Effect of Ultrasound on the Green Selective Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol to Benzaldehyde.

Oxidation of alcohols plays an important role in industrial chemistry. Novel green techniques, such as sonochemistry, could be economically interesting by improving industrial synthesis yield. In this paper, we studied the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol as a model of aromatic alcohol compound under various experimental parameters such as substrate concentration, oxidant nature and concentration, catalyst nature and concentration, temperature, pH, reaction duration, and ultrasound frequency.

Strength and muscle specificity of a compact promoter derived from the slow troponin I gene in the context of episomal (gutless adenovirus) and integrating (lentiviral) vectors.

Background: Gutless adenovirus (helper-dependent adenoviral vector; HDAd) and lentiviral vectors (LV) are attractive vectors for the gene therapy of muscle diseases. Because the organization of their DNA (episomal versus integrated) differs, we investigated whether the strength and specificity of ΔUSEx3, a novel muscle-specific promoter previously tested with plasmid, were maintained in the context of these vectors.

Methods: Two HDAds expressing β-galactosidase regulated by ΔUSEx3 or CAG [cytomegalovirus (CMV) enhancer/β-actin promoter], and three LV expressing green fluorescent protein regulated by ΔUSEx3, CMV or a modified skeletal α-actin promoter (SPcΔ5-12), were constructed.

Leukemia inhibitory factor and its receptor promote adipocyte differentiation via the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade.

Extracellular factors and intracellular signaling pathways involved in early events of adipocyte differentiation are poorly defined. It is shown herein that expression of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and LIF receptor is developmentally regulated during adipocyte differentiation. Preadipocytes secrete bioactive LIF, and an antagonist of LIF receptor inhibits adipogenesis.

Differentiation of embryonic stem cells into adipocytes in vitro.

Embryonic stem cells, derived from the inner cell mass of murine blastocysts, can be maintained in a totipotent state in vitro. In appropriate conditions embryonic stem cells have been shown to differentiate in vitro into various derivatives of all three primary germ layers. We describe in this paper conditions to induce differentiation of embryonic stem cells reliably and at high efficiency into adipocytes.

Leptin gene is expressed in rat brown adipose tissue at birth.

The ob gene product leptin is secreted from adipose tissue. Leptin has dramatic effects on food intake and energy expenditure in rodents. Brown adipose tissue is the first form of adipose tissue to appear during development, and is present at birth in most species.

Expression of ob gene in adipose cells. Regulation by insulin.

The product of the recently cloned mouse obese (ob) gene is likely to play an important role in a loop regulating the size of the adipose tissue mass. The hormonal regulation of the ob gene could affect adiposity. To investigate this point, the effect of insulin on ob gene expression was examined in cells of the 3T3-F442A preadipocyte clonal line.