Induced Changes in the Rates of Uridine-\u3csup\u3e3\u3c/sup\u3eH Uptake and Incorporation During the G\u3csub\u3e1\u3c/sub\u3e And S Periods of Synchronized Chinese Hamster Cells

The rates of uridine-5-3H incorporation into RNA and the rates of uridine uptake into the acid-soluble pool during the cell cycle of V79 Chinese hamster cells were examined. Cells cultured on Eagle\u27s minimal essential medium supplemented with fetal calf serum, lactalbumin hydrolysate, glutamine, and trypsin displayed rates of incorporation and uptake which increased only slightly during G1 and accelerated sharply as DNA synthesis commenced. In contrast, cells cultured on minimal essential medium supplemented only with calf serum exhibited rates of incorporation and uptake which increased linearly through both G1 and S. The transition from one pattern to the other can be induced within 24 hr and is completely reversible. The nonlinear pattern exhibited by cells grown on the supplemented fetal calf serum medium can also be overcome with high exogenous uridine concentrations. In the presence of 200 µM uridine, these cells display a linear pattern of increase in rates of uridine incorporation and uptake. It is concluded that at lower uridine concentrations the pattern of increase in the rate of uridine incorporation into RNA during the cell cycle for a given population of cells is dependent upon the rate of uridine entry into the cell, and that this pattern is not rigidly determined but can be modified by culture conditions

Distribution of Laser Induced Heating in Multi-Component Chalcogenide Glass and its Associated Effects

Chalcogenide glasses are well known to have good transparency into the infrared spectrum. These glasses though tend to have low thresholds as compared to oxide glasses for photo-induced changes and thermally-induced changes. Material modification such as photo-induced darkening, bleaching, refractive index change, densification or expansion, ablation of crystallization have been demonstrated, and are typically induced by a thermal furnace-based heat treatment, an optical source such as a laser, or a combination of photo-thermal interactions. Solely employing laser-based heating has an advantage over a furnace, since one has the potential to be able to spatially modify the materials properties with much greater precision by moving either the beam or the sample. The main properties of ChG glasses investigated in this study were the light-induced and thermally-induced modification of the glass through visible microscopy, white light interferometry, and Raman spectroscopy. Additionally computational models were developed in order to aid in determining what temperature rise should be occurring under the conditions used in experiments. It was seen that ablation, photo-expansion, crystallization, and melting could occur for some of the irradiation conditions that were used. The above bandgap energy simulations appeared to overestimate the maximum temperature that should have been reached in the sample, while the below bandgap energy simulations appeared to underestimate the maximum temperature that should have been reached in the sample. Ultimately, this work produces the ground work to be able to predict and control dose, and therefore heating, to induce localized crystallization and phase change

Laser-induced crystallization mechanisms in chalcogenide glass materials for advanced optical functionality

Glass-ceramics (GC) are promising candidates for gradient refractive index (GRIN) optics. These multi-phase, composite materials also exhibit improved physical properties as compared to the parent base glass resulting from the formation of a secondary crystalline phase(s). Nanocrystal phase formation in a multi-component chalcogenide glass (ChG), (GeSe2-3As2Se3)(1-x)-(PbSe)x glass where x = 0-40 has been investigated, and the role of the starting material morphology has been correlated to the resulting composite\u27s optical properties including refractive index, transmission, dispersion, and thermo-optic coefficient. Optical property evolution was related to the type and amount of the crystal phases formed, since through control of the local volume fraction of crystalline phase(s), the effective material properties of the composite can locally be varied. Through computational and experimental studies, tailored nanocomposites exhibiting gradient index properties have been realized. A Raman spectroscopic technique was developed as a means to spatially quantify the extent of conversion from glass to glass ceramic, and to confirm that the scale length of the local refractive index modification can be correlated to the extent of crystallization as validated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Spatial control of the crystallization was examined by using a laser to locally modify the amount of nucleation and/or growth of crystallites in the glass. A novel technique converse to laser-induced crystallization was also developed and demonstrated that a glass ceramic could be locally re-vitrified back to a fully glassy state, through a laser-induced vitrification (LIV) method. Proof-of-concept demonstrator optics were developed using furnace and laser induced crystallization methods to validate experimental and computational approaches to modify the local volume fraction of nano-crystals. These demonstrators exhibited tailorable optical functionality as focusing optics and diffractive optics. This work paves the way for the design and fabrication of nanocomposite GRIN optics and their use in the mid-wave infrared

Extra centrosomes and/or chromosomes prolong mitosis in human cells

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Cell Biology 10 (2008): 748-751, doi:10.1038/ncb1738.Using laser microsurgery and cell fusion we have explored how additional centrosomes and/or chromosomes influence the duration of mitosis in human cells. We find that doubling the chromosome number adds ~10 minutes to a 20 minute division while doubling the number of centrosomes adds ~30 minutes more, and extra centrosomes and/or chromosomes prolong mitosis by delaying satisfaction of the spindle assembly checkpoint. Thus mitosis can be prolonged by non genetic means and extra chromosomes and centrosomes likely contribute to the elevated mitotic index seen in many tumors.This work was supported by National Institutes of General Medical Sciences grants 40198 (to C.L.R.) and 59363 (to A.K.)