The hypothesis that Na(+) influx during the action potential (AP) activates reverse Na(+)-Ca(2+) exchange (NCX) and subsequent entry of trigger Ca(2+) is controversial. We tested this hypothesis by monitoring intracellular Ca(2+) before and after selective inactivation of I(Na) prior to a simulated action potential in patch-clamped ventricular myocytes isolated from adult wild-type (WT) and NCX...

Mycophenolic acid (MPA) is the active metabolite of mycophenolate mofetil. This study designed to investigate the mechanism of cytotoxicity of MPA on the genetically engineered PC12 Tet Off (PTO) neuronal cells with p53 gene. Alamar Blue (AB) reduction showed concentration-dependent cytotoxicity of MPA on PTO cells with IC50 value of 32.32 ± 4.61 mM. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation...

Open A1 pulley release is a standard surgical procedure for treatment of trigger finger. The disadvantages of the open technique include injury to the soft tissue, developing a painful palmar scar and patients requiring an extended recovery timethesince the procedure is more complex. Another technique used for treatment of trigger finger is percutaneous release. This technique offers the benefi...

Infection is an inevitable consequence of chronic urinary catheterization with associated problems of recurrent catheter encrustation and blockage experienced by approximately 50% of all long-term catheterized patients. In this work, we have exploited, for the first time, the reported pathogen-induced elevation of urine pH as a trigger for "intelligent" antimicrobial release from novel hydrogel...

Encapsulation of small-molecule drugs in hydrophobic polymers or amphiphilic copolymers has been extensively used for preparing polymeric nanoparticles (NPs). The loadings and loading efficiencies of a wide range of drugs in polymeric NPs, however, tend to be very low. In this Communication, we report a strategy to prepare polymeric NPs with exceptionally high drug loading (>50%) and quantitati...

We present a heat release dynamics model which utilizes a well-stirred reactor (WSR) model and one-step kinetics to describe the unsteady combustion process. The model incorporates the linearized mass and energy equations to describe the response of the reactor to external perturbations, and is cast in the form of a first order filter. The model is able to predict the phase between the mass flo...

Poly(β-amino ester)s (PBAEs) represent an important class of cationic gene delivery materials which, however, suffer from uncontrolled DNA release due in part to the slow degradation of their polyester backbone. Additionally, PBAEs with high molecular weight (MW) also show considerable toxicities. In this study, we designed and developed PBAEs with trigger-responsive domains built-in polymer ba...

Nitric oxide (NO) plays a critical role in the regulation of a wide variety of physiological processes. It is a potent inhibitor of platelet adhesion and aggregation, inhibits bacterial adhesion and proliferation, is implicated in mediating the inflammatory response toward implanted devices, plays a role in tumor growth and proliferation, and is a neurotransmitter. Herein, we describe the synth...

Alternative stable states in shallow lakes are typically characterized by submerged macrophyte (clear-water state) or phytoplankton (turbid state) dominance. However, a clear-water state may occur in eutrophic lakes even when macrophytes are absent. To test whether sediment algae could cause a regime shift in the absence of macrophytes, we developed a model of benthic (periphyton) and planktoni...

PURPOSE The aim of this report was to introduce a novel "core-membrane" microgel drug-delivery device for spontaneously pulsed release without any external trigger. METHODS The microgel core was prepared with alginate and chitosan. The semipermeable membrane outside the microgel was made of polyelectrolytes including polycation poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and sodium polystyrene sulfonate. ...