Mouse Acidic Chitinase Effectively Degrades Random-Type Chitosan to Chitooligosaccharides of Variable Lengths under Stomach and Lung Tissue pH Conditions.

Chitooligosaccharides exhibit several biomedical activities, such as inflammation and tumorigenesis reduction in mammals. The mechanism of the chitooligosaccharides' formation in vivo has been, however, poorly understood. Here we report that mouse acidic chitinase (Chia), which is widely expressed in mouse tissues, can produce chitooligosaccharides from deacetylated chitin (chitosan) at pH levels corresponding to stomach and lung tissues.

Antibody Fragments for On-Site Testing of Cannabinoids Generated via in Vitro Affinity Maturation.

Law enforcement against illicit use of cannabis and related substances requires rapid, feasible, and reliable tools for on-site testing of cannabinoids. Notably, methods based on cannabinoid-specific antibodies enable efficient screening of multiple specimens. Antibody engineering may accelerate development of modern and robust testing systems.

Prevention of postoperative pericardial adhesions with a novel regenerative collagen sheet.

Background: Postoperative pericardial adhesions make a repeat sternotomy time-consuming and dangerous. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a new collagen pericardial substitute for preventing postoperative pericardial adhesions.

Methods: Our absorbable substitute consists of three layers: a middle layer of aterocollagen between two layers of sodium hyaluronic acid and aterocollagen.

Magnetic properties of Heusler alloys RuFeCrSi.

We report on the structural and magnetic properties of newly synthesized Heusler alloys, RuFeCrSi, which have quite recently been shown to be candidates for ferromagnetic metals with high spin polarization from band structure calculations. Polycrystalline samples of Heusler alloys RuFeCrSi were prepared for 0.5≤x≤1.

The cannabinoid 1 receptor antagonist, AM251, prolongs the survival of rats with severe acute pancreatitis.

It has recently been recognized that anandamide (arachidonylethanolamide), which is an endogeneous-cannabinoid (endocannabinoid), mediates septic shock. Cannabinoid means a mind-active material in cannabis (marijuana). Anandamide is mainly produced by macrophages.

Theoretical and experimental examination of near-field acoustic levitation.

A planar object can be levitated stably close to a piston sound source by making use of acoustic radiation pressure. This phenomenon is called near-field acoustic levitation [Y. Hashimoto et al.