Poly(acrylic acid)-based hydrogels can swell up to 100-1000 times their own weight in desalinated water due to osmotic forces. As the swelling is about a factor of 2-12 lower in seawater-like saline solutions (4.3 wt% NaCl) than in deionized water, cyclic swelling, and shrinking can potentially be used to move a piston in an osmotic motor. Consequently, chemical energy is translated into mechan...

and one observes that the vapor pressure is lowered correspondingly. If water is added, the matrix swells by the same pressure. The fact that water can be pressed out of a gel, and that the swelling pressure has been found to be equivalent to the lowering of its vapor pressure, suggests that the mechanism is the same as in the capillary system, i.e., that the hydrostatic pressure is equivalent ...

Astrocytes swell during neuronal activity as they accumulate K+ to buffer the increase in external K+ released from neurons. This swelling activates volume-sensitive Cl- channels, which are thought to be important in regulatory volume decrease and in the response of the CNS to trauma and excitotoxicity. Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases also are activated by cell volume changes, but their...

Osmotic-swelling techniques show that HCO3- enters mitochondria by an electrogenic process, effectively HCO3- uniport, under non-energized conditions. This mode of translocation accounts for previous reports of non-entry of HCO3- in experiments with energy-linked Ca2+ uptake. The effects of HCO3- on mitochondrial respiration are reported and discussed.

The purpose of this study was to develop a new monolithic matrix system to completely deliver glipizide, a Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) Class II drug in a zero order manner over an extended time period. Two approaches were examined using drug in formulations that contain swellable hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) or erodible polyethylene oxide (PEO). The matrices were prepare...

Despite available information on the roles of osmotic pressure, potassium (K + ), and calcium (Ca 2+ ) in activation Eurasian burbot spermatozoon motility, changes milt biochemical composition mechanisms underlying their at temperatures above optimal spawning temperature is still unclear. We explored swelling, lipid proteome relation to osmolality swimming medium. The result revealed that incre...

Clostridium perfringens theta-toxin was shown to lyse target erythrocytes by a colloid-osmotic mechanism. Analysis showed the onset of lysis of erythrocytes by theta-toxin could be temporarily stabilized with 0.3 M sucrose. Flow cytometry analysis of the size distribution of theta-toxin-treated erythrocytes showed swelling of the erythrocytes prior to lysis.

Glutamate contributes to secondary brain damage, resulting in cell swelling and brain edema. Under in vitro conditions, increased extracellular levels of the amino acid taurine reflect glutamate-induced osmotic cell swelling. In vivo, increases in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) taurine could, therefore, unmask glutamate-mediated cytotoxic edema formation and possibly differentiate it from vasogenic ...

We consider a ubiquitous scenario where a fluctuating, semipermeable vesicle is embedded in solution while enclosing a fixed number of solute particles. The swelling with increasing number of particles or decreasing concentration of the outer solution exhibits a continuous phase transition from a fluctuating state to the maximum-volume configuration, whereupon appreciable pressure difference an...