Enhancement of TCE Attenuation in Soils by Natural Amendments

The objective of this study was to identify low-cost natural amendments that could be used as carbon sources and sustain a bioactive zone to promote biodegradation of TCE in contaminated shallow groundwater. The natural amendments were compared based on their geophysical characteristics as well as TCE adsorption capacities. The amendments studied included low-cost natural and agricultural materials such as eucalyptus tree mulch, pine bark mulch, muck from the Florida Everglades, SRS wetland peat, commercial compost, and peat humus. These natural substrates have relatively high organic fractions that can retard the movement of TCE while serving as carbon sources. Batch sorption studies were conducted to determine the sorption and retardation characteristics of the amendments for TCE. The experimental results were analyzed in relation to the geophysical characteristics of the amendments and compared with those of natural soils.     

Genome-wide exploration of metal tolerance protein (<Emphasis Type="Italic">MTP</Emphasis>) genes in common wheat (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum aestivum</Emphasis>): insights into metal homeostasis and biofortification

Metal transport process in plants is a determinant of quality and quantity of the harvest. Although it is among the most important of staple crops, knowledge about genes that encode for membrane-bound metal transporters is scarce in wheat. Metal tolerance proteins (MTPs) are involved in trace metal homeostasis at the sub-cellular level, usually by providing metal efflux out of the cytosol. Here, by using various bioinformatics approaches, genes that encode for MTPs in the hexaploid wheat genome (Triticum aestivum, abbreviated as Ta) were identified and characterized. Based on the comparison with known rice MTPs, the wheat genome contained 20 MTP sequences; named as TaMTP1–8A, B and D. All TaMTPs contained a cation diffusion facilitator (CDF) family domain and most members harbored a zinc transporter dimerization domain. Based on motif, phylogeny and alignment analysis, A, B and D genomes of TaMTP3–7 sequences demonstrated higher homology compared to TaMTP1, 2 and 8. With reference to their rice orthologs, TaMTP1s and TaMTP8s belonged to Zn-CDFs, TaMTP2s to Fe/Zn-CDFs and TaMTP3–7s to Mn-CDFs. Upstream regions of TaMTP genes included diverse cis-regulatory motifs, indicating regulation by developmental stage, tissue type and stresses. A scan of the coding sequences of 20 TaMTPs against published miRNAs predicted a total of 14 potential miRNAs, mainly targeting the members of most diverged groups. Expression analysis showed that several TaMTPs were temporally and spatially regulated during the developmental time-course. In grains, MTPs were preferentially expressed in the aleurone layer, which is known as a reservoir for high concentrations of iron and zinc. The work identified and characterized metal tolerance proteins in common wheat and revealed a potential involvement of MTPs in providing a sink for trace element storage in wheat grains.     

Treatment of acute hepatitis C virus infection with interferon-α 2b and ribavirin: Case report and review of the literature

   

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection becomes chronic in about 85 % of individuals as demonstrated by the persistence of HCV. It is necesseray to treat acute hepatitis C infection. Interferon-α is generally used for the treatment of acute HCV infection.     

Emergence and spread of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in a tertiary care hospital in Turkey

An intensive care unit (ICU)-based OXA-23-producing multiple-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDRAB) outbreak was detected between October 2005 and October 2006. A total of 47 patients were infected/colonized with the outbreak strain. Clinical data were available from 37 patients. The all-cause mortality rate among the patients exposed to the epidemic strain was 35% (13/37). The outbreak strain and the resistance determinants were characterized both by microbiological methods and by molecular techniques. Cloning and sequencing experiments identified ISAbaI-associated bla(oxa-23) on the chromosome. Screening of imipenem-resistant Acinetobacter isolated from the ICU during the outbreak period with PCR identified 97 isolates as positive for the ISAbaI-bla(oxa-23) structure. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and plasmid analyses with selected nonrepetitive isolates revealed the clonality. Disk diffusion on cloxacillin-supplemented agar media and the real-time PCR experiments showed that outbreak isolates are overexpressing the ampC enzyme. This study highlights the occurrence of OXA-23-producing and ampC-overexpressing MDRAB in ICUs.     

