Botulinum toxin type A (BTA) is known to inhibit the release of acetylcholine from cholinergic nerve endings. Owing to the characteristics of BTA, we thought that it could be used for the treatment of intrinsic rhinitis acting as an anticholinergic drug. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study four units of BTA were injected into the middle turbinate (two units) and inferior turbinate (two units) in each nasal cavity. Rhinorrhoea, nasal obstruction, and sneezing were recorded in a symptom diary on the basis of a scale of 5 and the number of paper tissues used per day was also recorded for 24 weeks. Rhinorrhoea was significantly diminished in severity (24.1–41.5 per cent reduction) and paper tissue use (54.3 per cent reduction) in the BTA group compared with the placebo group. This effect could be maintained for four weeks. Sneezing and nasal stuffiness were not affected by BTA. These results suggest that BTA can be used to treat rhinorrhoea in intrinsic rhinitis patients, however, the effective period is short.
Increased calcium (Ca) in potatoes may increase the production rate by enhancing tuber quality and storability. Additionally, increased Ca levels in important agricultural crops may help ameliorate the incidence of osteoporosis. However, the capacity to alter Ca levels in potato tubers through genetic manipulations has not been previously addressed. Here we demonstrate that potato tubers expressing the Arabidopsis H+/Ca2+ transporter sCAX1 (N-terminal autoinhibitory domain truncated version of CAtion eXchanger 1) contain up to 3-fold more Ca than wild-type tubers. The increased Ca appears to be distributed throughout the tuber. The sCAX1-expressing potatoes have normally undergone the tuber/plant/tuber cycle for three generations; the trait appeared stable through successive generations. The expression of sCAX1 does not appear to alter potato growth and development. Furthermore, increased Ca levels in sCAX1-expressing tubers do not appear to alter tuber morphology or yield. Given the preponderance of potato consumption worldwide, these transgenic plants may be a means of marginally increasing Ca intake levels in the population. To our knowledge, this study represents the first attempts to use biotechnology to increase the Ca content of potatoes.
We describe a procedure for producing transgenic bottle gourd plants by inoculating cotyledon explants with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain AGL1 that carries the binary vector pCAMBIA3301 containing a glufosinate ammonium-resistance (bar) gene and the beta-D-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene. The most effective bacterial infection was observed when cotyledon explants of 4-day-old seedlings were co-cultivated with Agrobacterium for 6-8 days on co-cultivation medium supplemented with 0.1-0.001 mg/l L-alpha-(2-aminoethoxyvinyl) glycine (AVG). The putatively transformed shoots directly emerged at the proximal end of cotyledon explants after 2-3 weeks of culturing on selection medium containing 2 mg/l DL-phosphinothricin. These shoots were rooted after 3 weeks of culturing on half-strength MS medium containing 0.1 mg/l indole acetic acid and 1 mg/l DL-phosphinothricin. Transgenic plants were obtained at frequencies of 1.9%. Stable integration and transmission of the transgenes in T1 generation plants were confirmed by a histochemical GUS assay, polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot analyses. Genetic segregation analysis of T1 progenies showed that transgenes were inherited in a Mendelian fashion. To our knowledge, this study is the first to show Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in bottle gourd.
