The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of elevated temperature exposure in tissue banking on soft tissues. A secondary objective was to determine the relative ability of various assays to detect changes in soft tissues due to temperature deviations. Porcine pulmonary heart valve leaflets exposed to 37 °C were compared with those incubated at 52 and 67 °C for 10, 30 and 100 min. T...

Human serum albumin (HSA) is used as an important plasma volume expander in clinical practice. However, the infused HSA may extravasate into the interstitial space and induce peripheral edema in treating the critical illness related to marked increase in capillary permeability. Such poor intravascular retention also demands a frequent administration of HSA. We hypothesize that increasing the mo...

Geochemical reactions may alter the permeability of leakage pathways in caprocks, which serve a critical role in confining CO2 in geologic carbon sequestration. A caprock specimen from a carbonate formation in the Michigan sedimentary Basin was fractured and studied in a high-pressure core flow experiment. Inflowing brine was saturated with CO2 at 40°C and 10 MPa, resulting in an initial pH of ...

OBJECTIVE Enhanced endothelial permeability leading to intimal accumulation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) stimulates the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Histamine is known to increase vascular permeability. Whether this affects the formation of atherosclerotic lesions, however, remains elusive. METHODS AND RESULTS Apolipoprotein E-null (ApoE(-/-)) mice treated with a histamine H1 re...

Lysosomes are involved in the cellular degradation of material either initially present in the cell or brought into the cell by phagocytosis or endocytosis. This degradative process, which occurs in an acidic environment, produces metabolites such as peptides and amino acids~ nucleos ides , and sugars which may subsequently accumulate within the lysosome. It is therefore important for osmotic r...

Field observations of active and fossil natural geothermal fields indicate that fluids are primarily transported along dikes fault zones. Fluid transport (commonly through fractures at their margins) is controlled by the cubic law where volumetric flow rate depends on aperture fracture in 3rd power. Dikes (and inclined sheets) also act as heat sources for fields. In high-temperature volcanoes I...

BACKGROUND Acute peritonitis is the most frequent complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD), and nitric oxide (NO) is thought to play a role in the structural and permeability changes observed in this condition. We have used a combination of expression, enzymatic and pharmacological studies to substantiate the potential role(s) played by NO during peritonitis. METHODS The peritoneal equilibrat...

We present three-dimensional simulations of coupled fluid and heat transport in the ocean crust, to explore patterns and controls on ridge-flank hydrothermal circulation on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Field studies have shown that there is large-scale fluid flow in the volcanic ocean crust in this region, including local convection and circulation between two basement outcrops ...

We have investigated the influence of mast cells on the barrier function of intestinal epithelium during nematode infection. Trichinella spiralis infection induces a strong type 2 cytokine-mediated inflammation, resulting in a critical mucosal mastocytosis that is known to mediate expulsion of the parasites from the intestine. The host response to infection is also characterized by an increase ...

Mitochondrial permeability transition, due to opening of the permeability transition pore (PTP), is triggered by Ca2+ in conjunction with an inducing agent such as phosphate. However, incubation of rat liver mitochondria in the presence of low micromolar concentrations of Ca2+ and millimolar concentrations of phosphate is known to also cause net efflux of matrix adenine nucleotides via the ATP-...