Marine elasmobranchs retain relatively high levels of urea to counterbalance the osmotic strength of seawater. Oviparous species, such as the little skate Raja erinacea, release encapsulated embryos that hatch after about 9 months on the seafloor. To study the ureosmotic capability of skate embryos, we measured a variety of possible osmolytes and ornithine-urea cycle (OUC) enzyme activities in ...

Hydrogel implants became alternative fillers for breast implants after silicone implants were restricted in 1992 due to various local complications (1). Hydrogel implants contain hydrogel fillers, which are organic polymers of polysaccharide and water, such as hyaluronic acid fluid, hydroxypropyl cellulose (polysaccharide), and polyacrylamide (2). Initially, this implant was highly favored due ...

Since Mullerian Inhibiting Substance (MIS) causes regression of the Mullerian duct, the anlagen of the uterus, vagina, and fallopian tube, we expected and have previously observed that purified recombinant human MIS causes regression of gynecological tumors. However, recent exper iments indicating that neural crest derivatives might be responsive to MIS prompted study of a group of human ocular...

Encapsulation of dsDNA fragments (contour length 54 nm) by the cationic diblock copolymer poly(butadiene-b-N-methyl-4-vinyl pyridinium) [PBd-b-P4VPQ] has been studied with phase contrast, polarized light, and fluorescence microscopies, as well as scanning electron microscopy. Encapsulation was achieved with a single emulsion technique. For this purpose, an aqueous DNA solution is emulsified in ...

Wall teichoic acids (WTAs) are phosphate-rich, sugar-based polymers attached to the cell walls of most Gram-positive bacteria. In Staphylococcus aureus, these anionic polymers regulate cell division, protect cells from osmotic stress, mediate host colonization, and mask enzymatically susceptible peptidoglycan bonds. Although WTAs are not required for survival in vitro, blocking the pathway at a...

A dominant cataract mutation was detected recently among the offspring of x-ray-irradiated male mice. The mutation, which causes total lens opacity, has provisionally been designated by the gene symbol Cat-2t. In the lenses of heterozygous and homozygous Cat-2t mutants, the epithelial and fiber cells were swollen and the lens capsule was ruptured. The histologic analysis demonstrated a complete...

background and objectives: drought stress is one of the most important environmental factors reducing growth and yield of crops, especially in arid and semiarid regions of the world. during drought stress, nutrient uptake diminishes due to rising of solute concentrations and so increasing of osmotic potential in the root zone. with increasing soil ph, micronutrient uptake decreases more than ot...

• In the microcirculation of the renal cortex, fluid exchange proceeds at very high rates in two anatomically and functionally distinct capillary systems, the glomerular and the peritubular capil-laries. Net ultrafiltration is confined to the glomeru-lus, which consists of a tuft of capillaries surrounded by the ultrafiltrate enclosed within Bowman's capsule at the proximal end of the nephron. ...

Polymersomes are bilayer vesicles, self-assembled from amphiphilic block copolymers. They are versatile nanocapsules with adjustable properties, such as flexibility, permeability, size and functionality. However, so far no methodological approach to control their shape exists. Here we demonstrate a mechanistically fully understood procedure to precisely control polymersome shape via an out-of-e...

Drying is one of the widely used methods of food preservation and it is a sensitive food processing operation due to undesirable changes in the quality of dried product. In this study the effect of osmotic dyhedration and ultrasound pretreatment prior to convective drying on quality properties of apple slices was investigated. Apple slices were pretreated by osmotic dehydration in two concentra...