Biocompatibility of surface treated pure titanium and titanium alloy by<Emphasis Type="Italic">in vivo</Emphasis> and<Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> test

In the present study, commercial pure Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy specimens with and without alkali and heat treatments were implanted in the abdominal connective tissue of mice. Conventional stainless steel 316L was also implanted for comparison. After three months, their biocompatibility was evaluated byin vitro andin vivo experiments. Surface structural changes of specimens due to the alkali treatment and soaking in Hank’s solution were analyzed by XRD, SEM, XPS and AES. An apatite layer, which accelerates the connection with bone, was formed more easily on the alkali treated specimens than the non-treated specimens. The number of macrophages, which is known to increase as the inflammatory reaction proceeds, was much lower for the alkali and heat treated specimens than for the others. The average thickness of the fibrous capsule formed around the implant was much thinner for the alkali and heat treated specimens than for the others.     

Apoptotic Effects of Anthocyanins from Vitis coignetiae Pulliat Are Enhanced by Augmented Enhancer of the Rudimentary Homolog (ERH) in Human Gastric Carcinoma MKN28 Cells

Evidence suggests that augmented expression of a certain gene can influence the efficacy of targeted and conventional chemotherapies. Here, we tested whether the high expression of enhancer of the rudimentary homolog (ERH), which serves as a prognostic factor in some cancers, can influence the efficacy of anthocyanins isolated from fruits of Vitis coignetiae Pulliat, Meoru in Korea (AIMs) on human gastric cancer cells. The anticancer efficacy of AIMs was augmented in ERH-transfected MKN28 cells (E-MKN28 cells). Molecularly, ERH augmented AIM-induced caspase-dependent apoptosis by activating caspase-3 and -9. The ERH-augmented apoptotic effect was related to mitochondrial depolarization and inhibition of antiapoptotic proteins, XIAP, and Bcl-2. In addition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was augmented in AIMs-treated E-MKN28 cells compared to AIMs-treated naïve MKN28 cells. In conclusion, ERH augmented AIM-induced caspase-dependent mitochondrial-related apoptosis in MKN28 cells. A decrease in expression of Bcl-2 and subsequent excessive ROS generation would be the mechanism for ERH-augmented mitochondrial-related apoptosis in AIMs-treated MKN28 cells. A decrease in expression of XIAP would be another mechanism for ERH-augmented caspase-dependent apoptosis in AIMs-treated MKN28 cells.     

Potential Antitumor Effects of 6-Gingerol in p53-Dependent Mitochondrial Apoptosis and Inhibition of Tumor Sphere Formation in Breast Cancer Cells

Hormone-specific anticancer drugs for breast cancer treatment can cause serious side effects. Thus, treatment with natural compounds has been considered a better approach as this minimizes side effects and has multiple targets. 6-Gingerol is an active polyphenol in ginger with various modalities, including anticancer activity, although its mechanism of action remains unknown. Increases in the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can lead to DNA damage and the induction of DNA damage response (DDR) mechanism, leading to cell cycle arrest apoptosis and tumorsphere suppression. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) promotes tumor growth by stimulating signaling of downstream targets that in turn activates tumor protein 53 (p53) to promote apoptosis. Here we assessed the effect of 6-gingerol treatment on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. 6-Gingerol induced cellular and mitochondrial ROS that elevated DDR through ataxia-telangiectasia mutated and p53 activation. 6-Gingerol also induced G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and mitochondrial apoptosis by mediating the BAX/BCL-2 ratio and release of cytochrome c. It also exhibited a suppression ability of tumorsphere formation in breast cancer cells. EGFR/Src/STAT3 signaling was also determined to be responsible for p53 activation and that 6-gingerol induced p53-dependent intrinsic apoptosis in breast cancer cells. Therefore, 6-gingerol may be used as a candidate drug against hormone-dependent breast cancer cells.     

The laws of silicon ingot formation by combustion reaction

The formation of a phase pure silicon ingot from SiO₂+Al+KClO₃ and Na₂SiO₃+Al+KClO₃ systems was investigated thermodynamically and experimentally under combustion mode, known also as self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). The regularities of combustion and phase formation versus KClO₃ concentration by a thermocouple technique were obtained. The morphology, chemical and phase composition of the silicon ingot were analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ICP-analysis. The method reported here proved effective in producing silicon ingots with a purity of 98%.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel aromatic condensation polymers containing rigid benzoxazole pendent groups

A new aromatic diamine monomer containing benzoxazole substituents was prepared by a multistep synthesis starting from 1,4‐dibromo‐2,5‐difluorobenzene. The diamine was polymerized with commercial aromatic dianhydride or dicarboxylic acid chloride monomers to provide several different poly(amic acid)s and polyamides with their inherent viscosities in the range of 0.24–0.46 dL/g. Thermal properties of these polymers including thermal imidization of poly(amic acid)s into polyimides were investigated by using FTIR, DSC, and TGA. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 178–185, 2004     

Effect of solution properties on nanofibrous structure of electrospun poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid)

Electrospinning of poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) in chloroform or 1,1,1,3,3,3‐hexafluoro‐2‐propanol (HFIP) was investigated, focusing on its solution parameters, to develop nonwoven biodegradable nanofibrous structures for tissue engineering. PLGA nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning of 15 wt % PLGA solution and the resulting average fiber diameters were varied with the range of 270–760 nm, depending on solution property. When small amounts of benzyl triethylammonium chloride (BTEAC) was added to the PLGA/chloroform solution, the average diameter was decreased from 760 to 450 nm and the fibers were densely amounted in a straight shape. In addition, the average fiber diameter (270 nm) of nanofibers electrospun from polar HFIP solvent was much smaller than that (760 nm) of nanofibers electrospun from nonpolar chloroform solvent. Therefore, it could be concluded that conductivity or dielectric constant of the PLGA solution was a major parameter affecting the morphology and diameter of the electrospun PLGA fibers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 1214–1221, 2006     

An adaptive genetic algorithm for the time dependent inventory routing problem

In this paper we propose an adaptive genetic algorithm that produces good quality solutions to the time dependent inventory routing problem (TDIRP) in which inventory control and time dependent vehicle routing decisions for a set of retailers are made simultaneously over a specific planning horizon. This work is motivated by the effect of dynamic traffic conditions in an urban context and the resulting inventory and transportation costs. We provide a mixed integer programming formulation for TDIRP. Since finding the optimal solutions for TDIRP is a NP-hard problem, an adaptive genetic algorithm is applied. We develop new genetic representation and design suitable crossover and mutation operators for the improvement phase. We use adaptive genetic operator proposed by Yun and Gen (Fuzzy Optim Decis Mak 2(2):161–175, 2003) for the automatic setting of the genetic parameter values. The comparison of results shows the significance of the designed AGA and demonstrates the capability of reaching solutions within 0.5 % of the optimum on sets of test problems.