No association between polymorphism in the vascular endothelial growth factor gene at position−460 and sporadic prostate cancer in the Turkish population

The development and progression of prostate cancer (PCa) has biologically and genetically remained a mystery. A man’s risk of developing PCa is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Angiogenic cytokines like vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) play a pivotal role in tumor angiogenesis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in angiogenesis-dependent genes affect the sensibility of cancer development and progression. Therefore, we hypothesized a potential association between DNA sequence variations in VEGF −460 gene region and sporadic PCa patients in the Turkish population. 133 sporadic PCa patients and 157 healthy controls were studied. Genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. The distribution of genotype and allele frequencies of the polymorphism did not yield a statistically significant difference between patients and controls (P > 0.05). Furthermore, classification of patients by tumor-lymph nodes-metastasis (TNM), Gleason Scores (GS) and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels did not show significant differences among the VEGF −460 C>T genotypes (P > 0.05). This is the first demonstration showing that the VEGF −460 C>T polymorphism in men is not associated with sporadic PCa in the Turkish population.     

4'-deoxy iridoid glycosides from Centranthus longiflorus

The new iridoid glycosides, 4'-deoxykanokoside A and 4'-deoxykanokoside C, were isolated from the methanolic root extract of Centranthus longiflorus ssp. longiflorus. They were accompanied by the three known iridoid glycosides, kanokoside A, kanokoside C and valerosidatum, and two known phenylpropanoid glycosides, coniferin and isoconiferinoside. The structures were elucidated mainly by spectroscopic methods. The presence of 4-deoxy glucose as a part of plant glycosides is rather unusual. Cytotoxic effects of the isolated compounds were also investigated.     

The bending rigidity of mitotic chromosomes

The bending rigidities of mitotic chromosomes isolated from cultured N. viridescens (newt) and Xenopus epithelial cells were measured by observing their spontaneous thermal bending fluctuations. When combined with simultaneous measurement of stretching elasticity, these measurements constrain models for higher order mitotic chromosome structure. We measured bending rigidities of B approximately 10(-22) N. m(2) for newt and approximately 10(-23) N. m(2) for Xenopus chromosomes extracted from cells. A similar bending rigidity was measured for newt chromosomes in vivo by observing bending fluctuations in metaphase-arrested cells. Following each bending rigidity measurement, a stretching (Young's) modulus of the same chromosome was measured in the range of 10(2) to 10(3) Pa for newt and Xenopus chromosomes. For each chromosome, these values of B and Y are consistent with those expected for a simple elastic rod, B approximately YR(4), where R is the chromosome cross-section radius. Our measurements rule out the possibility that chromosome stretching and bending elasticity are principally due to a stiff central core region and are instead indicative of an internal structure, which is essentially homogeneous in its connectivity across the chromosome cross-section.     

Osmometric behavior of mouse oocytes in the presence of different intracellular sugars

In order to successfully cryopreserve oocytes using low concentrations of intracellular sugars, it is important to characterize their osmotic response in the presence of these intracellular sugars. In the present study, murine (B6D2F1) oocytes were microinjected with 0.8M glucose, trehalose or stachyose solutions to achieve an intracellular concentration equivalent to 0.1M, and then exposed to hypertonic solutions of increasing strength by supplementing an isotonic solution with 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 M of trehalose. Analysis of volumetric response of microinjected oocytes showed that the oocytes behaved as ideal osmometers in the presence of intracellular sugars and satisfied the Boyle van't Hoff relationship. Extrapolation of the osmotically inactive fraction (V macro b) from the Boyle van't Hoff relationship yielded values of 0.188+/-0.028, 0.212+/-0.042, 0.197+/-0.044, and 0.211+/-0.042 for control, glucose, trehalose and stachyose-injected oocytes, respectively. The present data revealing osmometric behavior of mouse oocytes in the presence of different intracellular sugars are important for the optimization of cryopreservation protocols using sugars.     

Cryopreservation of fetal skin is improved by extracellular trehalose

In this study, we tested a non-permeating cryoprotectant, trehalose, in combination with dimethyl sulfoxide (Me(2)SO) in the cryopreservation of human fetal skin and compared it to Me(2)SO and glycerol, protocols that are routinely used by skin banks. The viability of fetal skin from four groups (fresh, and cryopreserved with glycerol, Me(2)SO, or trehalose/Me(2)SO) were evaluated using an in vitro membrane integrity assay and by transplantation to immunodeficient mice. The membrane integrity assay showed a 90% integrity in fresh, unfrozen fetal skin. The number of intact cells dropped to 23 and 44% in fetal skin cryopreserved with glycerol and Me(2)SO, respectively. When trehalose was added to the cryopreservation medium containing Me(2)SO, the membrane integrity rose to 65%. When transplanted to immunodeficient mice, fetal skin cryopreserved with trehalose/Me(2)SO showed a graft performance indistinguishable from fresh unfrozen fetal skin and strikingly better graft take than that of fetal skin cryopreserved with Me(2)SO or glycerol only. These results suggest that cryopreservation protocols routinely used the skin banks can be improved by combining sugars such as trehalose with a permeating cryoprotectant.