Many experimental methods, giving information about the molecular interactions in liquid crystalline mesophases, have been developed [1]. One of the most important ones is the polarized fluorescence experiment, which enables one to obtain the order parameters and (P4} of a dye probe dissolved in a liquid crystalline matrix ("guest-host" system) [2-9], It was shown that under particular con...

We have reported that soybean milk is an excellent source for increasing bone mineral density (BMD) and mechanical bone strength. However, it is not known what kind of components in soybean milk affect bone metabolism. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to find the effective components in soybean milk on bone metabolism. It might be some peptide in soybean milk. Therefore, in this study...

Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 protein (NPC1L1) was recently shown to be the molecular target of the cholesterol absorption inhibitor class of drugs, of which ezetimibe is the first widely used member. Since its discovery, NPC1L1 has also been shown to play a focal physiological role in intestinal absorption of sterols, including plant sterols and cholesterol. Evidence in support of this new metabolic ...

The ICM Docking and Interface Side-Chain Optimization (ICM-DISCO) showed promising predictive results during the first CAPRI experiment by successfully finding medium- or high-accuracy models in 3 of the 7 targets. A key factor was the ability to recognize near-native rigid-body geometries in a relatively low number of alternative docking poses, together with the successful refinement of the ri...

The orientational behaviour of some liquid crystals with various molecular structures was studied by means of the Raman scattering depolarization method. The Raman scattering spectra of linearly polarized light were recorded as a function of temperature in the nematic phase. On the basis of these spectra the order parameters 〈P2〉 and 〈P4〉 as well as the molecular distribution function were dete...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) allows the study of single protein-DNA interactions such as those observed with the Type I Restriction-Modification systems. The mechanisms employed by these systems are complicated and understanding them has proved problematic. It has been known for years that these enzymes translocate DNA during the restriction reaction, but more recent AFM work suggested that th...

We evaluated the effect of cacao procyanidins (CP) on plasma lipid levels in high cholesterol-fed rats. Animals were divided into 4 groups, and each group was fed on either a normal diet, high cholesterol diet (HCD) containing 1% cholesterol (HCD without CP), HCD with 0.5% (HCD with 0.5% CP) or 1.0% CP (HCD with 1.0% CP) for 4 weeks. Plasma cholesterol level was significantly higher in the HCD ...

203Pb was used to monitor sample-preparation techniques used in four atomic absorption methods for determination of lead in blood. Sources of error and their magnitude were identified and measured for each of the following analytical procedures: precipitation with trichloroacetic acid, separation with ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbonate into methyl isobutyl ketone, digestion with acids, and co...