Measurement of Electrophysiological Signals In Vitro Using High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors

Biological environments use ions in charge transport for information transmission. The properties of mixed electronic and ionic conductivity in organic materials make them ideal candidates to transduce physiological information into electronically processable signals. A device proven to be highly successful in measuring such information is the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT). Previous electrophysiological measurements performed using OECTs show superior signal-to-noise ratios than electrodes at low frequencies. Subsequent development has significantly improved critical performance parameters such as transconductance and response time. Here, interdigitated-electrode OECTs are fabricated on flexible substrates, with one such state-of-the-art device achieving a peak transconductance of 139 mS with a 138 µs response time. The devices are implemented into an array with interconnects suitable for micro-electrocorticographic application and eight architecture variations are compared. The two best-performing arrays are subject to the full electrophysiological spectrum using prerecorded signals. With frequency filtering, kHz-scale frequencies with 10 µV-scale voltages are resolved. This is supported by a novel quantification of the noise, which compares the gate voltage input and drain current output. These results demonstrate that high-performance OECTs can resolve the full electrophysiological spectrum and suggest that superior signal-to-noise ratios could be achieved in high frequency measurements of multiunit activity.     

Macrophage Immunomodulation Through New Polymers that Recapitulate Functional Effects of Itaconate as a Power House of Innate Immunity

Itaconate (ITA) is an emerging powerhouse of innate immunity with therapeutic potential that is limited in its ability to be administered in a soluble form. A library of polyester materials that incorporate ITA into polymer backbones resulting in materials with inherent immunoregulatory behavior is developed. Harnessing hydrolytic degradation release from polyester backbones, ITA polymers result in the mechanism specific immunoregulatory properties on macrophage polarization in vitro. In a functional assay, the polymer-released ITA inhibits bacterial growth on acetate. Translation to an in vivo model of biomaterial associated inflammation, intraperitoneal injection of ITA polymers demonstrate a rapid resolution of inflammation in comparison to a control polymer silicone, demonstrating the value of sustained biomimetic presentation of ITA.     

Social Support and Social Strain Among Husbands and Wives: A Multilevel Analysis.

In response to recent calls in the literature for within-person examinations of social support processes over time, this study explores the relationships of spousal support, spousal strain, and well-being among husbands and wives, both within the same day and across days. Eighty-three couples were interviewed and completed a structured diary twice daily for 1 week. The results of multilevel hierarchical modeling suggest that both spousal support and spousal strain made significant, independent contributions to concurrent negative affect, although only spousal support was a significant predictor of next-day negative affect. Spousal strain interacted with spousal support to predict next-day negative affect. Direct and moderating effects of perceived marital adjustment on negative affect were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Purification of the cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane protein phospholamban from recombinant Escherichia coli

Phospholamban (PLN) was expressed in Escherichia coli as a protein fusion with glutathione S-transferase (GST). GST-PLN was mostly present in the insoluble protein fraction and accounted for approximately 50% of total insoluble protein. Attempts to suppress inclusion body formation or to use GST as an affinity-purification tag failed. A successful purification method is based on preparative SDS/PAGE and electrodialysis. From 1 g cells we typically purified 13.5 mg fusion protein with a PLN content of 2.8 mg. We genetically inserted an enterokinase (EK) protease site just in front of the PLN sequence and demonstrated the proteolytical liberation of PLN from the carrier protein. The approach described represents a substantial advancement in PLN expression and purification.     

Human stem cell assays in immune-deficient mice

Much of our understanding of the organization of the cells that comprise the hematopoietic system and the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate their development is derived from mouse models. However, knowledge of the human hematopoietic system and identification of human stem cells have, until recently, been hampered by the absence of in vivo assays that measure their repopulation capacity. The development of methods to transplant normal and leukemic human hematopoietic cells into immune-deficient SCID mice provides the foundation for human stem cell assays. This review will focus on recent evidence that normal and leukemic human stem cells can be assayed in these systems.     

Normal-incidence InAs self-assembled quantum-dot infrared photodetectors with a high detectivity

An InAs/AlGaAs quantum-dot infrared photodetector based on bound-to-bound intraband transitions in undoped InAs quantum dots is reported. AlGaAs blocking layers were employed to achieve low dark current. The photoresponse peaked at 6.2 /spl mu/m. At 77 K and -0.7 V bias, the responsivity was 14 mA/W and the detectivity, D*, was 10/sup 10/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W.     

Epilepsy, retarded growth and onchocerciasis, in two areas of different endemicity of onchocerciasis in Burundi

A high prevalence of epilepsy (up to 1.3%) was observed in an area hyperendemic for onchocerciasis in the province of Bururi, Burundi. Following this observation, epileptics and controls were examined in 2 communes (administrative units) with different endemicity for onchocerciasis. Altogether, onchocerciasis was more frequent in epileptics (81.8%) than in controls from the same households (68.3%; P < 0.05). This difference was more marked in the hyperendemic area. Other possible causes of epilepsy, including cysticercosis, were infrequent (18 possible cases among 110 epileptics). During this survey, 9 epileptics with growth retardation were seen. They showed most characteristics of Nakalanga syndrome, which was described from Uganda. All 9 such cases were suffering from onchocerciasis. These findings give more evidence of a possible association between onchocerciasis and epilepsy, and between onchocerciasis and Nakalanga syndrome.     

A method for functional magnetic resonance imaging of olfaction

A method for generating olfactory stimuli for humans within a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experimental design is described. The system incorporates a nasal-mask in which the change from odorant to no-odorant conditions occurs in less than 500 ms and is not accompanied by visual, auditory, tactile, or thermal cues. The mask provides an ordorant-free environment following prolonged ordorant presence. Specific imaging parameters that are conducive to the study of the human olfactory system are described. In a pilot study performed using these methods, the specific patterns of activation observed converged with published experimental and clinical findings.     

Scarring trachoma is associated with polymorphism in the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) gene promoter and with elevated TNF-alpha levels in tear fluid

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) may play a central role in the disease pathogenesis which occurs as a consequence of chlamydial infection. To investigate the importance of TNF-alpha gene promoter polymorphisms and TNF-alpha levels in tear fluid in scarring trachoma, a large matched-pair case-control study was performed in The Gambia. The -308A allele was present in a higher proportion of patients (28.4%) than controls (18.4%), with an increasing association for homozygotes (chi2 for trend, P = 0.032; allele frequency, 0.163 in patients and 0.099 in controls; chi2, P = 0.025). For the -238A allele, the association was similar but not significant. The disease association was highly significant when the number of either -308A or -238A sites in an individual was considered (P = 0.003). TNF-alpha promoter alleles are tightly linked to some HLA class I and II alleles, but multivariate analysis confirmed that the disease associations were independent of HLA, although a class I allele, A*6802, is also associated with disease. TNF-alpha was more frequently detected in tear samples from patients (27.6%) than from controls (15.9%), increasingly so for higher levels of detectable TNF-alpha (P = 0.015). Among patients, detectable TNF-alpha in tears was highly associated with the presence of ocular chlamydial infection (P < 0.001). The results indicate that TNF-alpha plays a major role in the tissue damage and scarring which occurs as a consequence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection.