INTRODUCTION Acrylic resins containing acrylic acid (AA), methyl methacrylate (MMA) or acrylic–methacrylic copolymer are the most commonly used polymeric materials for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications owing to their hydrophilicity and biocompatibility.1–4 Recently, a new polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) copolymer designed by copolymerizing AA and MMA with PVA was successfully developed as a ca...

Infrared (IR) absorbance of cellular biomolecules generates a vibrational spectrum, which can be exploited as a "biochemical fingerprint" of a particular cell type. Biomolecules absorb in the mid-IR (2-20 mum) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy applied to discriminate different cell types (exfoliative cervical cytology collected into buffered fixative solution) was evaluate...

Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological diseases. Nevertheless, the epileptogenesis is still not known and has been a subject of intensive investigations in which animal models are used. Presented results are based on the most often used experimental model of temporal lobe epilepsy pilocarpine-induced seizures [22, 26]. It is known that epileptic seizures strongly modify interna...

INTRODUCTION Calcified deposits (CDs) in skin and muscles are common in juvenile dermatomyositis (DM), and less frequent in adult DM. Limited information exists about the microstructure and composition of these deposits, and no information is available on their elemental composition and contents, mineral density (MD) and stiffness. We determined the microstructure, chemical composition, MD and ...

Background Histopathologic evaluation of surgical specimens is a well established technique for disease identification, and has remained relatively unchanged since its clinical introduction. Although it is essential for clinical investigation, histopathologic identification of tissues remains a time consuming and subjective technique, with unsatisfactory levels of interand intra-observer discre...

Azole agents especially Miconazole are widely used even during pregnancy as antifungal agents. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of FTIR Micro-Spectroscopy for discriminating of Miconazole treated liver tissue from control liver tissue. The mice were injected with Miconazole (60 mg/Kg) on gestation day 9 and they were dissected on pregnancy day 15. The fetus fixed, dehydrated a...

BACKGROUND Oleaginous microorganisms, such as different yeast and algal species, can represent a sustainable alternative to plant oil for the production of biodiesel. They can accumulate fatty acids (FA) up to 70% of their dry weight with a predominance of (mono)unsaturated species, similarly to what plants do, but differently from animals. In addition, their growth is not in competition either...

BACKGROUND Analysis of pollen grains reveals valuable information on biology, ecology, forensics, climate change, insect migration, food sources and aeroallergens. Vibrational (infrared and Raman) spectroscopies offer chemical characterization of pollen via identifiable spectral features without any sample pretreatment. We have compared the level of chemical information that can be obtained by ...

Azole agents especially Miconazole are widely used even during pregnancy as antifungal agents. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of FTIR Micro-Spectroscopy for discriminating of Miconazole treated liver tissue from control liver tissue. The mice were injected with Miconazole (60 mg/Kg) on gestation day 9 and they were dissected on pregnancy day 15. The fetus fixed, dehydrated a...

A combination of the unique hosting properties of cyclodextrins (CDs) and the peculiar UV-responsive trans–cis isomerization of the guest molecule azobenzene has endowed light-responsibility of the inclusion complex (IC). The IC of 4-aminoazobenzene (AAB) and hydroxypropyl-b-cyclodextrin (HPbCD), with its inherent viscosity from hydrogen bondings between CDs and p–p stacking between AABs, was e...