Different expression of macrophages and microglia in rat spinal cord contusion injury model at morphological and regional levels.

Macrophages and microglia are implicated in spinal cord injury, but their precise role is not clear. In the present study, activation of these cells was examined in a spinal cord injury model using 2 different antibodies against ED1 clone and ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba1). Activation was observed at 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks after contusion injury and was compared with sham operated controls. Our results indicate that activation could be observed in both the dorsal funiculus and the ventral white matter area in the spinal cord at 5 mm rostral to the epicenter of injury. For both cells, there was a gradual increase in activation from 1-4 weeks, followed by down-regulation for up to 12 weeks. As a result, we could stain macrophages by ED1 and microglia by Iba1. We concluded that macrophages may play a role in the phagocytosis of denatured dendrites after spinal cord injury, while microglia may have some cooperative functions, as they were found scattered near the macrophages.</p

Hyperfibrinogenemia is associated with lymphatic as well as hematogenous metastasis and worse clinical outcome in T2 gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: Abnormal hemostasis in cancer patients has previously been described, however the correlation between the plasma fibrinogen level and cancer metastasis and prognosis has not been reported in a large-scale clinical study. METHODS: Preoperative plasma fibrinogen levels were retrospectively examined in 405 patients who underwent surgery for advanced gastric cancer. The association of fibrinogen levels with clinical/pathological findings and clinical outcome was evaluated. RESULTS: There was a positive correlation between plasma fibrinogen levels and the depth of invasion (p < 0.05). Hyperfibrinogenemia (>310 mg/dl) was independently associated with lymph node (Odds Ratio; 2.342, P = 0.0032) and liver (Odds Ratio; 2.933, P = 0.0147) metastasis, not with peritoneal metastasis in this series. Patients with hyperfibrinogenemia showed worse clinical outcome in T2 gastric cancer, however, there was no correlation of plasma fibrinogen level with prognosis in T3/T4 gastric cancer. CONCLUSION: Our results might support the idea that hyperfibrinogenemia can augment lymphatic and hematogeneous metastasis of advanced gastric cancer, which is major determinant of the prognosis in T2 gastric cancer. Therefore, in the situation without peritoneal involvement, hyperfibrinogenemia is a useful biomarker to predict the possible metastasis and worse clinical outcome in T2 gastric cancer

Glycerol-modified poly(ε-caprolactone): an biocatalytic approach to improve the hydrophilicity of poly(ε-caprolactone)

Novel poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)–glycerol polyester was synthesized in one step in the presence of Novozym 435 under mild reaction conditions. The objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility of enhancing the hydrophilicity of PCL by condensing it with glycerol through biocatalytic approach. Effect of reaction time, glycerol-to-CL ratio and CL-to-toluene ratio was studied. The 1H NMR and GPC results established that self-condensation of CL units and condensation of CL with glycerol units take place simultaneously. When the glycerol content was 10 and 20 mol% with regard to CL, condensation continued for 6 h; further extension of reaction time resulted in the cleavage of ester linkages. When the glycerol content was increased to 40 mol%, the condensation of CL–glycerol units was accomplished in 4 h; however, the reaction had to get extended beyond 6 h for complete condensation of CL–CL units. The study revealed that the crystallinity and the melting temperature (Tm) of the products altered with an increase in the glycerol content. Furthermore, TGA and contact angle values of water on PCL and its glycerol derivative films revealed that the water uptake capacity of PCL too increased significantly with the increase in glycerol content, rendering PCL more hydrophilic

Synthesis and Characterization of Modified Aliphatic Polycarbonates as Environmentally Friendly Oilfield Scale Inhibitors

Oilfield scale inhibitors have been used for many decades, mostly to fight carbonate and sulfate scaling. Many inhibitors are known, but only a few show good biodegradation to make them environmentally acceptable in areas with strict regulations, such as offshore Norway. Often high biodegradation is at the expense of other useful properties, such as thermal stability for high-temperature squeeze applications. We have now synthesized and investigated a new class of polycarbonate polymers with pendant anionic functional groups (carboxylate and phosphonate) as potential oilfield scale inhibitors. These polymers have a carbonate group in the backbone. Polymers with carboxylate and phosphonate side groups were prepared. We report here the scale inhibition performance of these polymers at 100 °C against both calcite and barite scaling at typical North Sea conditions in dynamic tube-blocking equipment, both before and after aging at 130 °C. The phosphonated copolymer gave very good performance against calcite scaling and showed good thermal stability. This polymer also gave a biodegradation of 36% in 28 days in seawater by the OECD 306 test