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Polymers are sustainable and renewable materials that are in high demand due to their excellent properties. Natural and synthetic polymers with high flexibility, good biocompatibility, good degradation rate, and stiffness are widely used for various applications, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and microfluidic chip fabrication. Indeed, recent advances in microfluidic technology allow the fabrication of polymeric matrix to construct microfluidic scaffolds for tissue engineering and to set up a well-controlled microenvironment for manipulating fluids and particles. In this review, polymers as materials for the fabrication of microfluidic chips have been highlighted. Successful models exploiting polymers in microfluidic devices to generate uniform particles as drug vehicles or artificial cells have been also discussed. Additionally, using polymers as bioink for 3D printing or as a matrix to functionalize the sensing surface in microfluidic devices has also been mentioned. The rapid progress made in the combination of polymers and microfluidics presents a low-cost, reproducible, and scalable approach for a promising future in the manufacturing of biomimetic scaffolds for tissue engineering.

The Souss region in Morocco is known nationally and internationally for its essential knowledge of traditional herbal medicine and the cultural heritage of nutrition. The endemic species Argania spinosa (L.) Skeels is an important crucial plant used by the local population to treat many diseases and prepare some authentic foods. To identify the therapeutic uses of the Argan tree [Argania spinosa (L.) Skeels] and their benefits in preparing authentic foods, the survey was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires. We have achieved 450 interviews with traditional health practitioners and knowledgeable villagers. In the region of Chtouka Aït Baha and Tiznit (Western Anti-Atlas). In parallel with this survey, we collected some old local manuscripts from conventional practitioners in the region. The data obtained were analyzed using specific ethnobotanical indices such as Use Value (UV), Fidelity Level (FL), and Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC). In parallel, we analyzed the nutritional value of some authentic foods derived the argan oil (Amlou, Tagoulla, and Labsis). All 450 interviewees use the argan oil in food or for the preparation of their authentic foods derived (Amlou, Tagoulla, and Labsis); among them, 100 persons use Argan, in addition to food, in the treatment of various diseases with UV and RFC at 1.94 and 0.22, respectively. Among eight treated diseases by argan tree, the treatment of skin and subcutaneous diseases had a very highly significant value of the FL index (98%). Similarly, the analysis of the manuscripts collected in the study area revealed an ancient therapeutic use of the argan tree. The results also show that the Argan oil extracted from the seed is used to prepare authentic foods with significant nutritional value, especially Amlou.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The argan [Argania spinosa (L.) Skeels] is one of the most important floristic resource in Morocco, it is the only representative of the Sapotaceae family and Argania genus found in Morocco. This tree is fully exploited by the native populations for nutrition, medication and cosmetics. The argan oil extracted from seed is the main tree product for his large use., Aim of the Review: This review describes the traditional uses, chemical composition and biological activities of different the argan tree parts., Materials and Methods: This review covers the literature available from 1972 to 2021. The informations were collected from electronic databases Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, SciFinder and Google Scholar., Results: Argan oil have been used for nutrition, and to treat several diseases, namely rheumatisms, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, lung infections, newborn gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, skin and hair hydration. The other parts of Argan tree have been used to treat intestinal disorders, dermatosis, and hair caring, with additional uses such as livestock nutrition, carpentry and heating. The argan oil is primarily composed of unsaturated fatty acids mainly oleic and linoleic acids furthermore the chemical composition, of the others part, are very diversified (flavonoids, terpenoids, triacylglycerols, saponins. …). Diverse