Biocompatibility of a-C:H film coating for synthetic vascular graft

Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films have many excellent properties such as biocompatibility, anti-corrosion, and chemical stability. Therefore, there are many reports on application of a-C:H film as surface modification technique for biomaterials. However, it is difficult to deposit a-C:H film on complex structures such as artificial heart blood pump and synthetic vascular grafts. In our previous work, we have developed an electrode which is adapted to such irregular structures for plasma CVD technique.In this study, a-C:H film was deposited on a synthetic vascular graft inner-wall by r.f. plasma CVD technique with cylindrical electrode. The purpose of such coating is improvement of biocompatibility of the vascular graft. The biocompatibility of the a-C:H film was evaluated by cytocompatibility and plasma protein adhesion. For the a-C:H film deposition, cytocompatibility and protein adsorbent of the vascular grafts were improved for biological response under cell culture with mouth fibroblasts and plasma proteins (albumin, fibrinogen, and globulin), respectively. This study indicates that the a-C:H films coatings is expected to surface modification for medical appliances.     

Chondroid syringoma of the orbit

Augmentation of lips is a common aesthetic procedure that is mostly performed with alloplastic materials or autologous tissue. Various alloplastic injectable implants have been developed for soft tissue augmentation without surgery. Most biologic materials are resorbed within a few months, fluid silicone may migrate, and autologous fat is not ideal for fine contouring of the lips. The search for a biocompatible, permanent, nontoxic, and biologically inert filler material led to the development of some new materials for subdermal or intradermal implantation. Recently Bioplastique, Artecoll, and Gore-Tex have been well established and recommended by many authors. Although these materials meet most of the characteristics that constitute an ideal injectable prosthetic material, we describe 3 examples of adverse reactions after their implantation into lips.     

Classification of particles by centrifugal separator and analysis of the fluid behavior

This study gives fundamental knowledge on the particle classification performance by centrifugal separator.It is found that the cut size of a centrifugal separator decreases as the rotational speed increases and the liquid flow rate decreases. Fitting our experimental results with the theory, they agree with each other at high flow rate. However, the difference between them generates at low flow rate. This is because dead spaces are generated in the centrifugal separator at the low flow rate. Also, the computer simulation of the fluid behavior in the centrifugal separator can find the decrease of the velocity near the wall under the low flow rate, which suggests the possibility of the formation of dead spaces in the separator.     

Effects of glass composition on photodarkening in CdS-doped glasses

Photodarkening was investigated in CdS-doped glasses using luminescence and electron spin resonance (ESR). Photodarkening depends on manufacturers of glasses. The main origin of the difference in photodarkening is attributable to the difference in glass composition.     

Preparation of cured epoxy resin particles having one hollow by polyaddition reaction

In 1996, the authors proposed a novel method to prepare micron-sized, hollow cross-linked polymer particles. This method is based on the self-assembling of phase separated polymer at interface with water, which was named SaPSeP method, formed by suspension polymerization of divinyl monomer in toluene droplet dissolving previously polystyrene. The SaPSeP method was developed to be applicable to polyaddition reaction system of epoxy resin with diamine. The presence of PS dissolving in epoxy/diamine/toluene droplets promotes the phase separation of the epoxy resin reacted with the diamine. The epoxy resin molecules tend to adsorb at the interface of the droplets. These points were accord with the required conditions for the preparation of hollow particle by the SaPSeP method. Cured epoxy resin particles having one hollow were successfully prepared by the polyaddition reaction in the dispersed system of Epikote 806/630/604, of which equivalent ratio was 5/4/1.     

Screening the p53 status of human cell lines using a yeast functional assay

We have screened the p53 status of 156 human cell lines, including 142 tumor cell lines from 27 different tumor types and 14 cell lines from normal tissues by using functional analysis of separated alleles in yeast. This assay enables us to score wild-type p53 expression on the basis of the ability of expressed p53 to transactivate the reporter gene HIS3 via the p53-responsive GAL1 promotor in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Of 142 tumor cell lines, at least 104 lines (73.2%) were found to express the mutated p53 gene: 94 lines (66.2%) were mutated in both alleles, three lines (2.1%) were heterozygous, and no p53 cDNA was amplified from seven lines (4.9%). Of the 14 cell lines originating from normal tissues, all the transformed or immortalized cell lines expressed mutant p53 only. Yeast cells expressing mutant p53 derived from 94 cell lines were analyzed for temperature-sensitive growth. p53 cDNA from eight cell lines showed p53-dependent temperature-sensitive growth, growing at 30 degrees C but not at 37 degrees C. Four temperature-sensitive p53 mutations were isolated: CAT-->CGT at codon 214 (H214R), TAC-->TGC at codon 234 (Y234C), GTG-->ATG at codon 272 (V272M), and GAG-->AAG (E285K). Functionally wild-type p53 was detected in 38 tumor cell lines (26.8%) and all of the diploid fibroblasts at early and late population doubling levels. These results strongly support the previous findings that p53 inactivation is one of the most frequent genetic events that occurs during carcinogenesis and immortalization.