Surfactants can be used to enhance the mass transfer rate of hydrophobic compounds into the biologically active liquid phase, resulting in an increase in biodegradation rate of toluene. In this study, the mass transfer rate and the biocompatibility of toluene in the presence of various surfactants were evaluated. Four anionic and non ionic surfactants were tested: sodium dodecyl sulfate (SOS), TritonX-100, Tween 80, and BYK-345 (silicone surfactant). Experimental results showed that BYK-345 at the critical micelle concentration (CMC) enhanced the solubility of toluene. However, there was no increase in the solubility of toluene by SOS and TritonX-100 at their CMCs. With the addition of each surfactant into deionized water the mass transfer rate became faster than that of the case with no surfactant. A bottle study using toluene-degrading microorganisms showed that SOS seriously reduced toluene removal presumably due to the toxicity of the anionic surfactant and/or the substrate competition between the surfactant and toluene. In addition, the degradation rate of toluene was decreased in the presence of BYK-345, indicating that BYK-345 adversely affects the activity of microorganisms. However, TritonX-100 and Tween 80 did not decrease the degradation rate of toluene significantly. Rather, at the low concentration of TritonX-100 toluene degradation rate was even increased. Overall the experimental results suggest that TritonX-100 be the appropriate surfactant for enhanced biological degradation of toluene.
PURPOSE: To determine whether the marrow edema around focal osteonecrosis on magnetic resonance (MR) images is associated with clinical symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-three patients with 37 hips showing early stage osteonecrosis of the femoral head were followed up at 3-month intervals with clinical evaluation, conventional radiography, and serial MR imaging. RESULTS: Seven (50%) of 14 symptomatic hips showed marrow edema around focal osteonecrosis on initial MR images, whereas only one (4%) of 23 asymptomatic hips showed edema (P < .01). Six (86%) of seven hips that were moderately to severely painful were associated with surrounding marrow edema. All eight hips showing osteonecrosis with marrow edema at the initial MR examination had joint effusion and exhibited intense radionuclide uptake in the proximal femur, which corresponded to the extent of edema on MR images. In all eight hips, the marrow edema resolved on follow-up MR images, and the pain subsided with the resolution of edema. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that the combination of marrow edema of the proximal femur and focal osteonecrosis of the femoral head are strongly associated with hip pain in early stage osteonecrosis, even prior to collapse. Pain improvement usually parallels the resolution of edema.
Glis2 is a member of the GLI/ZIC/GLIS Krüppel-like zinc finger transcription factor family that contains five C2H2-type Krüppel-like zinc finger motifs. Glis2 is highly expressed in kidney and moderately in testis, lung, brain and ovary. During kidney development Glis2 is predominantly expressed in the ureteric bud, precursor of the collecting duct and ureteric bud cell lines also express high levels of Glis2 mRNA. To obtain insight into the physiological functions of Glis2, mice deficient in Glis2 expression were generated. Glis2−/− mice have a normal total body weight/size but have a significant smaller kidney. Furthermore, histopathological analysis of kidney sections demonstrated that Glis2 knockout mice develop nephropathy, degeneration of tubular epithelial cells and glomeruli throughout the cortex with multifocal lymphocytic and plasma cell infiltration. Nephropathy becomes more severe when mice age. Glis2−/− mice survival rate is dramatically decreased. The severity of the nephropathy is correlated with comparable increases in the level of creatinine and BUN values in serum. The degeneration of tubular epithelial cells may involve increased apoptosis. Our results suggest that the novel Krüppel-like zinc finger transcription factor, Glis2 exhibits critical roles in kidney development and progressive renal failure.
<div>Abstract<p>In this study, we examine the potential role of receptor-associated protein 80 (RAP80), a nuclear protein containing two ubiquitin-interacting motifs (UIM), in DNA damage response and double-strand break (DSB) repair. We show that following ionizing radiation and treatment with DNA-damaging agents, RAP80 translocates to discrete nuclear foci that colocalize with those of γ-H2AX. The UIMs and the region of amino acids 204 to 304 are critical for the relocalization of RAP80 to ionizing radiation–induced foci (IRIF). These observations suggest that RAP80 becomes part of a DNA repair complex at the sites of IRIF. We also show that RAP80 forms a complex with the tumor repressor BRCA1 and that this interaction is mediated through the BRCA1 COOH-terminal repeats of BRCA1. The UIMs are not required for the interaction of RAP80 with BRCA1. Knockdown of RAP80 in HEK293 cells significantly reduced DSB-induced homology-directed recombination (HDR). Moreover, inhibition of RAP80 expression by small interfering RNA increased radiosensitivity, whereas increased radioresistance was observed in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells with overexpression of RAP80. Taken together, our data suggest that RAP80 plays an important role in DNA damage response signaling and HDR-mediated DSB repair. We further show that RAP80 can function as a substrate of the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated protein kinase <i>in vitro</i>, which phosphorylates RAP80 at Ser<sup>205</sup> and Ser<sup>402</sup>. We show that this phosphorylation is not required for the migration of RAP80 to IRIF. [Cancer Res 2007;67(14):6647–56]</p></div>
Supplementary Methods and Materials, Figure Legends 1-2 from The Ubiquitin-Interacting Motif–Containing Protein RAP80 Interacts with BRCA1 and Functions in DNA Damage Repair Response
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