Improvement of Heavy Oil Recovery by Nonionic Surfactant/Alcohol Flooding in Light of the Alkane Carbon Number and Interfacial Tension Properties

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Egyptian authors were supported by the Science, Technology & Innovation Funding Authority (STDF) under grant 30894. The authors from the UK would like to acknowledge the financial support from an Institutional Links grant, ID 352343681, under the Newton-Mosharafa Fund partnership. The grant is funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and delivered by the British Council. The authors would like to thank the EPRIEOR unit and staff as the surface and interfacial tension and contact angle measurements and chemical flooding tests were conducted at the EPRI-EOR unit.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

FNDC5 Gene Expression in the Smooth Muscles of Dromedary Camels (Camelus dromedarius)

Irisin is a recently reported adipo-myokine. It is synthesized after the proteolytic cleavage of its precursor, fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5) prior to its release into the circulation. Currently, it is unknown whether irisin/FNDC5 exists in the tissues of camel species. Our findings demonstrated for the first time the existence of mRNA transcripts for FNDC5 gene in the dromedary camel smooth muscles, as determined by RT-PCR analysis and showed predominant localization of irisin/FNDC5 protein in the visceral and vascular smooth muscle cells of dromedary camels, as assessed by immunohistochemical analysis. The present study suggests that irisin/FNDC5 possibly has physiological role(s) in the contractility and motility of the camel intestinal smooth muscle cells as well as it might be implicated in the maintenance and control of blood pressure in camels. These important factors could contribute to the distinct biological characteristics of dromedary camels for adaptation to harsh environmental conditions

Anatolian honey is not only sweet but can also protect from breast cancer: Elixir for women from artemis to present

Natural products with bioactive components are widely studied on various cancer cell lines for their possible cytotoxic effects, recently. Among these products, honey stands out as a valuable bee product containing many active phenolic compounds and flavonoids. Numerous types of multifloral honey and honeydew honey are produced in Turkey owing to its abundant vegetation. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the cytotoxic effects of particular tree-originated honeys from chestnut, cedar, pine, and multifloral honey on cell lines representing different types of the most common cancer of women, breast cancer, MCF7, SKBR3, and MDAMB-231, and fibrocystic breast epithelial cell line, MCF10A as a control. All honey samples were analyzed biochemically. The dose- (1, 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 mu g/mL) and time (24th, 48th, and 72nd hours)-dependent effects of ethanol/water solutions of the honey samples were scrutinized. Cell viability/cytotoxicity was evaluated by the water soluble tetrazolium Salt-1 (WST-1) method. Apoptotic status was detected by Annexin V-PI assay using FACSCalibur. The statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 6 and the clustering data analysis with the R programming language. The biochemical analyses of the honey samples showed that the tree-originated honey samples contained more total phenolic compounds than the multifloral honey. Phenolic content of the honey types increases in order of multifloral, pine, cedar, and chestnut, respectively, which is compatible with their cytotoxic affectivity and dark color. In addition, the antioxidant capacity of the studied honey types was observed to increase in order of multifloral pine> cedar> multifloral in the Annexin V-propidium iodide (PI) analysis. Chestnut, cedar, and pine honey displayed a remarkably cytotoxic effect on breast cancer cell lines, MCF7, SKBR3, and even on the most aggressive MDAMB 231, representing the triple negative breast cancer, which lacks of targeted anticancer therapy. The chestnut and cedar honeys stand out to be the most cytotoxic on all cell lines, while pine honey was found to be the least toxic on control cells with appropriate toxicity on the cancer cells. (c) 2017 IUBMB Life, 69(9):677-688, 201