Differential Subcellular Distribution of Cytokinins: How Does Membrane Transport Fit into the Big Picture?

Cytokinins are a class of phytohormones, signalling molecules specific to plants. They act as regulators of diverse physiological processes in complex signalling pathways. It is necessary for plants to continuously regulate cytokinin distribution among different organs, tissues, cells, and compartments. Such regulatory mechanisms include cytokinin biosynthesis, metabolic conversions and degradation, as well as cytokinin membrane transport. In our review, we aim to provide a thorough picture of the latter. We begin by summarizing cytokinin structures and physicochemical properties. Then, we revise the elementary thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of cytokinin membrane transport. Next, we review which membrane-bound carrier proteins and protein families recognize cytokinins as their substrates. Namely, we discuss the families of “equilibrative nucleoside transporters” and “purine permeases”, which translocate diverse purine-related compounds, and proteins AtPUP14, AtABCG14, AtAZG1, and AtAZG2, which are specific to cytokinins. We also address long-distance cytokinin transport. Putting all these pieces together, we finally discuss cytokinin distribution as a net result of these processes, diverse in their physicochemical nature but acting together to promote plant fitness.     

Dynamic “Molecular Portraits” of Biomembranes Drawn by Their Lateral Nanoscale Inhomogeneities

To date, it has been reliably shown that the lipid bilayer/water interface can be thoroughly characterized by a sophisticated so-called “dynamic molecular portrait”. The latter reflects a combination of time-dependent surface distributions of various physicochemical properties, inherent in both model lipid bilayers and natural multi-component cell membranes. One of the most important features of biomembranes is their mosaicity, which is expressed in the constant presence of lateral inhomogeneities, the sizes and lifetimes of which vary in a wide range—from 1 to 10³ nm and from 0.1 ns to milliseconds. In addition to the relatively well-studied macroscopic domains (so-called “rafts”), the analysis of micro- and nanoclusters (or domains) that form an instantaneous picture of the distribution of structural, dynamic, hydrophobic, electrical, etc., properties at the membrane-water interface is attracting increasing interest. This is because such nanodomains (NDs) have been proven to be crucial for the proper membrane functioning in cells. Therefore, an understanding with atomistic details the phenomena associated with NDs is required. The present mini-review describes the recent results of experimental and in silico studies of spontaneously formed NDs in lipid membranes. The main attention is paid to the methods of ND detection, characterization of their spatiotemporal parameters, the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of their formation. Biological role of NDs in cell membranes is briefly discussed. Understanding such effects creates the basis for rational design of new prospective drugs, therapeutic approaches, and artificial membrane materials with specified properties.     

Red-Blood-Cell-Membrane-Coated Metal-Drug Nanoparticles for Enhanced Chemotherapy

To overcome high toxicity, low bioavailability and poor water solubility of chemotherapeutics, a variety of drug carriers have been designed. However, most carriers are severely limited by low drug loading capacity and adverse side effects. Here, a new type of metal-drug nanoparticles (MDNs) was designed and synthesized. The MDNs self-assembled with Fe(III) ions and drug molecules through coordination, resulting in nanoparticles with high drug loading. To assist systemic delivery and prolong circulation time, the obtained MDNs were camouflaged with red blood cell (RBCs) membranes (RBCs@Fe-DOX MDNs) to improve their stability and dispersity. The RBCs@Fe-DOX MDNs presented pH-responsive release functionalities, resulting in drug release accelerated in acidic tumor microenvironments. The outstanding in vitro and in vivo antitumor therapeutic outcome was realized by RBCs@Fe-DOX MDNs. This study provides an innovative design guideline for chemotherapy and demonstrates the great capacity of nanomaterials in anticancer treatments.     

An experimental evaluation of the effects of ripple current generated by the power conditioning stage on a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack

In this article, an impedance model of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack (PEMFCS) is proposed. The proposed study employs an equivalent circuit of the PEMFCS derived by the frequency response analysis technique. An equivalent circuit for the PEMFCS is developed to evaluate the effects of ripple currents generated by the power-conditioning unit. The calculated results are then verified by means of experiments using a commercially available PEMFCS. The relationship between ripple current and fuel cell performance, such as power loss and fuel consumption, is investigated. Experimental results show that the ripple current can contribute up to a 6% reduction in the available output power. This paper was presented at the Fuel Cells: Materials, Processing, and Manufacturing Technologies Symposium sponsored by the Energy/Utilities Industrial Sector & Ground Transportation Industrial Sector and the Specialty Materials Critical Technologies Sector at the ASM International Materials Solutions Conference, October 13–15, 2003, in Pittsburgh, PA. The symposium was organized by P. Singh, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, S.C. Deevi, Philip Morris USA, T. Armstrong, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and T. Dubois, U.S. Army CECOM.     

