Drooping of flower heads: mechanical and structural studies of a well-known phenomenon.

, one of the most loved cut flowers, is (in)famous for the drooping of its flower heads under dehydration. This effect has been quantified by analysing both fully turgescent and wilting peduncles of 'Nuance'. Wilting peduncles display pronounced bending in the region directly below the inflorescence after 24 h of dehydration, while the rest of the peduncle remains upright.

Biomimetic cellular metals-using hierarchical structuring for energy absorption.

Fruit walls as well as nut and seed shells typically perform a multitude of functions. One of the biologically most important functions consists in the direct or indirect protection of the seeds from mechanical damage or other negative environmental influences. This qualifies such biological structures as role models for the development of new materials and components that protect commodities and/or persons from damage caused for example by impacts due to rough handling or crashes.

Effect of drought stress on bending stiffness in petioles of Caladium bicolor (Araceae).

Premise Of The Study: Cell turgor plays an important role in the mechanical stability of herbaceous plants. This study on petioles of Caladium bicolor 'Candyland' analyzes the correlation between flexural rigidity and cell turgor. The results offer new insights into the underlying form-structure-function relationship and the dependency of mechanical properties from water availability.

Multifactorial mechanism for the potentiation of cisplatin (CDDP) cytotoxicity by all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) in human ovarian carcinoma cell lines.

All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) has been previously shown to inhibit the proliferation of some human ovarian carcinoma cell lines, and this inhibition was accompanied by cellular changes that were indicative of differentiation (Caliaro et al, 1994). In this work, a pretreatment of these adenocarcinoma cells with ATRA, for their respective doubling time, enhanced cisplatin (CDDP) cytotoxicity in the cell ines that were sensitive to its antiproliferative effect, but not in the ATRA-resistant ones. Results were assessed using median effect analysis in two ATRA-sensitive cell lines (OVCCR1 and NIHOVCAR3 cells) and in one ATRA-insensitive cell line (IGROV1 cells).

Mechanism of interaction between cisplatin and human recombinant interferon gamma in human ovarian-cancer cell lines.

Human ovarian carcinoma cells (2008 and its cisplatin-resistant sub-line 2008/C13*) were sensitized to cisplatin by treatment with human recombinant gamma interferon (IFN gamma). IFN gamma produced no significant change in the uptake of CDDP. Exposure of 2008 and 2008/C13* cells to IFN gamma resulted in a time-dependent decrease of cellular glutathione and total glutathione-S-transferase activity, principally the pi isoform.

Response of four human ovarian carcinoma cell lines to all-trans retinoic acid: relationship with induction of differentiation and retinoic acid receptor expression.

The response of 4 human ovarian carcinoma cell lines to retinoic acid was found to be related to the histological type and degree of differentiation of these tumor cells. The 2 serous cell lines NIHOVCAR3 and OVCCR1 were the most sensitive to the antiproliferative effect of RA. This inhibition was associated with morphological and biological changes that were indicative of differentiation.