A far-red, photo- and bio-stable fluorescent marker selective to the endoplasmic reticulum and its application to tunicamycin-treated HeLa cells.

Herein, we developed an ER selective fluorescent ERp that exhibited a sharp fluorescence emission in the far-red region and high photo- and bio-stability in biological milieu. Its emission is insensitive to pH change and localized in the ER of the cells. Furthermore, it successfully demonstrated that the ER membrane is rapidly reorganized in the perinuclear region by an ER stress inducer, tunicamycin.

A self-calibrating bipartite viscosity sensor for mitochondria.

A self-calibrating bipartite viscosity sensor 1 for cellular mitochondria, composed of coumarin and boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) with a rigid phenyl spacer and a mitochondria-targeting unit, was synthesized. The sensor showed a direct linear relationship between the fluorescence intensity ratio of BODIPY to coumarin or the fluorescence lifetime ratio and the media viscosity, which allowed us to determine the average mitochondrial viscosity in living HeLa cells as ca. 62 cP (cp).

Confinement effects of P3HT in nanochannels and their implications for bulk heterojunction solar cells.

We studied the properties of regioregular P3HT conducting polymers with three different molecular weights infiltrated into the pores of mesoporous titania thin films. The titania thin films, prepared by self-organization of titania species with a non-ionic triblock copolymer F127 followed by calcination to remove organics, have arrays of 7 nm vertical nanochannels. The UV-Vis spectra of the P3HT-titania nanocomposite films revealed that the interstrand interactions between P3HT chains were weakened by the infiltration.

Heteroleptic binuclear palladium(II) and platinum(II) complexes containing 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)acetylene and 1,2-benzenedithiolates: syntheses, crystal structures, electrochemistry and photoluminescence properties.

A series of heteroleptic binuclear Pd(ii) and Pt(ii) complexes, [M(bdts)](2)(micro-dppa)(2) (M = Pd () and Pt (); dppa = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)acetylene = Ph(2)PC[triple bond, length as m-dash]CPPh(2); bdts = 1,2-benzenedithiolate (bdt: a), 3,4-toluenedithiolate (tdt: b) and 1,4-dichloro-2,3-benzenedithiolate (Cl(2)bdt: c), containing two square-planar MP(2)S(2) cores were prepared using (MCl(2))(2)(micro-dppa)(2) (M = Pd () and Pt ()) and the corresponding 1,2-benzenedithiols, and characterized by spectroscopic methods including FT-IR, Raman, UV-vis, MALDI-TOF-MS, (31)P{(1)H} and/or (195)Pt{(1)H} NMR spectroscopy. X-Ray crystal structure analyses for complexes and revealed that C1C2C4C3 is twisted in two ways with a torsion angle of 21.6-30.

A mesoporous silica thin film as uptake host for guest molecules with retarded release kinetics.

Uptake and release processes of various fluorescent rhodamine dyes and antitumor drugs to/from an ordered mesoporous silica film are investigated by means of UV/Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies. The pores in the 160 nm-thick silica film strongly withdraw the dyes from water, thus allowing the storage of several micrograms of guest molecules per square centimeter of film. The binding equilibrium of the dyes follows a Langmuir-type adsorption.

Mesoporous titania thin film with highly ordered and fully accessible vertical pores and crystalline walls.

We report the preparation of mesoporous titania thin films with the R$\bar 3$m pore structure derived from the Im$\bar 3$m self-assembled ordering of the titania species and an EO(106)PO(70)EO(106) triblock copolymer. The films were spin-cast and then aged at 18 degrees C at a relative humidity of 70 %, which led to the orientation of the Im$\bar 3$m structure with the [111] direction perpendicular to the substrates. The [111] body-diagonal channels became vertical channels upon calcination at 400 degrees C, thus leading to thin films with vertical channels.

A hydrophobic ligand-binding protein of the Taenia solium metacestode mediates uptake of the host lipid: implication for the maintenance of parasitic cellular homeostasis.

Parasitic organisms are incapable of de novo fatty acid synthesis due to a down-regulated expression of enzymes involved in the oxygen-dependent pathway. We investigated the uptake of host lipids by a 150-kDa hydrophobic ligand-binding protein (HLBP) of Taenia solium metacestode, an agent causative of neurocysticercosis. The protein was found to be a hetero-oligomeric complex consisting of multiple subunits (M(r) 7, 10, and 15 kDa within pH 8.

Crystal structure and spectroscopic study of novel two- and three-dimensional photoluminescent Eu(III)-adipate compounds.

Two new photoluminescent compounds with the formulas of [Eu(2)(adipate)(3)(H(2)O)].H(2)O (1) and [Eu(2)(adipate)(3)(4H(2)O)] (2) were synthesized by using Eu(III) chloride and adipic acid under hydrothermal reaction conditions in aqueous solution. Compound 1, a 3-D layered framework, possesses infinite Eu-O-Eu polyhedral chains and self-assembled adipate ligands between Eu-O layers.

Highly sensitive and simple fluorescence staining of proteins in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide-based gels by using hydrophobic tail-mediated enhancement of fluorescein luminescence.

Fluorescein has an extremely low luminescence intensity in acidic aqueous media. However, when it was bound to proteins, subsequent increase of luminescence intensity took place. Furthermore, when a hydrophobic tail, such as aliphatic hydrocarbons, was introduced to fluorescein, more dramatic increase of luminescence intensity was observed upon binding to proteins.