Liberase is a highly purified blend of collagenases that has been specifically developed to eliminate the numerous problems associated with the conventional use of crude collagenase when isolating ...islet-like cell clusters (ICCs) from pancreases of different species. The influence of Liberase on yield, size, viability, and function of ICCs has been documented when this enzyme was used to digest adult but not fetal pancreases. In this study, we compared the effects of collagenase and Liberase on fetal pig ICCs. A total of eight fetal pig pancreas digestions were analyzed. Fetuses were obtained from Large White Landrace pigs of gestational age 80 ± 2.1 days. The pancreases were digested with either 3 mg/ml collagenase P or 1.2 mg/ml Liberase HI. The time taken to digest the pancreas was shorter for collagenase when compared with Liberase (22 ± 2 vs. 31 ± 2 min). The size of ICCs was similar for both collagenase (83 ± 0.5 μm) and Liberase (79 ± 0.4 μm) as was the number of ICCs produced per pancreas (7653 ± 1297 vs. 8101 ± 1177). Viability, as assessed using fluorescent markers, was slightly greater for Liberase (79 ± 1% vs. 76 ± 1%, p < 0.05). Responsiveness to β-cell stimulus (20 mM KCl) was similar for both methods of isolation, as was the insulin content of the ICCs, both in vitro and at 1 month after transplantation of 1500 ICCs beneath the renal capsule of immunoincompetent mice. Despite the high content of endotoxins in collagenase, the above results show that this enzyme was equally as efficient as Liberase in isolating functional ICCs from fetal pig pancreas.
We present an analysis of a newly discovered 2+1+1 quadruple system with TESS containing an unresolved eclipsing binary (EB) as part of TIC 121088960 and a close neighbor TIC 121088959. The EB ...consists of two very low-mass M dwarfs in a highly-eccentric (\(e\) = 0.709) short-period (\(P\) = 3.04358 d) orbit. Given the large pixel size of TESS and the small separation (3.9\("\)) between TIC 121088959 and TIC 121088960, we used light centroid analysis of the difference image between in-eclipse and out-of-eclipse data to show that the EB likely resides in TIC 121088960, but contributes only \(\sim\)10% of its light. Radial velocity data were acquired with iSHELL at NASA's Infrared Facility and the Coud\({é}\) spectrograph at the McDonald 2.7-m telescope. For both images, the measured RVs showed no variation over the 11-day observational baseline, and the RV difference between the two images was \(8 \pm 0.3\) km s\(^{-1}\). The similar distances and proper motions of the two images indicate that TIC 121088959 and TIC 121088960 are a gravitationally bound pair. Gaia's large RUWE and astrometric_excess_noise parameters for TIC 121088960, further indicate that this image is the likely host of the unresolved EB and is itself a triple star. We carried out an SED analysis and calculated stellar masses for the four stars, all of which are in the M dwarf regime: 0.19 M\(_\odot\) and 0.14 M\(_\odot\) for the EB stars and 0.43 M\(_\odot\) and 0.39 M\(_\odot\) for the brighter visible stars, respectively. Lastly, numerical simulations show that the orbital period of the inner triple is likely the range 1 to 50 years.
Peer support may improve breastfeeding rates but the evidence is inconclusive. Previous studies and reviews recommend trials in different healthcare settings.
To test if a specified programme of peer ...support affects the initiation and/or the duration of breastfeeding.
A two-group randomised controlled trial of peer support for breastfeeding with evaluation of breastfeeding initiation and duration on an intention-to-treat basis.
General practice in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Following informed consent, 225 women at 28 weeks gestation were allocated to control or peer support group by post-recruitment concealed allocation. All peer support and control group mothers received normal professional breastfeeding support. Additionally, those in the peer support group still breastfeeding on return home from hospital had peer support until 16 weeks.
Thirty-five of the 112 (31%) women in the peer support group were breastfeeding at 6 weeks compared to 33/113 (29%) in the control group, a difference of 2% (95% confidence interval = -10% to 14%). The median breastfeeding duration for all women in the peer support group was 2 days compared to 1 day for the control group and the Kaplan-Meier survival plot shows the peer support group overall breastfeeding slightly longer than the control group, with no statistically significant difference by logrank test (P = 0.5). The median breastfeeding duration among primagravidae in the peer support group was 7 days, compared to 3 days for the control group. Among women who started to breastfeed the medians were 72 days in the peer support group and 56 days in the control group. These differences were not statistically significant.
Peer support did not increase breastfeeding in this population by a statistically significant amount.
In this study changes in alternative pathways of glucose metabolism are examined in the rat lens using radiolabelled glucose in a 1 hr in vitro incubation of 50 m
m or 10 m
m glucose with or without ...0·1 m
m phenazine methosulphate (PMS). PMS which reoxidizes NADPH ensures that the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) is not limited by the supply of NADP
+. The data shows that maximal activation of the PPP (with PMS) is 40% greater at high glucose concentrations than normal glucose. This difference in maximal stimulation may be explained by the increase glucose uptake in the hyperglycaemic incubation. In the high-glucose incubation with PMS, hexokinase activity and the glucose 6-phosphate pool is not limiting for the PPP. Under these conditions, PMS alter the NAD
+/NADH and NADP
+/NADPH ratio. The change in the redox state alters the flux through the polyol pathway, the glycerol 3-phosphate shuttle and the glycolytic control sites, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, pyruvate and lactate dehydrogenases. These results are discussed in relation to hyperglycaemia-induced oxidative stress.
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IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The two peptides calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) and amylin at 1 uM levels in an isolated rat diaphragm preparation inhibited insulin stimulated 2-deoxy3Hglucose transport by 30 and 60 ...percent, respectively; this was the case at maximal (1 uM) and sub-maximal (0.5 mU) insulin concentrations. No effect was measured on the basal level of 2-deoxy3Hglucose transport.
We have searched the Kepler light curves of ~3900 M-star targets for evidence of periodicities that indicate, by means of the effects of starspots, rapid stellar rotation. Several analysis ...techniques, including Fourier transforms, inspection of folded light curves, 'sonograms', and phase tracking of individual modulation cycles, were applied in order to distinguish the periodicities due to rapid rotation from those due to stellar pulsations, eclipsing binaries, or transiting planets. We find 178 Kepler M-star targets with rotation periods, P_rot, of < 2 days, and 110 with P_rot < 1 day. Some 30 of the 178 systems exhibit two or more independent short periods within the same Kepler photometric aperture, while several have three or more short periods. Adaptive optics imaging and modeling of the Kepler pixel response function for a subset of our sample support the conclusion that the targets with multiple periods are highly likely to be relatively young physical binary, triple, and even quadruple M star systems. We explore in detail the one object with four incommensurate periods all less than 1.2 days, and show that two of the periods arise from one of a close pair of stars, while the other two arise from the second star, which itself is probably a visual binary. If most of these M-star systems with multiple periods turn out to be bound M stars, this could prove a valuable way of discovering young hierarchical M-star systems; the same approach may also be applicable to G and K stars. The ~5% occurrence rate of rapid rotation among the ~3900 M star targets is consistent with spin evolution models that include an initial contraction phase followed by magnetic braking, wherein a typical M star can spend several hundred Myr before spinning down to periods longer than 2 days.
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