A universal curve of apatite crystallinity for the assessment of bone integrity and preservation.

The reliable determination of bioapatite crystallinity is of great practical interest, as a proxy to the physico-chemical and microstructural properties, and ultimately, to the integrity of bone materials. Bioapatite crystallinity is used to diagnose pathologies in modern calcified tissues as well as to assess the preservation state of fossil bones. To date, infrared spectroscopy is one of the most applied techniques for bone characterisation and the derived infrared splitting factor (IRSF) has been widely used to practically assess bioapatite crystallinity.

Differentiating between long and short range disorder in infra-red spectra: on the meaning of "crystallinity" in silica.

Local atomic disorder and crystallinity are structural properties that influence greatly the resulting chemical and mechanical properties of inorganic solids, and are used as indicators for different pathways of material formation. Here, these structural properties are assessed in the crystals of quartz based on particle-size-related scattering processes in transmission infra-red spectroscopy. Independent determinations of particle size distributions in the range 2-100 μm of a single crystal of quartz and defective quartz with highly anisotropic micro-crystallites show that particle sizes below the employed wavelength (approx 10 μm) exhibit asymmetric narrowing of absorption peak widths, due to scattering processes that depend on the intra-particle structural defects and long range crystallinity.

Bone mineralization pathways during the rapid growth of embryonic chicken long bones.

The uptake and transport of ions from the environment to the site of bone formation is only partially understood and, for the most part, based on disparate observations in different animals. Here we study different aspects of the biomineralization pathways in one system, the rapidly forming long bones of the chicken embryo. We mainly used cryo-fixation and cryo-electron imaging to preserve the often unstable mineral phases in the tissues.

Non-regulated and stimulated mechanisms cooperate in the nuclear accumulation of MEK1.

MEKs, which operate within the ERK cascade, shuttle into the nucleus, but are rapidly exported from this location, forming an apparent cytosolic distribution both before and after stimulation. Two different mechanisms have been proposed for the nuclear translocation of MEKs. One of them involves a constant and non-regulated shuttling of MEKs into the nucleus operating both before and after mitogenic stimulation.

Pharmacokinetics and excretion of unique beta-adrenergic agonists.

beta-Adrenergic agonist analogs (congeners) of isoproterenol in which the N-isopropyl group has been linked to a p-methyl- (119) or p-trifluoromethyl- (143) anilide moiety through a four carbon methylene spacer have been investigated with respect to their plasma pharmacokinetic profiles and biliary and urinary elimination characteristics in rats. In spite of the differences in selectivity of pharmacologic effects and durations of action between these unique beta-adrenergic agonists and isoproterenol, no differences were observed in their pharmacokinetic parameters in plasma after intravenous administration. Plasma clearances were rapid (67-78 ml/min) and the compounds were widely distributed.