biological activities have been reported for argan oil, such as antioxidant, skin water retention, hair protection, cholesterol stabilization, antidiabetic, anticancer and antibacterial. Antimicrobial activities have been reported for argan leaves essential oils, when the fruit pulp organic extract presented very interesting antioxidant activity due to the presence of polyphenols. The argan cake is the seed waste produced during the extraction process, it is traditionally used for skin care and for livestock nutrition. Different biological activities of argan cake have been cited essentially antioxidant, haemoprotective, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The chemical composition and in vitro biological activities of the essential oil (EO) of Micromeria macrosiphon Coss. and M. arganietorum (J. Emb.) R. Morales, two Lamiaceae endemic to south Morocco, were investigated. GC/MS analysis resulted in the identification of 36 metabolites from the EO of M. macrosiphon, 45 from M. arganietorum. Borneol was the major metabolite in both oils and together with related derivatives such as camphor, accounted for 2/3 of the EO of M. macrosiphon, 1/3 of those of M. arganietorum. Pinene and terpinene derivatives were also present in high proportions. From a chemotaxonomic point of view, the composition of the examined samples may be related to those of other species endemic to Macaronesia. Both EOs showed significant toxicity towards liver HepG2 and melanoma B16 4A5 tumor cell lines at 100 μg/mL; however, they were also cytotoxic towards S17 normal cell lines, with a selectivity index <1. No antibacterial activity was noticed against 52 strains at 100 μg/mL., (© 2021 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The genus Thymus is among the most important genera in the Lamiaceae family with 215 species and is widely distributed globally, mainly in the Mediterranean region. The genus contains many medicinal plants used in traditional Moroccan medicine for a long time in treating diverse diseases., Aim of the Review: This review describes the traditional uses, biological activities and chemical composition of essential oils (EOs) obtained from Thymus species growing in Morocco., Materials and Methods: Information related to the traditional uses, essential oils chemical composition and biological activities on Moroccan Thymus species were obtained using the electronic databases Web of science, Scopus, SciFinder, Pubmed and Google Scholar., Results: Moroccan Thymus species have been used in treatment of several diseases, namely diabetes, digestive, circulatory, genital, nervous, urinary, skin and respiratory diseases. Diverse biological activities of Moroccan Thymus species EOs have been reported, such as antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, anti-proliferative, anti-tumoral, insecticidal, larvicidal, nematicide, anti-inflammatory, anti-cyanobacterial and anti-acetylcholinesterase. The chemical compositions of Thymus EOs is primarily composed of monoterpenes., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Development of low cost biosensing using convenient and environmentally benign materials is important for wide adoption and ultimately improved healthcare and sustainable development. Immobilized antibodies are often incorporated as an essential biorecognition element in point-of-care biosensors but these proteins are costly. We present a strategy of combining convenient and low-cost surface functionalization approaches for increasing the overall binding activity of antibody functionalized natural and synthetic fibers. We demonstrate a simple one-step in situ silica NP growth protocol for increasing the surface area available for functionalization on cotton and polyester fabrics as well as on nanoporous cellulose substrates. Comparing this effect with the widely adopted and low cost plant-based polyphenol coating to enhance antibody immobilization, we find that both approaches can similarly increase overall surface activity, and we illustrate conditions under which the two approaches can produce an additive effect. Furthermore, we introduce co-immobilization of antibodies with a sacrificial "steric helper" protein for further enhancing surface activities. In combination, several hundred percent higher activities compared to physical adsorption can be achieved while maintaining a low amount of antibodies used, thus paving a practical path towards low cost biosensing., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

