The Influence of Betulin and Its Derivatives EB5 and ECH147 on the Antioxidant Status of Human Renal Proximal Tubule Epithelial Cells

Betulin and its derivatives, 28-propyne derivative EB5 and 29-diethyl phosphonate analog ECH147, are promising compounds in anti-tumor activity studies. However, their effect on kidney cells has not yet been studied. The study aimed to determine whether betulin and its derivatives—EB5 and ECH147—influence the viability and oxidative status of human renal proximal tubule epithelial cells (RPTECs). The total antioxidant capacity of cells (TEAC), lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) level, and activity of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, and GPX) were evaluated. Additionally, the mRNA level of genes encoding antioxidant enzymes was assessed. Cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil were used as reference substances. Betulin and its derivatives affected the viability and antioxidant systems of RPTECs. Betulin strongly reduced TEAC in a concentration-dependent manner. All tested compounds caused an increase in MDA levels. The activity of SOD, CAT, and GPX, and the mRNA profiles of genes encoding antioxidant enzymes depended on the tested compound and its concentration. Betulin showed an cisplatin-like effect, indicating its nephrotoxic potential. Betulin derivatives EB5 and ECH147 showed different impacts on the antioxidant system, which gives hope that these compounds will not cause severe consequences for the kidneys in vivo.     

Seed Quantity or Quality?—Reproductive Responses of Females of Two Dioecious Woody Species to Long-Term Fertilisation

Although seed quality and quantity, as well as reproductive performance are important life history stages of plants, little is known about the reproductive responses of trees to environmental changes such as increased anthropogenic deposition of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Dioecious plants are good models with which to test the environmental impact on female or male reproductive responses individually. We analysed effects of different long-term nutritional availability on the reproductive performance of two dioecious species (Taxus baccata L. and Juniperus communis L.) characterised by different life histories. By using pot experiments with vegetatively propagated plants grown in different fertilisation conditions, we observed an increase in plant growth and strobili production but a decrease in seed efficiency. Seeds produced by fertilised plants had greater seed mass. Fertiliser addition did not change C or N content nor the C/N ratio of T. baccata seeds, but increased N content and the N/P ratio; however, it did lower the C/N ratio in J. communis. Fertilisation did not change the metabolite profile in T. baccata but 18 metabolites were changed in J. communis. The study revealed new links between species life history, environmental changes, and reproduction. The findings imply that future environmental conditions may alter both seed productivity, and quality, as well as plant reproductive behaviour.     

The WWOX/HIF1A Axis Downregulation Alters Glucose Metabolism and Predispose to Metabolic Disorders

Recent reports indicate that the hypoxia-induced factor (HIF1α) and the Warburg effect play an initiating role in glucotoxicity, which underlies disorders in metabolic diseases. WWOX has been identified as a HIF1α regulator. WWOX downregulation leads to an increased expression of HIF1α target genes encoding glucose transporters and glycolysis’ enzymes. It has been proven in the normoglycemic mice cells and in gestational diabetes patients. The aim of the study was to determine WWOX’s role in glucose metabolism regulation in hyperglycemia and hypoxia to confirm its importance in the development of metabolic disorders. For this purpose, the WWOX gene was silenced in human normal fibroblasts, and then cells were cultured under different sugar and oxygen levels. Thereafter, it was investigated how WWOX silencing alters the genes and proteins expression profile of glucose transporters and glycolysis pathway enzymes, and their activity. In normoxia normoglycemia, higher glycolysis genes expression, their activity, and the lactate concentration were observed in WWOX KO fibroblasts in comparison to control cells. In normoxia hyperglycemia, it was observed a decrease of insulin-dependent glucose uptake and a further increase of lactate. It likely intensifies hyperglycemia condition, which deepen the glucose toxic effect. Then, in hypoxia hyperglycemia, WWOX KO caused weaker glucose uptake and elevated lactate production. In conclusion, the WWOX/HIF1A axis downregulation alters glucose metabolism and probably predispose to metabolic disorders.     

Comparitive study on facilitated pertraction of succinic acid using TRI‐n‐octylamine without and with 1‐octanol

Succinic acid has been pertracted with TOA using free liquid membranes without or with 1‐octanol. The addition of the alcohol led to the increase of up to 2.8–3 times of the acid's initial and final mass flows. At the same time, the influence of 1‐octanol on the transport capacity of the pertraction system was negative, its addition inducing the accumulation of succinic acid into the liquid membrane. A mathematical model describing the acid accumulation inside the liquid membrane has been developed for pertraction systems without and with 1‐octanol and offers good concordance with the experimental data. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering     

Structural and electrical properties of Cr-doped SrTiO3 porous materials

Series of single-phase materials with assumed formula SrTi_1?xCr_xO₃ (where x = 0, 1, 4, 6 mol.%) were obtained by sol-gel method. The structure and microstructure of materials were characterised by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy methods. Moreover, the study of electrical properties and evaluation of chemical stability in CO₂/H₂O atmosphere was performed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and thermogravimery methods, respectively. The possibility of participation of Cr-doped strontium titanate in oxidation–reduction processes was analysed by temperature-programed reduction (TPR) and temperature-programed oxidation (TPOx) measurements. The changes of lattice parameters together with XPS analysis, the Seebeck coefficient measurements results and TPR profiles obtained for SrTi_1?xCr_xO₃ materials prove the presence of chromium on +3 and +6 oxidation stages. Thus, chromium can be treated as both acceptor- and donor-type dopant in the SrTiO₃ structure. The Cr³⁺/Cr⁶⁺ ratio strongly affects the electrical properties, as the change of conduction mechanism was observed. The results of performed stability test clearly indicate that incorporation of chromium into SrTiO₃ structure results with decrease of chemical stability in CO₂ atmosphere.     

