scholarly journals Correction to: Growth and metabolic activities of cowpea seedlings exposed to artificial pond wastewater‑treated soil

Author(s):  
F. I. Achuba ◽  
M. N. Oshiokpu
Author(s):  
Delbert E. Philpott ◽  
W. Sapp ◽  
C. Williams ◽  
T. Fast ◽  
J. Stevenson ◽  
...  

Space Lab 3 (SL-3) was flown on Shuttle Challenger providing an opportunity to measure the effect of spaceflight on rat testes. Cannon developed the idea that organisms react to unfavorable conditions with highly integrated metabolic activities. Selye summarized the manifestations of physiological response to nonspecific stress and he pointed out that atrophy of the gonads always occurred. Many papers have been published showing the effects of social interaction, crowding, peck order and confinement. Flickinger showed delayed testicular development in subordinate roosters influenced by group numbers, social rank and social status. Christian reported increasing population size in mice resulted in adrenal hypertrophy, inhibition of reproductive maturation and loss of reproductive function in adults. Sex organ weights also declined. Two male dogs were flown on Cosmos 110 for 22 days. Fedorova reported an increase of 30 to 70% atypical spermatozoa consisting of tail curling and/or the absence of a tail.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 573-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwanwoo Shin

Living cells naturally maintain a variety of metabolic reactions via energy conversion mechanisms that are coupled to proton transfer across cell membranes, thereby producing energy-rich compounds. Until now, researchers have been unable to maintain continuous biochemical reactions in artificially engineered cells, mainly due to the lack of mechanisms that generate energy-rich resources, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). If these metabolic activities in artificial cells are to be sustained, reliable energy transduction strategies must be realized. In this perspective, this article discusses the development of an artificially engineered cell containing a sustainable energy conversion process.


2000 ◽  
Vol 628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Carturan ◽  
Renzo Dal Monte ◽  
Maurizio Muraca

ABSTRACTSi-alkoxides in gas phase are reactive towards the surface of animal cells, depositing a homogeneous layer of porous silica. This encapsulation method preserves cell viability and does not alter the hindrance of the biological load.In the prospective use for the design of a hybrid bioartificial liver, hepatocytes in a collagen matrix can be entrapped by the siliceous deposit which provides definite mechanical stability to the collagen matrix and molecular cutoff vs. high molecular weight proteins, including immunoglobulins. The functionality of the encapsulated cell load is maintained for the expressions of typical liver and pancreas metabolic activities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-556
Author(s):  
Natalya Oskina ◽  
Aleksandr Shcherbakov ◽  
Maksim Filipenko ◽  
Nikolay Kushlinskiy ◽  
L. Ovchinnikova

Currently it is established that cancer is a genetic disease and that somatic mutations are the initiators of the carcinogenic process. The PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is an important intracellular signaling pathway regulating the cell growth and metabolic activities. Aberrant activation of the PI3K pathway is commonly observed in many different cancers. In this review we analyze the genetic alterations of PI3K pathway in a variety of human malignancies and discuss their possible implications for diagnosis and therapy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xupeng Yuan ◽  
Jiahao Yan ◽  
Ruizhi Hu ◽  
Yanli Li ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
...  

Recent evidences suggest that gut microbiota plays an important role in regulating physiological and metabolic activities of pregnant sows, and β-carotene has a potentially positive effect on reproduction, but the impact of β-carotene on gut microbiota in pregnant sows remains unknown. This study aimed to explore the effect and mechanisms of β-carotene on the reproductive performance of sows from the aspect of gut microbiota. A total of 48 hybrid pregnant sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) with similar parity were randomly allocated into three groups (n = 16) and fed with a basal diet or a diet containing 30 or 90 mg/kg of β-carotene from day 90 of gestation until parturition. Dietary supplementation of 30 or 90 mg/kg β-carotene increased the number of live birth to 11.82 ± 1.54 and 12.29 ± 2.09, respectively, while the control group was 11.00 ± 1.41 (P = 0.201). Moreover, β-carotene increased significantly the serum nitric oxide (NO) level and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity (P < 0.05). Characterization of fecal microbiota revealed that 90 mg/kg β-carotene increased the diversity of the gut flora (P < 0.05). In particular, β-carotene decreased the relative abundance of Firmicutes including Lachnospiraceae AC2044 group, Lachnospiraceae NK4B4 group and Ruminococcaceae UCG-008, but enriched Proteobacteria including Bilophila and Sutterella, and Actinobacteria including Corynebacterium and Corynebacterium 1 which are related to NO synthesis. These data demonstrated that dietary supplementation of β-carotene may increase antioxidant enzyme activity and NO, an important vasodilator to promote the neonatal blood circulation, through regulating gut microbiota in sows.


Biosensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Ferrari ◽  
Cecilia Palma ◽  
Simone Vesentini ◽  
Paola Occhetta ◽  
Marco Rasponi

Organs-on-chip (OoC), often referred to as microphysiological systems (MPS), are advanced in vitro tools able to replicate essential functions of human organs. Owing to their unprecedented ability to recapitulate key features of the native cellular environments, they represent promising tools for tissue engineering and drug screening applications. The achievement of proper functionalities within OoC is crucial; to this purpose, several parameters (e.g., chemical, physical) need to be assessed. Currently, most approaches rely on off-chip analysis and imaging techniques. However, the urgent demand for continuous, noninvasive, and real-time monitoring of tissue constructs requires the direct integration of biosensors. In this review, we focus on recent strategies to miniaturize and embed biosensing systems into organs-on-chip platforms. Biosensors for monitoring biological models with metabolic activities, models with tissue barrier functions, as well as models with electromechanical properties will be described and critically evaluated. In addition, multisensor integration within multiorgan platforms will be further reviewed and discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 6425
Author(s):  
Hidenori Takahashi ◽  
Shinya Omori ◽  
Hideyuki Asada ◽  
Hirofumi Fukawa ◽  
Yusuke Gotoh ◽  
...  

Cellulose nanofibre (CNF), a material composed of ultrafine fibres of wood cellulose fibrillated to nano-order level, is expected to be widely used because of its excellent properties. However, in the field of geotechnical engineering, almost no progress has been made in the development of techniques for using CNFs. The authors have focused on the use of CNF as an additive in cement treatment for soft ground, where cement is added to solidify the ground, because CNF can reduce the problems associated with cement-treated soil. This paper presents the results of a study on the method of mixing CNF, the strength and its variation obtained by adding CNF, and the change in permeability. CNF had the effect of mixing the cement evenly and reducing the variation in the strength of the treated soil. The CNF mixture increased the strength at the initial age but reduced the strength development in the long term. The addition of CNF also increased the flexural strength, although it hardly changed the permeability.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 413
Author(s):  
Saad Saeed AlShahrani ◽  
Mana’a Saleh AlAbbas ◽  
Isadora Martini Garcia ◽  
Maha Ibrahim AlGhannam ◽  
Muath Abdulrahman AlRuwaili ◽  
...  

This review aimed to assess the antimicrobial effects of different antibacterial agents/compounds incorporated in resin-based dental sealants. Four databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science and Scopus) were searched. From the 8052 records retrieved, 275 records were considered eligible for full-text screening. Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Data extraction and quality assessment was performed by two independent reviewers. Six of the nineteen included studies were judged to have low risk of bias, and the rest had medium risk of bias. Compounds and particles such as zinc, tin, Selenium, chitosan, chlorhexidine, fluoride and methyl methacrylate were found to be effective in reducing the colony-forming unit counts, producing inhibition zones, reducing the optical density, reducing the metabolic activities, reducing the lactic acid and polysaccharide production and neutralizing the pH when they are added to the resin-based dental sealants. In addition, some studies showed that the antibacterial effect was not significantly different after 2 weeks, 2 months and 6 months aging in distilled water or phosphate-buffered saline. In conclusion, studies have confirmed the effectiveness of adding antibacterial agents/compounds to dental sealants. However, we should consider that these results are based on laboratory studies with a high degree of heterogeneity.


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