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The intake and concentration of metals and electrolytes from our diet are believed to be affecting our general health, in particular, the proper functions of vital organs. For example, in addition to other genetic and environmental factors, consuming water with high alkalinity for prolonged time is suspected to lead to diseases such as kidney stone. Evidence has been accumulating that excessive metal intakes would lead to organ failures. Once absorbed, minerals and electrolytes can travel freely throughout the body, and distribute at key organ systems such as the brain, lung, kidney, etc. By conducting experiments with animal models (e.g., rats), it is possible to not only determine where the organ distribution of various matrices of elements and minerals but also correlate such matrices with the overall physiological and behavioral status of such models. In this study, information matrices of 30 different elements (including heavy metals and some electrolytes) and their distributions in various vital organs (e.g., brain, lung, kidney, liver, heart, spleen, and uterus) were analyzed as a function of normal dietary intake at adulthood (120 days old). An elemental (metal and electrolyte) distribution model was then formulated based on experimental results. The study has high impact to our understanding of how environmental health would affect our well being. This study would also provide insights on how our diet would affect the accumulations of unwanted elements, such as heavy metals, in our vital organs. The results may help researchers and health practitioner to identify possible links between daily diet (metals and electrolytes) and diseases, and may also lead to a better understanding of diseases associated with aging such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and other neurological disorders.

Non-transformed, rat intestinal epithelial cells (IEC-6), and human intestinal colonic carcinoma cells (CACO-2) have both been used to study processes of epithelial cell differentiation. However, only CACO-2 cells have been described as spontaneously expressing phenotypic changes of differentiation in culture. We report here that when IEC-6 cells are grown in post-confluent culture, they develop structural changes similar to those seen in cells induced to differentiate by culture on Englebreth-Holm-Swarm (EHS) extracellular matrix proteins. Correlated with this morphological change is loss of nuclear localization of c-myc protein and development of cell surface alkaline phosphatase (ALP) enzymatic activity. Messenger RNAs for liver and intestinal isoforms of ALP were expressed in both pre- and post-confluent cells. Inhibition of ALP activity in post-confluent cells by levamisole indicated the expressed ALP activity to be of the liver isoform. We suggest the expression of ALP activity, which occurs concomitantly with morphological alterations in post-confluent IEC-6 cells, represents increased expression and localization to the cell surface of the liver isoform of ALP. Cultured IEC-6 cells may provide a non-transformed, in vitro alternative to CACO-2 cells for study of epithelial cell differentiation.

Ethanol is among the drugs whose potencies can be predicted from their lipid solubilities. Physical chemical methods reveal what it does in this hydrophobic environment; it disorders the membrane bilayer. Order parameters are reduced by ethanol and by other alcohols, in proportion to their in vivo potency. When mice are chronically treated with ethanol, their cell membranes become tolerant to the disordering effects of ethanol, and these tolerant membranes contain more cholesterol than controls. Studies with model membranes made of egg lecithin and cholesterol showed that the sterol makes membranes more ordered, and it also blocks the disordering effect of ethanol. Furthermore, ethanol facilitates the transfer of cholesterol between membranes. We speculate that changes in membrane cholesterol, mediated by ethanol itself, may contribute to ethanol tolerance.