Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a “green chemical” that has various cleaning and disinfectant uses, including as an anti-bacterial agent for hygienic and medical treatments. However, its efficacy is limited against biofilm-producing bacteria, because of poor penetration of the protective, organic matrix. Here we show new applications for ferromagnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4, MNP) with peroxidase-like activity in potentiating the efficacy of H2O2 in biofilm degradation and prevention. Our data show that MNP enhanced oxidative cleavage of biofilm components (model nucleic acids, proteins, and oligosaccharides) in the presence of H2O2. When challenged with live, biofilm-producing bacteria, the MNP-H2O2 system efficiently broke down existing biofilm and prevented new biofilm from forming, killing both planktonic bacteria and those within biofilm. By enhancing oxidative cleavage of various substrates, the MNP-H2O2 system provides a novel strategy for biofilm elimination, and other applications utilizing oxidative breakdown.

Lipid rafts, membrane sub-domains enriched in sterols and sphingolipids, are controversial because demonstrations of rafts have often utilized fixed cells. We showed in living sperm that the ganglioside G(M1) localized to a micron-scale membrane sub-domain in the plasma membrane overlying the acrosome. We investigated four models proposed for membrane sub-domain maintenance. G(M1) segregation was maintained in live sperm incubated under non-capacitating conditions, and after sterol efflux, a membrane alteration necessary for capacitation. The complete lack of G(M1) diffusion to the post-acrosomal plasma membrane (PAPM) in live cells argued against the transient confinement zone model. However, within seconds after cessation of sperm motility, G(M1) dramatically redistributed several microns from the acrosomal sub-domain to the post-acrosomal, non-raft sub-domain. This redistribution was not accompanied by movement of sterols, and was induced by the pentameric cholera toxin subunit B (CTB). These data argued against a lipid-lipid interaction model for sub-domain maintenance. Although impossible to rule out a lipid shell model definitively, mice lacking caveolin-1 maintained segregation of both sterols and G(M1), arguing against a role for lipid shells surrounding caveolin-1 in sub-domain maintenance. Scanning electron microscopy of sperm freeze-dried without fixation identified cytoskeletal structures at the sub-domain boundary. Although drugs used to disrupt actin and intermediate filaments had no effect on the segregation of G(M1), we found that disulfide-bonded proteins played a significant role in sub-domain segregation. Together, these data provide an example of membrane sub-domains extreme in terms of size and stability of lipid segregation, and implicate a protein-based membrane compartmentation mechanism.

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Spermatogonial stem cell transplantation (SSCT) offers unique approaches to investigate SSC and to manipulate the male germline. We report here the first successful performance of this technique in the dog, which is an important model of human diseases. First, we investigated an irradiation protocol to deplete endogenous male germ cells in recipient testes. Histologic examination confirmed O95% depletion of endogenous spermatogenesis, but retention of normal testis architecture. Then, 5-month-old recipient dogs (nZ5) were focally irradiated on their testes prior to transplantation with mixed seminiferous tubule cells (fresh (nZ2) or after 2 weeks of culture (nZ3)). The dogs receiving cultured cells showed an immediate allergic response, which subsided quickly with palliative treatment. No such response was seen in the dogs receiving fresh cells, for which a different injection medium was used. Twelve months post-injection recipients were castrated and sperm was collected from epididymides. We performed microsatellite analysis comparing DNA from the epididymal sperm with genomic DNA from both the recipients and the donors. We used six markers to demonstrate the presence of donor alleles in the sperm from one recipient of fresh mixed tubule cells. No evidence of donor alleles was detected in sperm from the other recipients. Using quantitative PCR based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), about 19.5% of sperm were shown to be donor derived in the recipient. Our results demonstrate the first successful completion of SSCT in the dog, an important step toward transgenesis through the male germline in this valuable biomedical model. Reproduction (2008) 136 823-831

Despite enormous interest in membrane raft microdomains, no studies in any cell type have defined the relative compositions of the raft fractions on the basis of their major components-sterols, phospholipids, and proteins-or additional raft-associating lipids such as the ganglioside, G M1 . Our previous localization data in live sperm showed that the plasma membrane overlying the acrosome represents a stabilized platform enriched in G M1 and sterols. These findings, along with the physiological requirement for sterol efflux for sperm to function, prompted us to characterize sperm membrane fractions biochemically. After confirming limitations of commonly-used detergent-based approaches, we utilized a non-detergent-based method, separating membrane fractions that were reproducibly distinct based on sterol, G M1 , phospholipid and protein compositions (both mass amounts and molar ratios). Based on fraction buoyancy and biochemical composition, we identified at least three highly reproducible subtypes of membrane raft. Electron microscopy revealed that raft fractions were free of visible contaminants and were separated by buoyancy rather than morphology. Quantitative proteomic comparisons and fluorescence localization of lipids suggested that different organelles contributed differentially to individual raft sub-types, but that multiple membrane microdomain sub-types could exist within individual domains. This has important implications for scaffolding functions broadly associated with rafts. Most importantly, we show that the common practice of characterizing membrane domains as either "raft" or "non-raft" oversimplifies the actual biochemical complexity of cellular membranes.