Effect of oxidized oil on lipogenic enzymes

Male Wistar rats were fed for 4 wk on diets containing 2% oxidized corn oil. Liver tissue was then studied to determine the effect of feeding peroxidized oil on lipogenic enzymes. Although substances which reacted with thiobarbituric acid increased in liver microsomes and mitochondria with increasing peroxide values of the dietary corn oil fed, the activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme and acetyl-CoA carboxylase in liver were unchanged. However, when rats were fed for 2 wk on diets containing 10% fat, of which 0.5, 5 or 10% was unoxidized corn oil and the remainder was hydrogenated beef tallow filler, the lipogenic enzyme activities and also the liver triglyceride levels were observed to decrease with increasing amounts of dietary corn oil. Therefore, although a synthetic diet containing corn oil was easy to oxidize spontaneously, the reductions of lipogenic enzymes in rats fed the diet would not have been caused by lipid peroxides but by unsaturated fatty acids themselves.     

Comparative study of lipogenic enzymes in several vertebrates

The liver lipogenic enzymes are compared among rats, chickens, frogs and fish. Although the apparent Km values of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase for glucose-6-phosphate are not much different among all the species, those of malic enzyme for malate are much higher in chickens and fish than in rats and frogs. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase showed very high activities compared with malic enzyme in fish liver, and malic enzyme showed high activities in chicken liver. Although the apparent Km values of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthetase for substrates are in the same range among all the animals, the activity of acetyl-CoA carboxylase seems to be extremely low in fish and frog livers, and that of fatty acid synthetase is low in frog livers only. In addition, the apparent Km values of α-glycerophosphate acyltransferase of fish liver are very high, and the enzyme activity appears to be extremely low compared to the others. Therefore, the enzymes at the first steps of both fatty acid and glycerolipid syntheses of poikilothermos animals appear to be very low. On the other hand, the Ouchterlony double-diffusion patterns showed that the lipogenic enzymes of chickens, frogs and fish are immunologically different from those of rats, with the exception of acetyl-CoA carboxylase in chickens. Therefore, it is suggested that the fatty acid and glycerolipid forming systems of poikilothermos animals are quite different from those of homoiothermos and the lipogenesis is very low in poikilothermos.     

New coprimeness over multivariable polynomial matrices and its application to control delay systems

This paper presents a new notion of coprimeness over multivariable polynomial matrices, where a single variable is given priority over the remaining variables. From a characterization through a set of common zeros of the minors, it is clarified that the presented coprimeness is equivalent to weakly zero coprimeness in the particular variable. An application of the presented coprimeness to control systems with non-commensurate delays and finite spectrum assignment is also presented. Because the presented coprimeness is stronger than minor coprimeness, non-commensurate delays are difficult to deal with in algebraic control theory. The “rational ratio condition” between delays, which can reduce non-commensurate delays to commensurate delays, proves to be both powerful and practical concept in algebraic control theory for delay systems.     

Asymmetric distribution of arachidonic and n−3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in rat liver microsomal membranes under a fat-free diet

Rats adapted to a corn oil or a fish oil diet were fed a fat-free diet, and changes in phospholipid polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the inner and outer leaflets of liver microsomal membranes were followed for 18 wk. In rats previously adapted to a corn oil diet, arachidonic acid in phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine in the inner and outer leaflets did not decrease quickly; rather, linoleic acid decreased more than arachidonic acid for the first three weeks of feeding the fat-free diet. Even at 18 wk, 40–50% of the beginning arachidonic acid levels were still retained. In contrast, in rats previously adapted to a fish oil diet, the n−3 PUFA were quickly decreased by the fat-free diet to only 10–30% at 18 wk. Due to the appearance and increase of n−9 eicosatrienoic acid in the replacement of the n−3 and n−6 PUFA, total PUFA did not decrease in the inner and outer phosphatidylcholine in either group, but decreased somewhat in the phosphatidylethanolamine due to the insufficient increase of the n−9. On the other hand, the overall degrees of unsaturation in phosphatidylcholine fatty acids were always higher in the outer than in the inner leaflets and were not altered by feeding the fat-free diet even for 18 wk. Thus, the results appear to reveal the physiological importance of unsaturation ratio of fatty acids and the necessity of arachidonic acid in each membrane leaflet.     

Effect of Nd2O3 Concentration on the Defect Structure of CeO2–Nd2O3 Solid Solution

An extensive X-ray study of CeO₂–Nd₂O₃ solid solutions was performed, and the densities of solid solutions containing various concentrations of NdO_1.5 were measured using several techniques. Solid solutions containing 0–80 mol% NdO_1.5 were synthesized by coprecipitation from Ce(NO₃)₃ and Nd(NO₃)₃ aqueous solutions, and the coprecipitated samples were sintered at 1400°C. A fluorite structure was observed for CeO₂–NdO_1.5 solid solutions with 0–40 mol% NdO_1.5, which changed to a rare earth C-type structure at 45–75 mol% NdO_1.5. The change in the lattice parameters of CeO₂–NdO_1.5 solid solutions, when plotted with respect to the NdO_1.5 concentration, showed that the lattice parameters followed Vegard's law in both the fluorite and rare earth C-type regions. The maximum solubility limit for NdO_1.5 in CeO₂ solid solution was approximately 75 mol%. The relationship between the density and the Nd concentration indicated that the defect structure followed the anion vacancy model over the entire range (0–70 mol% NdO_1.5) of solid solution.     

Determination of alkylphenols,bisphenol A,benzophenone and phthalates in containers of baby food,and migration into food simulants

Infants, whose growth and development are highly dependent upon the endocrine system, are particularly vulnerable to endocrine disruptor exposure. In our study, we examined whether or not alkylphenols, bisphenol A, benzophenone, di(2-ethylhexyl)adipate and 10 phthalates are present in containers of baby food. Furthermore, the migration into food-simulating solvents was also examined. Sixteen types of containers of baby food, obtained on the Japanese market in 2001, were examined: 8 glass bottle types, 1 plastic type, 1 metallic package (laminated with plastic) and 6 multilayered laminated film packages. Alkylphenols, benzophenone, bisphenol A and di(2-ethylhexyl)adipate were not detected in any of the samples. On the other hand, dibutylphthalate (DBP) was detected in 7 samples (1.2-9.1 micrograms/sample), and di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) was detected in 15 samples (1.3-18 micrograms/sample). Migration tests were carried out for 5 samples, and the levels of DBP and DEHP that migrated into n-heptane were 0.68-1.7 micrograms/sample and 0.33-3.5 micrograms/sample, respectively. From these results, a baby's intake levels of DBP and DEHP were estimated to be about 1/2,500 and 1/90-300 of the tolerable daily intake (TDI), respectively.