Coconut oil and its byproducts

Byproducts of processing coconut fruit include coconut water usable as a carbohydrate beverage or fermentable substance; the husk, as a source of fibers, charcoal and chemicals; and the shell, usable primarily as a source of carbon. Coconut-shell activated carbon is discussed in detail. This effective adsorbent has increasing applications in industrial and environmental processes.     

Relationship of decreased chemotaxis of technetium-99m-HMPAO-labeled lymphocytes to apoptosis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate chemotaxis and its relationship to apoptosis in 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled lymphocytes. METHODS: Peripheral lymphocytes, obtained from 12 healthy volunteers using lymphoprep, were divided in three equal fractions. One fraction was used as the control, one was labeled with cold HMPAO and one was labeled with 1.5 mCi (55.5 Mbq) 99mTc-HMPAO. Chemotaxis of T-lymphocytes was measured by the Boyden microchamber technique (BMA) (n = 8) using human monocyte chemotactic protein-3 (MCP-3) as chemoattractans. A chemotactic index was calculated as the number of HMPAO and 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled cells that migrated towards the MCP-3 solution, divided by the number of nonlabeled migrated lymphocytes. Apoptosis evaluation (n = 10) of unlabeled, HMPAO-labeled and 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled cells was performed using flowcytometry (FCM) forward light scatter analysis, 900 light scatter analysis, fluorescein-isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled Annexin V and dye exclusion of propidium iodide. RESULTS: Chemotaxis of 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled T-lymphocytes was found to be reduced by approximately 31% (migration index of 0.69) (p = 0.01) as compared to both unlabeled and HMPAO-labeled lymphocytes, both the latter showing no difference in migration index. Whereas the mean percentages apoptotic lymphocytes in the unlabeled, 18.5%, and HMPAO-labeled fraction, 16.6%, were more or less comparable (p = 0.1), the mean percentage apoptotic cells in the 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled fraction was 51.8%, yielding a difference of 33.3% between 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled and unlabeled cells (p = 0.003). The procentual concordance between apoptotic cells (33.3%) and chemotactic impaired cells (31%) in the 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled fraction may be explained by the formation of a rigid cytoskeleton early in the apoptotic process that may theoretically limit chemotaxis. CONCLUSION: Using the BMA, chemotaxis of 99mTc-HMPAO-labeled lymphocytes was found to be reduced by approximately 31%. Furthermore, the percentage apoptotic lymphocytes induced by irradiation after labeling with 99mTc-HMPAO concurs well with the percentage of chemotaxis impaired cells.     

Autoimmune hepatitis treated with cyclosporin revealed by acute hepatocellular failure

The kidney bears the brunt of the demands of a tropical climate for water and electrolyte homeostasis. We hypothesised that a tropical climate may cause adaptive changes in the entire organism leading to altered renal function in our subjects. Hence renal function data for residents of a temperate climate may not be applicable to tropical residents. We therefore sought to elucidate renal function in subjects residing in a tropical climate. We used lithium clearance, CLi, a non-invasive tool for assessing proximal tubular function in humans, and endogenous creatinine clearance, CCr, to estimate proximal tubular function and glomerular function, respectively, in our subjects. We did this in order to establish whether or not nephron function in our subjects differs from that for residents of a temperate climate. Nineteen male and 12 female Ghanaian subjects aged between 15 and 48 years were studied. The estimated GCr was 117.3 +/- 6.6 ml/min for male subjects and 97 +/- 6.4 ml/min for female subjects. CLi was 20.3 +/- 1.6 ml/min for male and 19.1 +/- 0.4 ml/min for female subjects, respectively. The estimated absolute reabsorption rate of fluid of proximal tubules was 97.0 +/- 6.0 ml/min for males and 78.1 +/- 6.0 ml/min for females. The percentage proximal fluid reabsorption for male and female subjects was 81.2 +/- 1.4 and 79.5 +/- 1.6, respectively. The differences between male and female values (mean +/- SEM) were not statistically significant. The data suggest that the proximal tubule in residents of a tropical climate may reabsorb more fluid compared to that in residents of a temperate climate. Our values for proximal tubular reabsorption are higher than those reported for residents of a temperature climate. Our estimate of glomerular filtration, however, is similar to published data for Caucasians. The difference in proximal tubular function may reflect possible renal adaptation to a hot, humid climate. We conclude that renal function of tropical residents differs from that of residents of a temperate climate. This difference may be due to renal adaptation to the hot, tropical climate.     

A research agenda for school violence prevention.

Comments on the literature review by E. P. Mulvey and E. Cauffman (see record 2001-18772-002) that called for the promotion of healthy school environments to reduce school violence. The authors note several significant omissions and inaccurancies that undermined Mulvey and Cauffman's efforts to advance knowledge and research about school violence prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mechanism-based inactivation of a yeast methylamine oxidase mutant: implications for the functional role of the consensus sequence surrounding topaquinone

The copper-containing yeast methylamine oxidase E406N mutant has an altered consensus sequence surrounding the topaquinone cofactor (residue 405). The mutation has no effect on the final yield of the active-site topaquinone cofactor during biogenesis but causes the enzyme to be inactivated by substrate methylamine [Cai, D., and Klinman, J. P. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 7674-7653]. In this study we show that the inactivation leads to the formation of a covalent adduct, which has a UV/vis spectrum very similar to that of a product Schiff base, an intermediate of topaquinone-catalyzed amine oxidation reactions. The kinetic isotope effects on the second-order rate constant for the inactivation and catalytic turnover are identical, indicating that the two processes share a common intermediate that follows C_H bond cleavage. Resonance Raman spectroscopy provides direct evidence for the accumulation of a neutral product Schiff base species. Removal of excess methylamine leads to recovery of both activity and the native absorption spectrum for E406N, indicating that the cofactor in the inactivated enzyme is chemically competent for hydrolysis. The rate of the reactivation is slow, however; the shortest half-life of the inhibited E406N at 25 degrees C is 5.9 min at pH 6.15. pH effect experiments show that the inactivation and reactivation steps are controlled by a single ionizable group with a pKa of 6.9-7.1; under basic conditions, when this residue is deprotonated, the inactivation is the fastest and the half-life of the inhibited enzyme is the longest. On the basis of the available crystal structures of copper amine oxidases, we propose that a histidine residue in the dimer interface is responsible for the observed ionization. In the wild-type enzyme this histidine is kept protonated by virtue of Glu at position 406. Unlike methylamine, the larger substrates ethylamine and benzylamine give normal turnover with E406N. Disruption of structure at the subunit interface in E406N may allow a rotation of the relatively small topa-product Schiff base complex (formed from methylamine) away from the active-site base to a conformation that is incompetent toward hydrolysis.