Markers with large differences in allele frequencies between ethnicities provide ancestry information that can be applied to genetic studies. We identified over 100 biallelic ancestry informative markers (AIMs) with large allele frequency differences between European Americans (EA) and Pima Amerindians from laboratory and database screens. For 35 of these markers, Mayan, Yavapai and Quechuan Amerindians were genotyped and compared with EA and Pima allele frequencies. Markers with large allele frequency differences between EA and one Amerindian tribe showed only small differences between the Amerindian tribes. Examination of structure in individuals demonstrated a clear separation of subjects of European from those of Amerindian ancestry, and similarity between individuals from disparate Amerindian populations. The AIMs demonstrated the variation in ancestral composition of individual Mexican Americans, providing evidence of applicability in admixture mapping and in controlling for structure in association tests. In addition, a high percentage of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected on the basis of large frequency differences between EA and Asian populations had large allele frequency differences between EA and Amerindians, suggesting an efficient method for greatly expanding AIMs for use in admixture mapping/structure analysis in Mexican Americans. Together, these data provide additional support for the practical application of admixture mapping in the Mexican American population.

Since its invention in 1872 by Samuel Percy, the spray drying of food products has been widely used, whether in products consumed by babies in milk formulations, powdered sweets and cocoa soluble in milk for children, or food supplements rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals for adults. All of these products were first formulated in solution and then converted into powders to facilitate the transport and preservation of the properties during storage. In recent years, novel technologies such as nano spray drying have emerged for the development of food formulations with high-cost active ingredients. The aim of the present work is to present a review of the literature reported in the last 10 years related to these technologies. The basis of the spray-drying technologies i.e., conventional and nano, are described and compared, emphasizing the instrumental processing conditions for achieving a desired product. Examples of some unwanted reactions presented during the encapsulation of active ingredients are provided.

We have previously shown that microtubule-organizing centers (MTOCs) attach to the apical network of intermediate filaments (IFs) in epithelial cells in culture and in epithelia in vivo. Because that attachment is important for the architecture of microtubules (MTs) in epithelia, we analyzed whether chemical anoxia in LLC-PK1 and CACO-2 cells or unilateral ischemia-reperfusion in rat kidney (performed under fluorane anesthesia) had an effect on the binding and distribution of MTOCs. In culture, we found that chemical anoxia induces MTOC detachment from IFs by morphological and biochemical criteria. In reperfused rat proximal tubules, noncentrosomal MTOCs were fully detached from the cytoskeleton and scattered throughout the cytoplasm at 3 days after reperfusion, when brush borders were mostly reassembled. At that time, MTs were also fully reassembled but, as expected, lacked their normal apicobasal orientation. Two apical membrane markers expressed in S2 and S3 segments were depolarized at the same stage. At 8 days after reperfusion, membrane polarity, MTOCs, and MTs were back to normal. Na+-K+-ATPase was also found redistributed, not to the apical domain but rather to an intracellular compartment, as described by others (Alejandro VS, Nelson W, Huie P, Sibley RK, Dafoe D, Kuo P, Scandling JD Jr., and Myers BD. Kidney Int 48: 1308-1315, 1995). The prolonged depolarization of the apical membrane may have implications in the pathophysiology of acute renal failure.

Atypical PKC, Par6, and Par3 constitute a conserved complex signaling cell asymmetry. In contrast to its role in other tissues, atypical PKC inhibits NF-κB activation in epithelia and may function in maintaining low levels of inflammation in addition to establishing apicobasal polarity.

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