A coating based on collagen with self-healing properties was developed for applications in mechanical components that are prone to abrasion due to contact with a counter surface. The inherent swelling behavior of collagen in water was exploited as the fundamental mechanism behind self-healing of a wear scar formed on the surface. The effects of freeze-drying process and water treatment of the c...

In this study, the dimensional changes of articular cartilage during cryofixation (immersion-freezing) followed by freeze-substitution and critical-point-drying or tertiary-butyl alcohol drying were compared with conventional fixation techniques. The cryotechnique resulted in 11% shrinkage of the articular cartilage. During conventional chemical fixation, the sample shrank by 28%. No difference...

This research focuses on the analysis of the chemical component of essential oil of lemon balm. The essential oil of leaves was obtained by extraction. The chemical components of the essential oil of lemon balm were analyzed by capillary GC and GC/MS and 8 substances were identified. The quality of the final product depends heavily on the operation of freeze drying (FD). It was found that essen...

Three-dimensional views of cell structures at high magnifications made possible by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) are becoming increasingly useful to biologists. Methods that have proved useful for stabilizing biological soft tissue for observation in the SEM include the critical point method (1, 2), freeze drying, freeze fracturing followed by freeze drying (4, 9, 10), observation of s...

Daylily (Hemerocallis fulva Linn.) flowers were hot air-dried and freeze-dried after harvest. Antioxidant properties of water and ethanol extracts prepared from these dried flowers were evaluated in terms of total antioxidant activity, reducing capacity, and metal chelating activity. Extracts from daylily flowers exhibited strong antioxidant activity. Ethanol was more efficiency to extract anti...

Chromosome stability was maintained in mouse spermatozoa after freeze-drying or freezing without cryoprotection in a simple Tris.HCl buffer containing EGTA (50 mM) and NaCl (50 mM). The ability of spermatozoa to activate oocytes spontaneously was not destroyed by freeze-drying or freezing without cryoprotection in this solution. Embryos derived after injecting oocytes with sperm heads from rehy...

BACKGROUND Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be intermediates of metabolic pathways and their levels in biological samples may provide a better understanding about diseases in addition to potential methods for diagnosis. Headspace analysis of VOCs in urine samples using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is one of the most used tech...

Dried typhoid vaccines were prepared by freeze-drying of heat-inactivated phenolized-cell suspensions and by an acetone-killed and dried technique. Portions of the dried powder obtained by each method were compressed into tablets. Tests with the products showed that drying and making of tablets did not affect the ability of the vaccines to protect mice or elicit antibodies in rabbits.

Fragmented sarcoplasmic reticulum (FSR) from crustacean muscle was examined following preparation by a variety of electron microscopic techniques. The 30-40 A particles which appeared on the outer surface of FSR vesicles following negative staining were not observed following preparation by freeze-drying, freeze-etching, thin sectioning, or critical-point drying. Crustacean FSR exhibited high v...

The preparation and technological characterization of nanosphere formulations (NS) containing the anticancer drug paclitaxel (PTX) are reported. Poly(lactide) (PLA) and poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanospheres (NS) were prepared by a solvent displacement method. They showed a mean particle size in the range 150-300 nm, with a high homogeneity (polydispersity index < 0.3). For long term sta...