Identification of corneal and intra-epidermal axonal swellings in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

INTRODUCTION/AIMS: In patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), axonal spheroids in motor axons have been identified in post-mortem studies. In this study, axonal spheroids and swellings on C-fibers of ALS patients were investigated using corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) and skin biopsy, respectively. METHODS: Thirty-one ALS patients and 20 healthy subjects were evaluated with CCM to assess corneal nerve-fiber length (CNFL), -fiber density (CNFD), -branch density (CNBD), dendritic cell (DC) density, and axonal spheroids originating from C-fibers (>100 µm2 ). In addition, intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD) and axonal swellings (>1.5 µm) were assessed in skin biopsies obtained from the arms and legs of 22 patients and 17 controls. RESULTS: In ALS patients, IENFD, CNFD, CNFL, and CNBD were not different from controls. The density of DCs and the number of patients with increased DC density were higher in ALS patients than controls (p = .0005 and p = .008). The number of patients with axonal spheroids was higher than controls (p = .03). DISCUSSION: Evaluation of DCs and axonal bulbs in C-fibers of ALS patients could provide insights into pathophysiology or potentially serve as biomarkers in ALS.

Investigation of performances of commercial diesel oxidation catalysts for CO, C3H6, and NO oxidation.

Four commercial monolithic diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) with two different platinum group metal (PGM) loadings and Pt:Pd ratios of 1:0, 2:1, 3:1 (w/w) were investigated systematically for CO, C3H6, and NO oxidation, CO-C3H6 co-oxidation, and CO-C3H6-NO oxidation reactions via transient activity measurements in a simulated diesel engine exhaust environment. As PGM loading increased, light-off curves shifted to lower temperatures for individual and co-oxidation reactions of CO and C3H6. CO and C3H6 were observed to inhibit theoxidation of themselves and each other. Addition of Pd to Pt was found to enhance CO and C3H6 oxidation performance of the catalysts while the presence and amount of Pd was found to increase the extent of self-inhibition of NO oxidation. NO inhibited CO and C3H6 oxidation reactions while NO oxidation performance was enhanced in the presence of CO and C3H6 probably due to the occurrence of reduced Pt and Pd sites during CO and C3H6 oxidations. The optimum Pt:Pd ratio for individual and co-oxidations of CO, C3H6, and NO was found to be Pt:Pd = 3:1 (w/w) in the range of experimental conditions investigated in this study.

Oxygen transfer as a tool for fine-tuning recombinant protein production by Pichia pastoris under glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter.

Effects of oxygen transfer on recombinant protein production by Pichia pastoris under glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter were investigated. Recombinant glucose isomerase was chosen as the model protein. Two groups of oxygen transfer strategies were applied, one of which was based on constant oxygen transfer rate where aeration rate was Q O/V = 3 and 10 vvm, and agitation rate was N = 900 min(-1); while the other one was based on constant dissolved oxygen concentrations, C DO = 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40 % in the fermentation broth, by using predetermined exponential glucose feeding with µ o = 0.15 h(-1). The highest cell concentration was obtained as 44 g L(-1) at t = 9 h of the glucose fed-batch phase at C DO = 20 % operation while the highest volumetric and specific enzyme activities were obtained as 4440 U L(-1) and 126 U g(-1) cell, respectively at C DO = 15 % operation. Investigation of specific enzyme activities revealed that keeping C DO at 15 % was more advantageous with an expense of relatively higher by-product formation and lower specific cell growth rate. For this strategy, the highest oxygen transfer coefficient and oxygen uptake rate were K L a = 0.045 s(-1) and OUR = 8.91 mmol m(-3) s(-1), respectively.

Codon optimization of xylA gene for recombinant glucose isomerase production in Pichia pastoris and fed-batch feeding strategies to fine-tune bioreactor performance.

The objectives of this work are the optimization of the codons of xylA gene from Thermus thermophilus to enhance the production of recombinant glucose isomerase (rGI) in P. pastoris and to investigate the effects of feeding strategies on rGI production. Codons of xylA gene from T. thermophilus were optimized, ca. 30 % of the codons were replaced with those with higher frequencies according to the codon usage bias of P. pastoris, codon optimization resulted in a 2.4-fold higher rGI activity. To fine-tune bioreactor performance, fed-batch bioreactor feeding strategies were designed as continuous exponential methanol feeding with pre-calculated feeding rate based on the pre-determined specific growth rate, and fed-batch methanol-stat feeding. Six feeding strategies were designed, as follows: (S1) continuous exponential methanol- and pulse- sorbitol feeding; (S2) continuous exponential methanol- and peptone- feeding; (S3) continuous exponential methanol- and pulse- mannitol feeding; (S4) continuous exponential methanol- and peptone- feeding and pulse-mannitol feeding; (S5) methanol-stat feeding by keeping methanol concentration at 5 g L(-1); and, (S6) methanol-stat feeding by keeping methanol concentration at 5 g L(-1) and pulse-mannitol feeding. The highest cell and rGI activity was attained as 117 g L(-1) at t = 66 h and 32530 U L(-1) at t = 53 h, in strategy-S5. The use of the co-substrate mannitol does not increase the rGI activity in methanol-stat feeding, where 4.1-fold lower rGI activity was obtained in strategy-S6. The overall cell yield on total substrate was determined at t = 53 h as 0.21 g g(-1) in S5 strategy.