Mechanical properties and chemical stability of alginate-based anisotropic capillary hydrogels.

Anisotropic capillary hydrogels are formed by ionotropic gel formation of an aqueous sodium alginate solution during unidirectional diffusion and complexation with divalent cations. The type of cation used for gel formation dictates the size of the resulting capillary structure which might facilitate applications as biomaterial scaffolds in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Until now, such capillary hydrogel structures have not been characterized regarding their mechanical properties, and we hypothesise that both, the macroscopic capillary structure and the concentration of a chemical crosslinking agent, influence the mechanical properties and the stability of the hydrogels against degradation and dissolution in physiological environment.

Intestinal parasites: a study of human appendices.

Histological sections of 414 appendices were examined parasitologically. Enterobius vermicularis was found in 8.7%, eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides in 0.

[Penetration of amoebae into ganglion cells of the cerebral cortex in primary amoebic meningoencephalitis].

The intracellular penetrating activity of amoebas of Limax-type (vs. Naegleria fowleri) was observed in a previously published case of the PAME with fulminant lethal course in man. This invasion concerned some ganglion cells of the cerebral cortex and - exceptionally - also the Purkinje-cells in the cerebellum.