Acute lung injury (ALI) is a state of inflammation that breaks down the lung endothelial and epithelial cell barriers. In the current study, we investigated the role of resveratrol (RES) in regulating the expression and functions of tight junction proteins (TJP) in epithelial cell responses following exposure to this superantigen. To this end, C3H mice were given resveratrol orally twice prior to intranasal challenge with lethal SEB doses. 16S rRNA results showed that there were microbes transported in the blood in addition to the lung and colonic tissues. For this purpose, we used a reporter E. coli-GFP labeled bacterium to monitor and examine the viability of this bacterium in case of leak from lung into blood and other body compartments during the peak of ALI. The flow cytometry results showed significant reduction in copy numbers of this reporter in the blood in RES-treated mice in comparison to vehicle-treated mice. However, bacteriological examination for viability by culture of the blood showed all were negative for all experimental groups. Mouse transcriptome array showed increase in TJP gene expression in colonic and alveolar epithelial cells of RES-treated mice. Some of these genes were validated with qPCR. We found that there was an increase in the expression of some TJP genes following RES treatment. Commensals and probiotics are also known to decrease intestinal barrier dysfunction caused by inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, mass spectrometry (MS) analysis showed increase in the metabolome in colons of RES-treated group that help in strengthening of intestinal barrier. In conclusion, RES treatment increased directly or indirectly the rigidity of cell boundaries resulting in amelioration of ALI-dependent complications.
The present study was designed to investigate the possibility of exploiting the interspecies interaction of microbial cells in order to enhance the production of prodigiosin by local isolate S. marcescens S23. Prodigiosin is a promising drug owing to its characteristics of antibacterial, antifungal, immunosuppressive and anticancer activities. S. marcescens S23 was isolated from soil sample and already recognized via morphological, biochemical and molecular identification process. The first step was to detect the optimal conditions for maximum prodigiosin production using chemically defined liquid medium. The results revealed that the optimal conditions for prodigiosin production were sucrose as carbon source; peptone as nitrogen source;
... Show MoreThis work is an experimental investigation for single basin-single slope solar still coupled with an evacuated tube solar collector. The work is carried out under the climatic conditions of Baghdad city (33.2456º North and East latitude, 44.3337º longitude) through certain days of the months of the year 2019 to study the impact of using evacuated tube solar collector on the daily productivity and efficiency under the outdoors climatic conditions. It was found that using the evacuated tube solar collector increase daily productivity from 2.175 kg/ to 2.95 kg/ for 9 hours (35.63 %) for clear days, also an enhancement about 10.97 % in daily efficiency.
Industrial dyes are major pollutants in wastewater and river water with an initial visible concentration of 1 mg/L. Recent studies have shown the possibility of using polyphenol oxidase in catalytic biological treatment due to its ability to oxidize a large number of dyes and pollutants in wastewater and the flexibility to work in wide ranges of temperature, pH and salinity. It is easy availability as well as the low economic cost resulting from its use in biological treatments, this enzyme polyphenol oxidase was used. The findings in this study showed that the extraction of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) from potato peel was homogenized with potassium phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH 7) at a ratio of 1:10 (weight: volume) for two min. The res
... Show MoreIn the present investigation, the synthesis of copper nanoparticles from green tea was attempted and investigated for its capacity to adsorb drugs (Ciprofloxacin). The copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) were characterized by different techniques of analysis such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, atomic force microscope (AFM), blumenauer-emmer-teller (BET), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and zeta potentials techniques. Cu-NPs lie in the mesoporous material category with a diameter in the range of 2-50 nm. The aqueous solution was investigated for the removal of ciprofloxacin (CIP) with green tea-synthesized Cu-NPs. The results showed that ciprofloxacin efficiency depe
... Show MoreA novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (
... Show MoreA crucial area of research in nanotechnology is the formation of environmentally benign nanoparticles. Both unicellular and multicellular play an important role in synthesis nanoparticles through the production of inorganic materials either intracellularly or extracellularly. The agents (pigments, siderophores, cell extracted metabolites and reducing compounds) were used to prepare silver nanparticles with different sizes and shapes. The color variations (dark yellow, slightly dark yellow and golden yellow) arising from changes in the composition, size, and shape of nanoparticles, surrounding medium can be monitored using UV-visible spectrophotometer. These effects are due to the phenomena called surface plasmon resonance. The silver nanopa
... Show MoreThe cathodic deposition of zinc from simulated chloride wastewater was used to characterize the mass transport properties of a flow-by fixed bed electrochemical reactor composed of vertical stack of stainless steel nets, operated in batch-recycle mode. The electrochemical reactor employed potential value in such a way that the zinc reduction occurred under mass transport control. This potential was determined by hydrodynamic voltammetry using a borate/chloride solution as supporting electrolyte on stainless steel rotating disc electrode. The results indicate that mass transfer coefficient (Km) increases with increasing of flow rate (Q) where .The electrochemical reactor proved to be efficient in removing zinc and was abl
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