Influence of addition of green tea and green coffee extracts on the properties of fine yeast pastry fried products

This study investigated the influence of antioxidants of green tea aqueous extract (GTE) and green coffee aqueous extract (GCE) in concentrations of 0.25, 0.5 and 1 g·100 g^? 1 on the nutritional properties of fine yeast pastry fried products such as donuts. Yeast donuts were made according to the traditional processing technology. In fried donuts physical properties (water activity, pH, hardness and color with the use of instrumental methods) as well as sensory properties were established. Moreover, quality of fat extracted from donuts (composition of fatty acids and peroxide value), content of acrylamide, composition of polyphenols and antioxidant activity were analyzed. Obtained extracts of GTE and GCE contained 26 and 41% of polyphenols, respectively, and the degree of polyphenol degradation during production of donuts was less when the dilution in dough was greater. Both tests indicated that the highest antioxidant activity had donuts with the highest analyzed addition of extract, however depending on the applied test or GTE or GCE had better antioxidant properties. Fatty acid composition was the most beneficial when the addition of GTE and GCE was on a level of 0.25 and 0.5 g·100 g^? 1, respectively. In fried donuts relatively low amounts of acrylamide were obtained, amounting to 18–46 μg·kg^? 1. Only the lowest addition of GTE and the highest addition of GCE caused an increase of acrylamide content in donuts, while all other levels of added extracts caused a decrease in the content of formed acrylamide.     

Selectivity enhancement in the catalytic heterogeneous hydrogenation of limonene in supercritical carbon dioxide by an ionic liquid

Ionic liquids as coated catalysts or additives tremendously alter the selectivity pattern of the heterogeneous solid catalyst in the selective hydrogenation of limonene. The conventional monometallic ruthenium over alumina catalyst combined with an ionic liquid enables the one-pot synthesis of the intermediate p-menthene through limonene hydrogenation in supercritical carbon dioxide. Among eight screened imidazolium ILs, [C₁₀mim]NTf₂ was employed as additive, or as the coating agent of ruthenium catalyst in the reaction under supercritical conditions.The coating of the heterogeneous catalyst allows the selective production of p-menthene and increases the conversion level of limonene (>99%) compared to the conversion of limonene in the reaction carried out in the presence of an ionic liquid as an additive. Results of the catalyst recycling indicate that there is no depletion of catalyst reactivity even after four successive cycles of operation under the studied reaction conditions. Further hydrogenation of p-menthene is strongly inhibited by employing an ionic liquid. The solubility of limonene or p-menthene in an ionic liquid governs the selective hydrogenation of limonene towards p-menthene.     

The role of proteomics in the study of the influence of climate change on seafood products

The climate change influence over the oceans has been the subject of numerous articles informs and strategies from different scientific perspectives, focused mainly in the ecological impact. The majority of the related studies have been focused in measuring or predicting the physical, chemical, geographical, sociological and economical consequences of this reality, which seems to be unstoppable, and only a few of them are devoted to detect the effects of the climate change over the quality of seafood products, wild or cultivated.The stress produced in marine organisms by the consequences of climate change is reflected at the cell molecular level, being affected the metabolite concentration, the expression of proteins and their modifications. The study of the climate change may take advantage of these molecular changes, which may be used as a source of possible biomarkers of its evolution.After the genomic age, proteomics appears as a young but robust discipline for a global study of the protein content in cells, including their identification, possible modifications, quantification of differential expression and tissue localization, being the most adequate set of methodologies to evidence protein changes in marine organisms affected by climate variations. In the last decade proteomic technologies have experienced an exponential development, but the research has been mainly applied to biomedical and human health research, being scarcely focused to the study of the marine environment. The application of the proteomics methods to study the effects of climate change over seafood, mainly from the safety point of view, is reviewed.     

Optimizing Grid-Based Workflow Execution

Large-scale applications can be expressed as a set of tasks with data dependencies between them, also known as application workflows. Due to the scale and data processing requirements of these applications, they require Grid computing and storage resources. So far, the focus has been on developing easy to use interfaces for composing these workflows and finding an optimal mapping of tasks in the workflow to the Grid resources in order to minimize the completion time of the application. After this mapping is done, a workflow execution engine is required to run the workflow over the mapped resources. In this paper, we show that the performance of the workflow execution engine in executing the workflow can also be a critical factor in determining the workflow completion time. Using Condor as the workflow execution engine, we examine the various factors that affect the completion time of a fine granularity astronomy workflow. We show that changing the system parameters that influence these factors and restructuring the workflow can drastically reduce the completion time of this class of workflows. We also examine the effect on the optimizations developed for the astronomy application on a coarser granularity biology application. We were able to reduce the completion time of the Montage and the Tomography application workflows by 90% and 50%, respectively.