The chemical composition and in vitro antibacterial and cytotoxic activities of the essential oil (EO) of Chiliadenus antiatlanticus (Emb. & Maire) Gómiz, an asteraceous species endemic to the southwest of Morocco, were investigated. The EO yield was 1.07±0.28 %, twenty-seven metabolites were identified representing more than 96.4 % of the total composition. Camphor (35.7 %) and derivatives, borneol (4.9 %) and camphene (4.2 %) together with intermedeol (19.9 %), α-pinene (15.5 %) and (E)-pinocarveol (4.1 %) were the major constituents. An antibacterial activity was noticed against 24 strains (all Gram-positive) out of 71 at MICs values=100 μg/mL. The EO also showed significant toxicity towards liver HepG2 (55.8 % of cell viability) and melanoma B16 4A5 (41.6 % of cell viability) tumor cell lines at 100 μg/mL., (© 2021 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)

The identification of patients with increased risk of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) has been widely studied during recent decades, and several quantitative measurements have been proposed from the analysis of the electrocardiogram (ECG) stored in 1-day Holter recordings. Indices based on nonlinear dynamics of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) have shown to convey predictive information in terms of factors related with the cardiac regulation by the autonomous nervous system, and among them, multiscale methods aim to provide more complete descriptions than single-scale based measures. However, there is limited knowledge on the suitability of nonlinear measurements to characterize the cardiac dynamics in current long-term monitoring scenarios of several days. Here, we scrutinized the long-term robustness properties of three nonlinear methods for HRV characterization, namely, the Multiscale Entropy (MSE), the Multiscale Time Irreversibility (MTI), and the Multifractal Spectrum (MFS). These indices were selected because all of them have been theoretically designed to take into account the multiple time scales inherent in healthy and pathological cardiac dynamics, and they have been analyzed so far when monitoring up to 24 h of ECG signals, corresponding to about 20 time scales. We analyzed them in 7-day Holter recordings from two data sets, namely, patients with Atrial Fibrillation and with Congestive Heart Failure, by reaching up to 100 time scales. In addition, a new comparison procedure is proposed to statistically compare the poblational multiscale representations in different patient or processing conditions, in terms of the non-parametric estimation of confidence intervals for the averaged median differences. Our results show that variance reduction is actually obtained in the multiscale estimators. The MSE (MTI) exhibited the lowest (largest) bias and variance at large scales, whereas all the methods exhibited a consistent description of the large-scale processes in terms of multiscale index robustness. In all the methods, the used algorithms could turn to give some inconsistency in the multiscale profile, which was checked not to be due to the presence of artifacts, but rather with unclear origin. The reduction in standard error for several-day recordings compared to one-day recordings was more evident in MSE, whereas bias was more patently present in MFS. Our results pave the way of these techniques towards their use, with improved algorithmic implementations and nonparametric statistical tests, in long-term cardiac Holter monitoring scenarios.

Two human prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines, LNCaP and PC-3, were used to study the effect of 5-azacytidine on GGT gene expression, via genomic DNA methylation, and GSH content. When the cells were treated with 5-azaC, the specific GGT activity increased in a dose and time-dependent manner and was accompanied by the elevation of intracellular glutathione content. Southern blot analysis of DNA digested with MspI or HpaII showed negative correlation between the methylation pattern of GGT DNA and GGT activity, either in control or 5-azaC treated cells. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis revealed that GGT mRNA types I are expressed and induced in a cell type-specific manner in control and 5-azacC treated cells respectively. Overall, our investigations suggest that DNA methylation and other mechanisms combine to regulate GGT gene expression in studied prostate adenocarcinoma derived cells.

gamma-Glutamyltransferase activity, genes transcripts and differentiation by all-trans retinoic acid have been investigated in cultured HL-60, U937, and K562 cells. Acquisition of morphological and functional characteristics confirmed the terminal differentiation of HL-60 and U937 cells. All-trans retinoic acid increased gamma-glutamyltransferase activity in a cell type- and time dependent manner. Treatments with all-trans retinoic acid isomers and structurally analogs showed that only retinoids with carboxylic acid group were able to induce enzyme activity in terminal differentiated cells. Additionally, the analysis of gamma-glutamyltransferase genes transcription products demonstrated clearly that, both in untreated and in RA treated cells, only mRNA type I transcribed from the gene 6, was expressed.

In this paper we report the presence and function of the 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) from the mRNA encoding human gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) in three different hematopoietic cell lines (HL-60, U-937 and K-562) as well as in the RNA of the leukocyte fraction from six acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL). Results obtained by RNase protection analysis demonstrate the presence of a unique form of 5'UTR expressed in most human tissues. In order to investigate the possible role of this type of sequence on regulation of GGT in hematopoietic cells, plasmid constructs carrying human hepatoma GGT 5'UTR and a luciferase reporter gene were transfected into the three blood cell lines. Compared to control untransfected cells, transfected HL-60 and K-562 showed a decrease in reporter gene activity of 51 and 73%, respectively. In contrast, transfected U-937 showed a 139% increase of reporter gene activity. Results were compared to GGT activity in the relevant cells and we concluded that the 5'UTR appears to have a regulatory role in GGT expression as a tissue-specific modulator of translation.

In order to investigate the mechanism controlling gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) gene expression in adult and fetal rat tissues, as well as in H5-6 and Fao hepatoma cells, the relationship between DNA methylation and GGT expression was studied. Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA digested with MspI and HpaII showed that highly methylated DNA patterns observed especially in adult liver, heart and Fao cells as well as in fetal kidney, pancreas, lung and heart correlate well with low GGT activity determined in these tissues. In contrast, hypomethylated GGT DNA was found in fetal liver, adult kidney and lung, the tissues highly expressing GGT activity. So, observed developmental- and tissue-specific changes in the GGT gene methylation seem to play an important role in the control of GGT gene transcription.