液膜法分离富集,测定水中微量锶

用乳状液膜体系对锶进行分离富集，该体系包括协同流动载体（ＰＭＢＰ，ＴＢＰ），表面活性剂（ＳＰＡＮ８０）增强剂（丙三醇）溶剂（正己烷）和内相（１．２ｍｏｌ／Ｌ的盐酸溶液），实验表明，在适宜的条件下，锶的富集效率可达９９．５％以上，而在此条件下许多共存离子，如Ｆｅ＾３＋，Ａｌ＾３＋，Ｃａ＾２＋，Ｍｇ＾２＋，Ｂａ＾２＋，Ｃｒ＾３＋，ＣＯ＾２＋，Ｎｉ＾２＋，Ｚｒ＾４＋，Ｃｕ＾２＋，Ｚｎ＾２＋，Ｐｂ＾２＋和     

Zeolite based films, membranes and membrane reactors: Progress and prospects

The integration of reaction and separation in catalytic membrane reactors has received increasing attention during the past 30 years. The combination promises to deliver more compact and less capital-intensive processes with substantial savings in energy consumption. With the advent of new inorganic materials and processing techniques, there has been renewed interest in exploiting the benefits of membranes in many industrial applications. Zeolite membranes, however, have only recently been considered for catalytic membrane reactor applications. Despite the significant recent interest in these types of membranes there are relatively few reports of the application of such membranes in high-temperature catalytic membrane reactor applications. This can be attributed to a number of limitations that still need to be addressed such as the relatively high price of membrane units, the difficulty of controlling the membrane thickness, permeance, high-temperature sealing, reproducibility and the dilemma of upscaling. A number of research efforts, with some degree of success have been directed to finding solutions to the remaining challenges. This review makes a critical assessment of what has been achieved in the past few years in terms of hurdles that still stand in the way of the successful implementation of zeolite membrane reactors in industry.     

Rheological evaluation of the influence of polymer concentration and molar mass distribution on the formation and performance of asymmetric gas separation membranes prepared by dry phase inversion

Asymmetric gas separation membranes were prepared by the dry-casting technique from PEEKWC, a modified amorphous glassy poly(ether ether ketone). The phase inversion process and membrane performance were correlated to the properties of the polymer and the casting solution (molar mass, polymer concentration, solution rheology and thermodynamics). It was found that a broad molar mass distribution of the polymer in the casting solution is most favourable for the formation of a highly selective membrane with a dense skin and a porous sub-layer. Thus, membranes with an effective skin thickness of less than 1 μm were obtained, exhibiting a maximum O₂/N₂ selectivity of 7.2 and a CO₂/CH₄ selectivity of 39, both significantly higher than in a corresponding thick dense PEEKWC membrane and also comparable to or higher than that of the most commonly used polymers for gas separation membranes. The CO₂ and O₂ permeance were up to 9.5×10⁻³ and 1.8×10⁻³ m³/(m² h bar) (3.5 and 0.67 GPU), respectively.     

低截留分子质量新型聚芳醚腈酮超滤膜的研制

以新型聚芳醚腈酮为膜材料 ,以N -甲基 - 2 -吡咯烷酮 (NMP)为溶剂 ,研究了聚合物浓度、添加剂种类及含量、凝胶浴温度等对超滤膜性能的影响。结果表明 ,聚合物质量分数以 1 2 %～ 1 3 %为合适的制膜浓度 ,以聚乙二醇PEG - 4 0 0为添加剂时获得了高截留率和高水通量的超滤膜。随着凝胶浴温度的升高 ,水通量明显增大 ,而截留率有所下降 ,而共聚物的浓度增加则有相反的效果。制得的超滤膜具有较低的截留分子量 (PEG- 2 0 0 0 ) ,将制得的超滤膜用于达旦黄、黄X-G等染料的分离 ,截留率均达 90 %以上     

Acrylonitrile-based copolymer membranes containing reactive groups: Surface modification by the immobilization of biomacromolecules

Asymmetric membranes fabricated from poly(acrylonitrile-co-maleic acid) (PANCMA) were immobilized with heparin and/or insulin to improve their surface properties. These biomacromolecule-immobilized PANCMA membranes were prepared by the amination of the membrane surface with ethylenediamine, followed by the reaction of the amino groups with heparin and/or insulin in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl amidopropyl) carbodiimide. The surface-modified membranes were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to confirm the immobilization of the biomacromolecules. Morphological changes on the membrane surface and in the cross section were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The surface hydrophilicity and hemocompatibility of the studied membranes were evaluated on the basis of water contact angle, platelets adhesion and cell attachment measurements. It was found that, after the immobilization of the biomacromolecules, the water contact angle and the amount of adhered platelets and macrophages on the membrane decreased significantly when compared with the nascent ones, indicating the improvement of surface hydrophilicity. Furthermore, the heparin immobilized membrane showed the best hemocompatibility among the corresponding membranes studied.