Spatiotemporal visualization of subcellular dynamics of carbon nanotubes

To date, there is no consensus on the relationship between the physicochemical characteristics of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and their biological behavior; however, there is growing evidence that the versatile characteristics make their biological fate largely unpredictable and remain an issue of limited knowledge. Here we introduce an experimental methodology for tracking and visualization of post-uptake behavior and the intracellular fate of CNTs based on the spatial distribution of diffusion values throughout the plant cell. By using raster scan image correlation spectroscopy (RICS), we were able to generate highly quantitative spatial maps of CNTs diffusion in different cell compartments. The spatial map of diffusion values revealed that the uptake of CNTs is associated with important subcellular events such as carrier-mediated vacuolar transport and autophagy. These results show that RICS is a useful methodology to elucidate the intracellular behavior mechanisms of carbon nanotubes and potentially other fluorescently labeled nanoparticles, which is of relevance for the important issues related to the environmental impact and health hazards

Ulama Perempuan Dan Dedikasinya Dalam Pendidikan Islam (Telaah Pemikiran Rahmah El-yunusiyah)

Bahasa Indonesia:Istilah ulama biasanya identik dengan laki-laki, namun disini Rahmah El-Yunusiyah bisa disebut dengan ulama karena banyak hal yang melekat pada dirinya bisa merepresentasikan sebagai seorang alim yang mempunyai kapasitas keilmuan yang mumpuni tentang agama, sikap progresifnya untuk memperjuangkan kaumnya hingga pengakuan dari masyarakat luas baik di Indonesia hingga dunia Internasional terhadap kiprahnya dalam pembaharuan pendidikan bagi perempuan. Tulisan ini menelaah pemikiran Rahmah El-Yunusiyah tentang pendidikan perempuan dijamannya melalui penelusuran buku-buku teks sejarah dan berbagai literatur. Penulis berusaha menyajikan gambaran sejarah perjuangan pendidikan bagi perempuan yang telah dilakukan Rahmah El-Yunusiyah sebagai fakta sejarah tentang peran penting perempuan dalam bersosial masyarakat sehingga perlu untuk terus diperjuangkan hingga saat ini. Sebagaimana yang telah dilakukan Rahmah El-Yunusiyah sebagai pembaharu pendidikan bagi perempuan dengan mendirikan sekolah khusus perempuan dari jenjang sekolah dasar hingga perguruan tinggi. Kontribusinya dalam memperjuangkan pendidikan perempuan sangat besar, terlihat sekarang perempuan Indonesia telah dapat secara mudah untuk dapat mengakses pendidikan. Betapa perempuan sebagai tiang negara memiliki andil besar dalam menentukan masa depan bangsa. English:The term ulama is usually identical to men. However, Rahmah El-Yunusiyah is also called as an ulama because several factors attached to her such as representation as an alim with religious knowledge capacity, progressive attitudes for her community development, and the recognition of wider community both in Indonesia and in International regarding her work in woman education reform. This paper examines Rahmah El-Yunusiyah\u27s consideration about female education in the past through historical texts and related literatures. The author attempt to present a historical overview of El-Yunusiyah\u27s struggle for women\u27s education as the historical facts about the important role of women in society. El-Yunusiyah was as a reformer of woman education who set up woman school of the primary level up to the university level. Her great contribution in education is now visible that Indonesian women have easy access to education. This effort shows that women as a pillar of the state has a big responsibility to determine the future of the nation

Microfluidics-based super-resolution microscopy enables nanoscopic characterization of blood stem cell rolling.

Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) homing occurs via cell adhesion mediated by spatiotemporally organized ligand-receptor interactions. Although molecules and biological processes involved in this multistep cellular interaction with endothelium have been studied extensively, molecular mechanisms of this process, in particular the nanoscale spatiotemporal behavior of ligand-receptor interactions and their role in the cellular interaction, remain elusive. We introduce a microfluidics-based super-resolution fluorescence imaging platform and apply the method to investigate the initial essential step in the homing, tethering, and rolling of HSPCs under external shear stress that is mediated by selectins, expressed on endothelium, with selectin ligands (that is, CD44) expressed on HSPCs. Our new method reveals transient nanoscale reorganization of CD44 clusters during cell rolling on E-selectin. We demonstrate that this mechanical force-induced reorganization is accompanied by a large structural reorganization of actin cytoskeleton. The CD44 clusters were partly disrupted by disrupting lipid rafts. The spatial reorganization of CD44 and actin cytoskeleton was not observed for the lipid raft-disrupted cells, demonstrating the essential role of the spatial clustering of CD44 on its reorganization during cell rolling. The lipid raft disruption causes faster and unstable cell rolling on E-selectin compared with the intact cells. Together, our results demonstrate that the spatial reorganization of CD44 and actin cytoskeleton is the result of concerted effect of E-selectin-ligand interactions, external shear stress, and spatial clustering of the selectin ligands, and has significant effect on the tethering/rolling step in HSPC homing. Our new experimental platform provides a foundation for characterizing complicated HSPC homing

mKikGR, a Monomeric Photoswitchable Fluorescent Protein

The recent demonstration and utilization of fluorescent proteins whose fluorescence can be switched on and off has greatly expanded the toolkit of molecular and cell biology. These photoswitchable proteins have facilitated the characterization of specifically tagged molecular species in the cell and have enabled fluorescence imaging of intracellular structures with a resolution far below the classical diffraction limit of light. Applications are limited, however, by the fast photobleaching, slow photoswitching, and oligomerization typical for photoswitchable proteins currently available. Here, we report the molecular cloning and spectroscopic characterization of mKikGR, a monomeric version of the previously reported KikGR that displays high photostability and switching rates. Furthermore, we present single-molecule imaging experiments that demonstrate that individual mKikGR proteins can be localized with a precision of better than 10 nanometers, suggesting their suitability for super-resolution imaging

Increased fatty acyl saturation of phosphatidylinositol phosphates in prostate cancer progression

Phosphoinositides (PIPs) participate in many cellular processes, including cancer progression; however, the metabolic features of PIPs associated with prostate cancer (PCa) are unknown. We investigated PIPs profiles in PTEN-deficient prostate cancer cell lines, human prostate tissues obtained from patients with PCa and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) specimens using mass spectrometry. In immortalized normal human prostate PNT1B cells, PTEN deficiency increased phosphatidylinositol tris-phosphate (PIP3) and decreased phosphatidylinositol mono- and bis-phosphate (PIP1 and PIN2 consistent with PTEN\u27s functional role as a PI(3,4,5)P-3 3-phosphatase. In human prostate tissues, levels of total (sum of all acyl variants) phosphatidylinositol (PI) and PIP1 in PCa were significantly higher than in BPH, whereas PIP2 and PIP3 contents were significantly lower than in BPH. PCa patients had significantly higher proportion of PI, PIP1, and PIP2 with 0-2 double bonds in acyl chains than BPH patients. In subgroup analyses based on PCa aggressiveness, mean total levels of PI with 0-2 double bonds in acyl chains were significantly higher in patients with pathological stage T3 than in those with pathological stage T2. These data indicate that alteration of PIPs level and the saturation of acyl chains may be associated with the development and aggressiveness of prostate cancer, although it is unknown whether this alteration is causative