We present a new method to measure capsule size in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans that avoids the limitations and biases inherent in India ink measurements. The method is based on the use of gamma-radiation, which efficiently releases the capsule from the cell. By comparing the volume of irradiated and non-irradiated cells, one can accurately estimate the relative size of the...

The polysaccharide capsule of Escherichia coli K29 fully surrounds the microorganism and thus occupies an extracellular space ca. 20 times larger in volume than that of the decapsulated cell. Since more than 95% of the capsule consists of water, dehydration for electron microscopy causes the material to collapse. We describe here a method for embedding the capsule in an uncollapsed form. Dehydr...

β-Hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB), a leucine metabolite, has long been supplemented as a Ca salt (Ca-HMB) to increase strength and performance gains with exercise and to reduce recovery time. Recently, the free acid form of HMB (HMB-FA) has become commercially available in capsule form (gelcap). The current study was conducted to compare the bioavailability of HMB using the two commercially avai...

An osmotic, oral, controlled-release capsule is described. This capsule provides drug delivery at fixed delivery rates (T(80%)=6 or 14h) independent of drug properties (e.g., solubility) or drug loading, thereby allowing rapid development of investigational or commercial drugs, especially for proof-of-concept type clinical studies. The capsule body and cap are prepared with cellulose acetate an...

OBJECTIVE The objectives of these two studies were to determine if beads from extended-release topiramate capsules sprinkled onto soft food are bioequivalent to the intact capsule and if beads from the capsule can be passed through enteral gastrostomy (G-) and jejunostomy (J-) feeding tubes. METHODS Bioequivalence of 200-mg USL255 (Qudexy XR [topiramate] extended-release capsules) sprinkled o...

The objectives of this experiment were (i) to determine the effect of water supply on the photosynthetic capacity of leaves, bracts, capsule walls, and stalks of cotton at different growth stages and (ii) to determine the contributions of these nonleaf organs to whole plant photosynthesis. Water deficit reduced the total surface area per plant but increased the proportion of nonleaf to total pl...

Selective recognition of saccharides by artificial receptors in water is a challenging goal due to their strong hydrophilicities and complex molecular structures with subtle regio- and stereochemical differences. We report the selective and efficient encapsulation of d-sucrose within a coordination-driven molecular capsule from natural saccharide mixtures in water (~100% selectivity, >85% yield...

We synthesized calix[4]resorcinarenes bearing various azobenzene dendron conjugates as side chains, wherein the azobenzene moiety is a photoresponsive unit and the dendron moiety is a capsule-destabilizing unit, and then studied the photoresponsive properties of their self-assembled hexameric capsules in conjunction with guest encapsulation in H2O-saturated CDCl3. It was found that correlation ...

Comparison of water-free and water-mediated recognition processes within a synthetic resorcinarene-based self-assembled capsule shows that water can change the stoichiometry of binding as well as the selectivity and it can substantially restrict guest dynamics within the binding site.