Lipid nanocarriers show occlusive properties that may be related to their ability to improve skin hydration. The aim of this work was to evaluate the relationship between in vitro occlusion factor and in vivo skin hydration for three types of lipid nanocarriers: nanoemulsions (NEs), solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). These lipid nanocarriers were loaded w...

Cervical mucus hydration increases during the fertile interval prior to ovulation. Since sperm can only penetrate mucus having a high water content, cervical secretions provide a reliable marker of the fertile days of the menstrual cycle. This article develops a Bayesian approach for modeling of daily observations of cervical mucus, and applies the approach to assess heterogeneity among women a...

Reports of increased corneal thickness and altered endothelial morphology suggest that there is abnormal corneal hydration control in diabetic patients. To study the possible influence of hyperglycemia on corneal hydration control, experiments were done on normal and alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits to assess: (1) stromal dry weight, hydration, and swelling pressure; (2) corneal thickness and c...

The energetics of water proximal to apolar groups is analyzed from a statistical perspective in the realistic context of polypeptide hydration. Analysis of a series of molecular dynamics simulations of a 16-residue polypeptide in water reveals a correlation between hydrogen bond energy and local packing when there is overcoordination of the water molecules around hydrogen bonds. We show that th...

Water plays a fundamental role in the folding, structure, dynamics, and function of proteins and peptides. The extracellular N-terminal domain of chemokine receptors is crucial in mediating binding affinity, receptor selectivity, and regulating function. The flexible N-terminal domain becomes ordered in membranes and membrane-mimetic assemblies, thereby indicating that the membrane could play a...

PURPOSE The study was done to explore variations in physiologic parameters of the stratum corneum (SC) of the dorsal hand and cord area during early days of life in high-risk newborns. METHODS In this longitudinal study, a total of 77 high-risk newborns were assessed for pH, temperature and hydration of the SC of the dorsal hand and the cord area on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th days of life...

Hydrogen-bonding and intra/intermolecular vibrational coupling of water next to a hydrophobic molecule (tert-butyl alcohol, TBA) have been studied by Raman multivariate curve resolution (Raman-MCR) and isotopic dilution spectroscopy. Raman-MCR provides the vibrational spectrum of water pertinent to the hydration shell of TBA, which shows a distinct Raman band at around 3660 cm(-1) corresponding...

The combined effect of pressure and temperature on hydrophobic hydration of a nonpolar methanelike solute is investigated by extensive simulations in the TIP4P model of water. Using test-particle insertion techniques, free energies of hydration under a range of pressures from 1 to 3000 atm are computed at eight temperatures ranging from 278.15 to 368.15 K. Corresponding enthalpy, entropy, and h...