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A study examined the cholesterolemic and metabolic effects of two saturated fatty acids, 14:0 and 16:0 on 18 healthy premenopausal women. A high stearic acid diet was found to have similar effects on serum lipoprotein levels and low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor activity, as a baseline diet. There was not much difference in the effects of the three fatty acids, fed as synthetic triglycerides, and the effects of natural fats and oils, apart from myristic acid.

A validation of the comments offered by P.J. Parker and A.G. Collins were made by principal researchers C.P. Chu, W.H. Feng, Y.H. Tsai and D.J. Lee. In addition, the researchers also addressed a few improvements on the procedure they have devised. Thickening the sludge prior to its freeze treatment does not radically improve the separation process and that a denser floc may not yield to facilitated identification due to the lack of fractal dimensions of the components.

A low-cost, small-size, and all-solid-state biosensor for the specific determination of L-ascorbic acid was developed. The sensor array was fabricated by screen printing, and the ruthenium oxide (RUO2) thin film was deposited on the working area of each sensor by an RF sputtering method for surface modification. A conductive polymer (polypyrrole) miniaturized reference electrode was used in combination with the biosensor. The ascorbate oxidase was immobilized with 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTS) methods in the bioactive membrane layer. In accordance with experiment results, the sensor has the better average sensitivity of 51.85 mV/pH between pH 1 and pH 13. The investigated characteristics in the polypyrrole film modified reference electrode show a very small drift voltage (5 mV/h) and the standard deviation of the reference electrode is 1.093 mV. According to the experiment results, the potential response of the enzyme-based biosensor depends linearly on L-ascorbic acid concentration between 0.02 mM and 1 mM with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.86 and the sensitivity is 13.85 mV/mM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Chondrogenic differentiation by mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs) is associated with cytokines such as transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1) and dexamethasone. Extracellular matrix (ECM) also regulates the differentiation by MPCs. To define whether ECM plays a functional role in regulation of the chondrogenic differentiation by MPCs, an in vitro model was used. That model exposed to dexamethasone, recombinant human TGF-β1(rhTGF-β1) and collagens. The results showed that MPCs incorporated with dexamethasone and rhTGF-β1 increased proliferation and expression of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) after 14 days. Type II collagen enhanced the GAG synthesis, but did not increase alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. When adding dexamethasone and rhTGF-β1 MPCs increased mRNA expression of Sox9. Incorporation with type II collagen, dexamethasone and rhTGF-β1, MPCs induced mRNA expression of aggrecan and enhanced levels of type II collagen, and Sox9 mRNA. In contrast, incorporation with type I collagen, dexamethasone and rhTGF-β1 MPCs reduced levels of aggrecan, and Sox9 mRNA, and showed no type II collagen mRNA. Altogether, these results indicate that type I and II collagen, in addition to the cytokine effect, may play a functional role in regulating of chondrogenic differentiation by MPCs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]