The effects of benzo(a)pyrene (BP) and 22 derivatives upon the number of nuclei per unit length of epidermis, the number of cell layers of epidermis, and the thickness of the epidermal layer were studied. Several derivatives of BP induced changes in epidermal morphology that are typical of those produced by various agents that promote skin tumorigenesis after application of an initiator. The mo...

BACKGROUND Finding a suitable delivery system to improve the water solubility of hydrophobic drugs is a critical challenge in the development of effective formulations. In this study, we used A6K, a self-assembling surfactant-like peptide, as a carrier to encapsulate and deliver hydrophobic pyrene. METHODS Pyrene was mixed with A6K by magnetic stirring to form a suspension. Confocal laser sca...

The amphiphilic peptide is becoming attractive as a potential drug carrier to improve the dissolvability of hydrophobic drugs in an aqueous system; thus, facilitating drug uptake by target cells. Here, we report a novel designed amphiphilic peptide, Ac-RADAGAGARADAGAGA-NH2, which was able to stabilize pyrene, a hydrophobic model drug we chose to study in aqueous solution. This designed peptide ...

The first objective of this study was to determine the bioaccumulation kinetics of pyrene in the soft tissues of Crassostrea gigas (mantle, muscle, gills, digestive gland, and the remaining soft tissues). As bivalves can biotransform hydrocarbons in more polar compounds (metabolites) that are more easily excreted, the second objective was to investigate the oyster capacity to metabolize pyrene ...

BACKGROUND A climate-controlled pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of planting alfalfa and applying organic fertilizer on the dissipation of benzo[a]pyrene from an aged contaminated agricultural soil. RESULTS Short-term planting of alfalfa inhibited the dissipation of benzo[a]pyrene from the soil by 8.9%, and organic fertilizer enhanced benzo[a]pyrene removal from the soi...

As a means to study the fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in freshwater sediments, pyrene mineralization was examined in microcosms spiked with [14C]pyrene. Some microcosms were planted with reeds (Phragmites australis) and/or inoculated with a pyrene-degrading strain, Mycobacterium sp. 6PY1. Mineralization rates recorded over a 61 d period showed that reeds promoted a significant...

Ruthenium nanoparticles functionalized with pyrene moieties were prepared by olefin metathesis reactions of carbenestabilized nanoparticles with 1-vinylpyrene and 1-allylpyrene (referred to as RudVPy and RudAPy, respectively). 1H NMR spectroscopic measurements showed that the surface concentration of the pyrene moieties was 26.4 and 22.9%, respectively. In fluorescence measurements, RudVPy nano...

Gold nanoparticles prepared by chemical reduction in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution are size-controlled with the addition of pyrene. Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) is applied to the system to examine the size and polydispersity of gold nanoparticles and to show that pyrene has the extraordinary effect in decreasing the size and narrowing the dispersity of gold na...

Pyrene is a common organic luminescent material. To improve the fluorescence properties of pyrene, we have designed a pyrene-2,7-diyl bridged macrocage in which the pyrene moiety is sterically protected by the outside alkyl chains. The macrocage shows intense fluorescence from a monomeric excited state without excimer fluorescence even in saturated solutions, although the parent pyrene shows ex...

The occurrence and levels of benzo[a]pyrene in various heat-treated foods from China were evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection. In a total of 119 samples, 105 were found to contain benzo[a]pyrene at levels of 0.03 to 19.75 μg/kg. The benzo[a]pyrene contents in 12 animal source foods were higher than the Chinese maximum permissible level in food (5 μg/kg) an...