Light-scattering investigations on dilute nonionic oil-in-water microemulsions

Dilute 3-component nonionic oil-in-water microemulsions formulated with either a polyoxyethylene surfactant (C18∶1E10 or C12E10) or the alkylamine-N-oxide surfactant, DDAO (C12AO), and containing either a triglyceride or an ethyl ester oil have been examined using dynamic and static light-scattering techniques. Analysis of the results showed distinct differences in the tested oils mode of incorporation into the microemulsion droplets, with both the molecular volume of the oil and the hydrophobic chain length of the surfactant being important. For example, microemulsions formulated by C18∶1E10 and containing one of the larger molecular volume oils (that is, either a triglyceride, Miglyol 812, or soybean oil) or the ethyl ester of fatty acid oil, ethyl oleate, exhibited first a decrease and then an increase in hydrodynamic size and surfactant aggregation number, suggesting that the asymmetric C18∶1E10 micelles became spherical upon the addition of a small amount of oil and grew thereafter because of further oil being incorporated into the core of the spherical microemulsion droplet. A similar conclusion of sphericity could not be drawn for microemulsions stabilized by C18∶1E10 and containing one of the oils smaller in molecular volume (namely tributyrin, ethyl butyrate, or ethyl caprylate) where neither the aggregation number nor the hydrodynamic radius changed much upon the addition of oil. This result suggested that these oils were preferentially located in the interfacial surfactant monolayer, behaving in much the same way as a cosurfactant. A different trend of results, however, was seen for microemulsions prepared using C12E10 and C12AO, most likely because these surfactants produced approximately spherical micelles. In this case, the microemulsions containing the oils larger in molecular volume tended to exhibit an increase in surfactant aggregation number and hydrodynamic size, suggesting the growth of spherical micelles, while the smaller oils (in particular ethyl butyrate) caused a significant decrease in surfactant aggregation number incompatible with their being incorporated into the centre of the droplet, suggesting that the oils were being located in the interfacial surfactant monolayer. These results suggest that the various oils are incorporated into the microemulsions in very different ways

Regulation of airway ciliary activity by Ca2+: simultaneous measurement of beat frequency and intracellular Ca2+.

Airway ciliary activity is influenced by [Ca2+]i, but this mechanism is not fully understood. To investigate this relationship, ciliary activity and [Ca2+]i were measured simultaneously from airway epithelial ciliated cells. Ciliary beat frequency was determined, for each beat cycle, with phase-contrast optics and high-speed video imaging (at 240 images s-1) and correlated with [Ca2+]i determined, at the ciliary base, by fast imaging (30 images s-1) of fura-2 fluorescence. As a mechanically induced intercellular Ca2+ wave propagated through adjacent cells, [Ca2+]i was elevated from a baseline concentration of 45 to 100 nM, to a peak level of up to 650 nM. When the Ca2+ wave reached the ciliary base, the beat frequency rapidly increased, within a few beat cycles, from a basal rate of 6.4 to 11.6 Hz at 20-23 degrees C, and from 17.2 to 26.7 Hz at 37 degrees C. Changes in [Ca2+]i, above 350 nM, had no effect on the maximum beat frequency. We suggest that airway ciliary beat frequency is 1) controlled by a low range of [Ca2+]i acting directly at an axonemal site at the ciliary base and 2) that a maximum frequency is induced by a change in [Ca2+]i of approximately 250-300 nM