Invasive growth of in rice and increase of nuclear number.

Background: 'Rice ' is a solid culture of on steamed rice grains. Multiple parallel fermentation, wherein saccharification of rice by and alcohol fermentation by the budding yeast occur simultaneously, leads to the formation of a variety of ingredients of Japanese sake. In sake brewing, the degree of mycelial invasive growth into the steamed rice, called '-', highly correlates with the digestibility and quality of rice , since the hyphae growing into the rice secrete amylases and digest starch.

Region-dependent role of the mucous/glycocalyx layers in insulin permeation across rat small intestinal membrane.

The regional difference in the contribution of the mucous/glycocalyx layers in rat small intestine, as a diffusional or enzymatic barrier, to the absorption of insulin was investigated by in vitro studies. The mucous/glycocalyx layers from the duodenum, the jejunum, and the ileum in rat were successfully removed without damaging membrane integrity, by exposing them to a hyaluronidase solution in situ. In an in vitro transport experiment, the apparent permeability coefficient (P(app)) of insulin for the hyaluronidase-pretreated group was significantly increased compared to the PBS-pretreated (control) group in all small intestinal regions, and the P(app) of insulin in both PBS- and hyaluronidase-pretreated groups increased in the following order: duodenum < jejunum < ileum.