Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is a rare disease characterized by the accumulation of lipoproteinaceous material derived from alveolar surfactant in the alveoli, with a consequent deterioration in gas exchange. Pathogenesis is related to impaired phagocytic function of alveolar macrophages. In recent years, a new treatment for pulmonary alveolar proteinosis-consisting of subcutaneous administra...

BACKGROUND Poractant alfa (Curosurf®) and Bovactant (Alveofact®) are two animal-derived pulmonary surfactants preparations approved for the treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (nRDS). They differ in their source, composition, pharmaceutical form, and clinical dose. How much these differences affect the acute pulmonary response to treatment is unknown. OBJECTIVES Comparing thes...

Copper oxide (CuO) nanostructures are of particular interest because of their interesting properties and promising applications in batteries, super capacitors, solar cells, gas sensors, bio sensors, nano fluids and catalysis. In Recent past, more efforts have been received to design materials with different properties which is dependent on morphology.  In this work cupric oxide nano flakes were...

Sensitive to Apoptosis Gene (SAG), also known as RBX2 (RING box protein-2), is the RING component of SCF (SKP1, Cullin, and F-box protein) E3 ubiquitin ligase. Our previous studies have demonstrated that SAG is an anti-apoptotic protein and an attractive anti-cancer target. We also found recently that Sag knockout sensitized mouse embryonic stem cells (mES) to radiation and blocked mES cells to...

Characteristics such as temperature and pressure profiles for methane hydrate formation and dissociation in pure water, simulated seawater, and water–surfactant systems have been established. A hysteresis effect has been observed for repeated formation–dissociation cycles of the same methane–water system. In an attempt to maximize the uptake of methane during methane hydrate formation, the addi...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic environmental pollutants that are known or suspected carcinogens or mutagens. Bioremediation has been used as a general way to eliminate them from the contaminated sites or aquifers, but their biodegradation is rather limited due to their low bioavailability because of their sparingly soluble nature. Surfactant-mediated biodegradation is a promi...

PURPOSE To study the immunogenicity and the stability of the porcine pulmonary surfactant preparation produced by the Instituto Butantan. METHOD Immunogenicity assay: Sixteen New-Zealand-White rabbits (1000 g body weight) were divided into 4 study groups. Each group was assigned to receive either a) Butantan surfactant, b) Survanta (Abbott Laboratories), c) Curosurf (Farmalab Chiesi), or d) n...

Alternative methods for determining the critical micelle concentration (cmc) are investigated using canonical and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice surfactant model. A common measure of the cmc is the "free" (unassociated) surfactant concentration in the presence of micellar aggregates. Many prior simulations of micellizing systems have observed a decrease in the free surfact...