOC-II has been designed. It is composed of three parts: spectroscopic data analysis, structure generator, and evaluation of the candidate structures. The heart of ESESOC is the structure generator, as an integral part, which accepts the specific types of information, e.g. molecular formulae, substructure constraints, and produces an exhaustive and irredundant list of candidate structures. The scheme for the structural generation is given, in which the depth-first search strategy is used to fill the bonding adjacency matrix (BAM) and a new method is introduced to remove the duplicates.

GAS-PHASE ION-MOLECULE REACTIONS OF BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE C-60 WITH SOME SMALL ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS IN MASS-SPECTROMETER

In chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) gas phase C-60(+) or C-60 can react with fragment ions from three chloromethane and four multichloroethane molecular ions via ion-molecule reactions. A dozen of gas-phase adduct ions of C-60 are observed, and most of them contain chlorine atoms. The results of the comparison and analysis show that the relative intensities of adductions are not directly proportional to the corresponding fragment ions in the MS of reagents,which implies that some fragment ions containing radicals are more reactive with C-60(+) or C-60. This indicates that the alkene-like C-60(+) or C-60 can act as a radical sponge in addition reactions.

SYNTHESIS AND CRYSTAL-STRUCTURE OF HETEROPOLY MOLYBDOSILICIC LANTHANIDE K10H3[PR(SIMO11O39)2].18H2O

The intensity data of the title complex were collected at a low temperature of -90-degrees-C. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2(1)/n, a = 17.504(2), b = 27.323 (5), c = 21.616(4) angstrom, beta = 104.49 (2)degrees, Z = 4. The structure was solved by Patterson and Fourier techniques and refined by least-squares to an R = 0.088 for 8320 independent reflections. The central Pr ion is bonded to eight oxygen atoms from two molybdosilicic heteropoly ligands to form a square antiprism. The Pr-O average distance is 2.44 (2) angstrom. Both molybdosilicic heteropoly ligands are of a defective alpha-Keggin structure.

Cortactin mediated morphogenic cell movements during zebrafish (Danio rerio) gastrulation

Cell migration is essential to direct embryonic cells to specific sites at which their developmental fates are ultimately determined. However, the mechanism by which cell motility is regulated in embryonic development is largely unknown. Cortactin, a filamentous actin binding protein, is an activator of Arp2/3 complex in the nucleation of actin cytoskeleton at the cell leading edge and acts directly on the machinery of cell motility. To determine whether cortactin and Arp2/3 mediated actin assembly plays a role in the morphogenic cell movements during the early development of zebrafish, we initiated a study of cortactin expression in zebrafish embryos at gastrulating stages when massive cell migrations occur. Western blot analysis using a cortactin specific monoclonal antibody demonstrated that cortactin protein is abundantly present in embryos at the most early developmental stages. Immunostaining of whole-mounted embryo showed that cortactin immunoreactivity was associated with the embryonic shield, predominantly at the dorsal side of the embryos during gastrulation. In addition, cortactin was detected in the convergent cells of the epiblast and hypoblast, and later in the central nervous system. Immunofluorescent staining with cortactin and Arp3 antibodies also revealed that cortactin and Arp2/3 complex colocalized at the periphery and many patches associated with the cell-to-cell junction in motile embryonic cells. Therefore, our data suggest that cortactin and Arp2/3 mediated actin polymerization is implicated in the cell movement during gastrulation and perhaps the development of the central neural system as well.

Construction of shuttle, expression vector of human tumor necrosis factor alpha (hTNF-alpha) gene and its expression in a cyanobacterium, Anabaena sp. PCC 7120

The construction of the shuttle, expression vector of human tumor necrosis factor alpha (hTNF-alpha) gene and its expression in a cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 was reported. The 700-bp hTNF cDNA fragments have been recovered from plasmid pRL-rhTNF, then inserted downstream of the promoter PpsbA in the plasmid pRL439. The resultant intermediary plasmid pRL-TC has further been combined with the shuttle vector pDC-8 to get the shuttle, expression vector pDC-TNF. The expression of the rhTNF gene in Escherichia coil has been analyzed by SDS-PAGE and thin-layer scanning, and the results show that the expressed TNF protein with these two vectors is 16.9 percent (pRL-TC) and 15.0 percent (pDC-TNF) of the total proteins in the cells, respectively, while the expression level of TNF gene in plasmid pRL-rhTNF is only 11.8 percent. Combined with the participation of the conjugal and helper plasmids, pDC-TNF has been introduced into Anabaena sg PCC 7120 by triparental conjugative transfer, and the stable transgenic strains have been obtained. The existence of the introduced plasmid pDC-TNF in recombinant cyanobacterial cells has been demonstrated by the results of the agarose electrophoresis with the extracted plasmid samples and Southern blotting with alpha-(32)p labeled hTNF cDNA probes, while the expression of the hTNF gene in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 has been confirmed by the results of Western blotting with extracted protein samples and human TNF-alpha monoclonal antibodies. The cytotoxicity assays using the mouse cancer cell line L929 proved the cytotoxicity of the TNF in the crude extracts from the transgenic cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120.