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Organic monolithic stationary phases were synthesized in fused-silica capillaries. They were prepared by in situ polymerization under UV irradiation of various alkyl acrylates, 1,3-butanediol diacrylate, and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid in a ternary porogenic solvent. The resulting stationary phases were tested in CEC. The influence of UV irradiation energy on the resulting separative performances of the monoliths was studied. It was thus demonstrated that the use of hexyl acrylate rather than butyl acrylate and lauryl methacrylate gives highly efficient monoliths (more than 300 000 plates per meter) with optimized EOF. It was also confirmed that the mobile phase ionic strength may affect significantly the separation efficiency. The influence of the nature of the mobile phase organic modifier (ACN or methanol) on EOF, retention, efficiency, and selectivity was studied and differences were observed. Finally, the performances of monolithic stationary phases developed and optimized for CEC separations were evaluated in nanoLC.

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The Wnt and Notch signaling pathways are both abnormally activated in colorectal cancer (CRC). We recently showed that progastrin depletion inhibited Wnt signaling and increased goblet cell differentiation of CRC cells. Here, we show that progastrin down-regulation restores the expression by CRC cells of the early secretory lineage marker Math-1/Hath-1 due to an inhibition of Notch signaling. This effect is mediated by a decreased transcription of the Notch ligand Jagged-1,

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Earlier work from this laboratory showed that the human proteoglycan aggrecan from fetal cartilages can induce a CD4

Organic monolithic stationary phases have been synthesized in UV-transparent fused-silica capillaries, which have been used as test format of microfabricated device channels. The columns have been prepared by in situ polymerization of butyl acrylate, lauryl acrylate, 1,3-butanediol diacrylate, and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) in a ternary porogenic solvent. The resulting stationary phases have been tested in capillary electrochromatography and exhibited reversed-phase chromatography behavior toward neutral solutes. Van Deemter plots of phenylureas and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, selected as model analytes, have been determined to study the influence of various polymerization and separation parameters on properties of the monoliths. The amount of AMPS and the nature of monomers in the polymerization solution have been thus adjusted. It has been observed that the ionic strength of the mobile phase may affect significantly the efficiency of the separation. The effect of the percentage of acetonitrile in the mobile phase on efficiency and permeability of the organic monoliths has also been investigated. Efficiencies greater than 300,000 plates/m have been obtained with the test compounds. Stability and reproducibility have been extensively studied.

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) appeared as an interesting alternative to chromatographic methods for carbohydrate analysis, but it can be difficult to implement, because of the lack of easily ionizable functions and chromophore groups. Recently, a promising method was proposed by Rovio et al. for the CE separation under extremely high alkaline conditions of neutral carbohydrates under their alcoholate form and their direct UV detection [Rovio et al. Electrophoresis 2007, 28, 3129-3135; and Rovio et al. J. Chromatogr. A 2008, 1185, 139-144], which is claimed to be due to the absorption of enediolate at 270 nm. Even so, most of the detected compounds in Rovio's paper (for example, sucrose) cannot give such enediolate, lacking a carbonyl group. In this work, a deeper insight was paid to the understanding of detection mechanism. In effect, unusual detection phenomena were observed in comparing reducing and nonreducing carbohydrate behaviors, which pointed to the existence of photochemical reactions in the detection window. A more systematic study of the influence of many parameters (carbohydrate nature, electrolyte pH, residence time in the detection window, and capillary diameter) was undertaken. In addition to this, most of this work was performed under cathodic (reversed) electro-osmotic flow conditions (using Polybrene-modified capillaries), to obtain much faster separations than under Rovio's conditions. This study also opens up new avenues for the detection in mid-UV range of non-UV-absorbing compounds bearing reducing moieties, such as amino acids.