Antioxidant activity of alkyl gallates and glycosyl alkyl gallates in fish oil in water emulsions: Relevance of their surface active properties and of the type of emulsifier

The antioxidant activity of gallic acid and a series of alkyl gallates (C4-C18) and glycosylated alkyl gallates (C4-C18) on fish oil-in-water emulsions was studied. Three types of emulsifiers, lecithin, Tween-20 and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) were tested. A nonlinear behavior of the antioxidant activity of alkyl gallates when increasing alkyl chain length was observed for emulsions prepared with lecithin. Medium-size alkyl gallates (C6-C12) were the best antioxidants. In contrast, for emulsions prepared with Tween-20, the antioxidants seem to follow the polar paradox. Glucosyl alkyl gallates were shown previously to be better surfactants than alkyl gallates. Nevertheless, they exhibited a worse antioxidant capacity than their corresponding alkyl gallates, in emulsions prepared with lecithin or Tween-20, indicating the greater relevance of having three OH groups at the polar head in comparison with having improved surfactant properties but just a di-ortho phenolic structure in the antioxidant

Propuesta de un sistema de evaluación de revistas científica en las áreas de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales

El presente trabajo expone una experiencia de evaluación de publicaciones científicas en las áreas humanas y sociales en siete grandes campos científicos: ciencias jurídicas, ciencias económicas, historia y arte, ciencias sociales, filología, filosofía y ciencias de la educación y psicología. El objetivo fundamental es elaborar un listado de revistas ordenadas según nivel de calidad que sirva como complemento a la información suministrada por las bases de datos del ISI (Social Sciences Citation Index y Arts and Humanities Citation Index), para poder emprender evaluaciones de la actividad investigadora en estas áreas con una base cuantitativa suficiente

Cholangiocyte anion exchange and biliary bicarbonate excretion

Primary canalicular bile undergoes a process of fluidization and alkalinization along the biliary tract that is influenced by several factors including hormones, innervation/neuropeptides, and biliary constituents. The excretion of bicarbonate at both the canaliculi and the bile ducts is an important contributor to the generation of the so-called bile-salt independent flow. Bicarbonate is secreted from hepatocytes and cholangiocytes through parallel mechanisms which involve chloride efflux through activation of Cl- channels, and further bicarbonate secretion via AE2/SLC4A2-mediated Cl-/HCO3- exchange. Glucagon and secretin are two relevant hormones which seem to act very similarly in their target cells (hepatocytes for the former and cholangiocytes for the latter). These hormones interact with their specific G protein-coupled receptors, causing increases in intracellular levels of cAMP and activation of cAMP-dependent Cl- and HCO3- secretory mechanisms. Both hepatocytes and cholangiocytes appear to have cAMP-responsive intracellular vesicles in which AE2/SLC4A2 colocalizes with cell specific Cl- channels (CFTR in cholangiocytes and not yet determined in hepatocytes) and aquaporins (AQP8 in hepatocytes and AQP1 in cholangiocytes). cAMP-induced coordinated trafficking of these vesicles to either canalicular or cholangiocyte lumenal membranes and further exocytosis results in increased osmotic forces and passive movement of water with net bicarbonate-rich hydrocholeresis

Zn-biofortification enhanced nitrogen metabolism and photorespiration process in green leafy vegetable Lactuca sativa L

Abstract BACKGROUND: Excessive rates of nitrogen (N) fertilizers may result in elevated concentrations of nitrate (NO3 −) in plants. Considering thatmany programs of biofortification with trace elements are being performed, it has become important to study how the application of these elements affects plant physiology and, particularly, N utilization in leaf crops. The main objective of the present study was to determine whether the NO3 − accumulation and the nitrogen use efficiency was affected by the application of different doses of Zn in Lactuca sativa plants. RESULTS: Zn doses in the range 80–100 mol L−1 produced an increase in Zn concentration provoking a decrease of NO3 − concentration and increase of the nitrate reductase, glutamine synthetase and aspartate aminotransferase activities, as well as the photorespiration processes. As result, we observed an increase in reduced N, total N concentration and N utilization efficiency. Consequently, at a dose of 80 mol L−1 of Zn, the amino acid concentration increased significantly. CONCLUSION: Adequate Zn fertilization is an important critical player in lettuce, especially at a dose of 80 mol L−1 of Zn, because it could result in an increase in the Zn concentration, a reduction of NO3 − levels and an increase the concentration of essential amino acids, with all of them having beneficial properties for the human diet

Structural insights into the synthesis of FMN in prokaryotic organisms

Riboflavin kinases (RFKs) catalyse the phosphorylation of riboflavin to produce FMN. In most bacteria this activity is catalysed by the C-terminal module of a bifunctional enzyme, FAD synthetase (FADS), which also catalyses the transformation of FMN into FAD through its N-terminal FMN adenylyl transferase (FMNAT) module. The RFK module of FADS is a homologue of eukaryotic monofunctional RFKs, while the FMNAT module lacks homologyto eukaryotic enzymes involved in FAD production. Previously, the crystal structure of Corynebacterium ammoniagenes FADS (CaFADS) was determined in its apo form. This structure predicted a dimer-of-trimers organization with the catalytic sites of two modules of neighbouring protomers approaching each other, leading to a hypothesis about the possibility of FMN channelling in the oligomeric protein. Here, two crystal structures of the individually expressed RFK module of CaFADS in complex with the products of the reaction, FMN and ADP, are presented. Structures are complemented with computational simulations, binding studies and kinetic characterization. Binding of ligands triggers dramatic structural changes in the RFK module, which affect large portions of the protein. Substrate inhibition and molecular-dynamics simulations allowed the conformational changes that take place along the RFK catalytic cycle to be established. The influence of these conformational changes in the FMNAT module is also discussed in the context of the full-length CaFADS protomer and the quaternary organization.This work has been supported by MINECO, Spain (BIO2013-42978-P to MM and BFU2014-59389-P to JAH), the Aragonian Government-FEDER (B18), Autonomous Community of Madrid (S2010/BMD-2457), Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (COLCIENCIAS) and Universidad Industrial de Santander (project 1818 to IL).Peer Reviewe