ABSTRACT. This study was conducted to evaluate whether refining mineral oil and the addition of hemoglobin and/or glucose to a serumfree medium could improve in vitro-development of embryos cultured in a chemicallysemi-defined microdroplet culture system. Block strain, outbred (ICR) mouse 1-or 2-cell embryos were cultured in 5 µl droplets of Chatot, Ziomek and Bavister medium overlaid with mineral oil of different types, and preimplantation development to the blastocyst stage was subsequently monitored. In the experiment 1, either Sigma (M-8410) or BDH (GPR TM ) mineral oil with or without washing was used for embryo culture and, distilled water (DW) or culture medium was used as a washing agent. As results, better (P<0.0001) development of 1-cell embryos was found in the Sigma than in the BDH; more blastocysts developed in Sigma oil washed with culture medium than in the others (37% vs. 0%). Subsequent ly, 1-(experiment 2) or 2-cell (experiment 3) embryos were cultured in the droplets overlaid with medium-washed Sigma oil, to which 0.001 mg/ml hemoglobin and/or 5.6 mM glucose were supplemented at the 1-cell and the 4-cell stages, respectively. Regardless of embryo stages, blastocyst formation was significantly improved by the addition of hemoglobin (54 to 48% vs. 42 to 31% in 1-cell and 83 to 78% vs. 65 to 68% in 2-cell embryos) and this effect was independent of glucose addition. In conclusion, the selection and washing of mineral oil, and the addition of hemoglobin is beneficial for improving the efficacy of a drop embryo culture system using a serum-free medium. KEY WORDS: glucose, hemoglobin, mineral oil, mouse embryo, preimplantation development.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 66(1): 63-66, 2004 Technical advance in gamete manipulation is fundamental for developing novel medical biotechnologies. Lots of information has been obtained from various model studies and we have developed the mouse model system of embryo culture employing serum-free media and outbred strain (Institute of Cancer Research; ICR) [10,11]. Subsequently, a culture technique using small microdroplet of a serumfree medium has been developed. In this system, commercially-purchased mineral oil is used for preparing microdroplets, so culture medium was continuously exposes to overlaid oil throughout the culture. It is possible that the artifacts included in overaid oil directly affect on the development of embryos cultured in microdroplet by continuous exposure during in vitro-culture. This hypothesis was confirmed by recent finding showing the influence of oil on embryo development during in vitro-culture [12]. In addition, a Chatot, Ziomek and Bavister (CZB) medium [1-4] was employed as a basic medium of our culture system, but this does not contain several substrates having embryotrophic action reported in previous studies [8][9][10][11].Consequently, a randomized, prospective study was designed to further improve our embryo culture system using the microdroplet of a serum-free medium. This study was conducted to examine 1) the effects of two types ...
Silicon dioxide (SiO) films were synthesized by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) using BTBAS [bis(tertiarybutylamino) silane] as the precursor and O plasma as the reactant, at a temperature range from 50 to 200 °C. While dielectric constant values larger than 3.7 are obtained at all deposition temperatures, the leakage current levels are drastically reduced to below 10 A at temperatures above 150 °C, which are similar to those obtained in thermally oxidized and PECVD grown SiO. Thin film transistors (TFTs) based on In-Sn-Zn-O (ITZO) semiconductors were fabricated using thermal SiO, PECVD SiO, and PEALD SiO grown at 150 °C as the gate dielectrics, and superior device performance and stability are observed in the last case. A linear field effect mobility of 68.5 cm/(V s) and a net threshold voltage shift (ΔV) of approximately 1.2 V under positive bias stress (PBS) are obtained using the PEALD SiO as the gate insulator. The relatively high concentration of hydrogen in the PEALD SiO is suggested to induce a high carrier density in the ITZO layer deposited onto it, which results in enhanced charge transport properties. Also, it is most likely that the hydrogen atoms have passivated the electron traps related to interstitial oxygen defects, thus resulting in improved stability under PBS. Although the PECVD SiO contains a hydrogen concentration similar to that of PEALD SiO, its relatively large surface roughness appears to induce scattering effects and the generation of electron traps, which result in inferior device performance and stability.
We investigated the role of nano-silver (NAg) and the bacterial strain Enterobacter cloacae in increasing the vase life of cut carnation flowers ‘Omea.’ NAg treatment extended vase life of the flowers by increasing relative fresh weight, antioxidant activities, and expression level of the cysteine proteinase inhibitor gene (DcCPi), and by suppressing bacterial blockage in stem segments, ethylene production and expression of ethylene biosynthesis genes and DcCP1 gene, compared with the control. Out of all the treatments, administration of 25 mg L-1 NAg gave the best results for all the analyzed parameters. Interestingly, application of E. cloacae also extended the vase life of cut flowers by 3 days in comparison with control flowers, and overall, showed better results than the control for all the analyzed parameters. Taken together, these results demonstrate the positive role of NAg and E. cloacae in increasing the longevity of cut carnation flowers, and indicate that this effect is brought about through multiple modes of action.
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