The various composition multicomponent chitosan/fish collagen/glycerin 3D porous scaffolds were developed and investigated the effect of various composition chitosan/fish collagen/glycerin on scaffolds morphology, mechanical strength, biostability and cytocompatibility. The scaffolds were fabricated via freeze-drying technique. The effects of various compositions consisting in 3D scaffolds were investigated via FT-IR analysis, porosity, swelling and mechanical tests, and effect on the morphology of scaffolds investigated microscopically. The biostability and cytocompatibility tests were used to explore the ability of scaffolds to use for tissue engineering application. The average pore sizes of scaffolds were in range of 100.73±27.62-116.01±52.06, porosity 71.72±3.46-91.17±2.42%, tensile modulus in dry environment 1.47±0.08-0.17±0.03MPa, tensile modulus in wet environment 0.32±0.03-0.14±0.04MPa and biodegradation rate (at day 30) 60.38±0.70-83.48±0.28%. In vitro culture of human fibroblasts and keratinocytes showed that the various composition multicomponent 3D scaffolds were good cytocompatibility however, the scaffolds contained high amount of fish collagen excellently facilitated cell proliferation and adhesion. It was found that the high amount fish collagen and glycerin scaffolds have high porosity, enough mechanical strength and biostability, and excellent cytocompatibility.
The main goal of the present work was to develop a value-added product of biodegradable material for sustainable packaging. The use of agriculture waste-derived carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) mainly is to reduce the cost involved in the development of the film, at present commercially available CMS is costly. The main focus of the research is to translate the agricultural waste-derived CMC to useful biodegradable polymer suitable for packaging material. During this process CMC was extracted from the agricultural waste mainly sugar cane bagasse and the blends were prepared using CMC (waste derived), gelatin, agar and varied concentrations of glycerol; 1.5% (sample A), 2% (sample B), and 2.5% (sample C) was added. Thus, the film derived from the sample C (gelatin + CMC + agar) with 2.0% glycerol as a plasticizer exhibited excellent properties than other samples A and B. The physiochemical properties of each developed biodegradable plastics (sample A, B, C) were characterized using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The swelling test, solubility in different solvents, oil permeability coefficient, water permeability (WP), mechanical strength of the produced material was claimed to be a good material for packaging and meanwhile its biodegradability (soil burial method) indicated their environmental compatibility nature and commercial properties. The reflected work is a novel approach, and which is vital in the conversion of organic waste to value-added product development. There is also another way to utilize commercial CMC in preparation of polymeric blends for the packaging material, which can save considerable time involved in the recovery of CMC from sugarcane bagasse.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and ammonio methacrylate copolymer (Eudragit RS 100) were used as models in binary mixture tablets of direct compression study. Eudragit RS 100 is a copolymer synthesized from acrylic and methacrylic acid esters with a low content of quaternary ammonium groups. Combination of PVC and Eudragit RS 100 of different polarities and knowing the surface free energy values allow the possibility of predicting the tensile strength of the tablets. Specimens of 500 mg in the form of thin plates (25 mm x 12.5 mm), were made by compressing each powder at 20 000 MP a compression pressure using a special punch and die set. A Howden Universal Testing Machine was used to compress the powder. Contact angle measurements of the samples were carried out using a Wilhelmy balance, ran by a Cahn Dynamic Contact Angle Machine while different test liquids media such as water, glycerol, formamide and PEG 200 were used in the study. The surface free energy values of the solid materials were calculated using Wu's equation. The results showed large differences between the advancing and receding contact angle values for both materials when tested with glycerol: PVC (0) and PVC (0,) were 93.2 and 65.24 while Eudragit RS 100 (0) and Eudragit RS 100 (0) were 94.56 and 68.18 respectively. The surface free energy values for PVC using PEG 200-glycerol liquid pair were Is: 38.01, ysci: 33.42, ysP: 4.59 and for Eudragit RS 100 using formamide-glycerol liquid pair were ys: 75.03, yd: 51.66, ysP : 23.37, respectively. The results showed harder solid material like Eudragit RS 100 had higher surface free energy compared to elastic material like PVC.
Momordica charantia bioactive polysaccharide (MCBP) was used as an alternative source for the production of bio-based plastics (BPs) with choline chloride/glycerol-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) as a plasticizer. In this study, MCBP was initially extracted using 0.1 M citric acid at temperature 80 °C for 2 h, precipitated using ethanol, and then lyophilized. Subsequently, seven BPs were prepared: MCBP without plasticizer (MCBP), with 1% (w/w) of glycerol (MCBP-G), or with 1% (w/w) of DES at different choline chloride/glycerol molar ratios (i.e. 1.5:1, 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2, and 1:3). The properties of these BPs were then investigated. Results showed that the tensile strains, stresses and moduli were in the range of 1.3-13.3%, 4.8-19.1 MPa and 132-2487 MPa, respectively. The melting temperatures were found in the range of 92.6-111.4 °C whereas the moisture absorptions and water vapour transmission rates (WVTR) of BPs were 1.4-6.5% and 3.6-5.4 mg/m2·s, respectively. The results also showed that these BPs exhibited bioactivities, such as microbial inhibitory activity (19.5-32.3 mm), free radical scavenging activity (10.3-18.3%) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP, 16.1-20.0 mM). In addition, it was observed that using DES as a plasticizer had improved the properties of BP, such as tensile strain (354.7-937.5%), melting temperature (4.6-20.3%), radical scavenging activity (0.6-88.6%), FRAP (0.9-18.7%) and antimicrobial activity (12.3-33.6%) compared to MCBP, due to the fact DES has caused different degrees of plasticization via hydrogen bonds and ionic bonds with the polymer chains, and induced a lower pH condition. Therefore, it was suggested that these BPs with DES could contribute to food preservation properties.
In Drosophila, the Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Gpdh) enzyme plays an active role in many pathways, including the glycerol metabolic pathway and the alphaglycerophosphate cycle. It is also important for ethanol metabolism, as well as flight muscle development. Recent years have exposed small RNAs as a major posttranscriptional regulator of multiple metabolic-pathway genes. Of the many kinds of these RNAs at work, micro RNAs (miRNAs) are the most widely implicated and well understood. However, the roles they may play in regulating Gpdh has never been shown in any model organism. In this study, a pasha-mutant D. melanogaster strain was found to express only 25% of the Gpdh levels typical of their wild type counterparts. Such mutants lack the ability to produce pasha, a protein integral during miRNA-processing, and as a consequence do not produce mature miRNAs. As miRNA-centric regulation often culminates in the depletion of their targets, the concurrent downregulation of Gpdh observed in their absence here therefore alludes to two possibilities: one, that rather than being explicitly bound and repressed by miRNAs, Gpdh expression relies on their action upon an upstream Gpdh-antagonist; or two, that Gpdh may come under the regulation of another class of miRNA-like elements called mirtrons, which do not require pasha to be processed into their functional form. The preliminary findings in this study further highlights the imperative nature of miRNAs in regulating metabolic processes and subsequently, ensuring proper organismal development and its continued survival.
Paclitaxel (PTX) injection (i.e., Taxol) has been used as an effective chemotherapeutic treatment for various cancers. However, the current Taxol formulation contains Cremophor EL, which causes hypersensitivity reactions during intravenous administration and precipitation by aqueous dilution. This communication reports the preliminary results on the ionic liquid (IL)-based PTX formulations developed to address the aforementioned issues. The formulations were composed of PTX/cholinium amino acid ILs/ethanol/Tween-80/water. A significant enhancement in the solubility of PTX was observed with considerable correlation with the density and viscosity of the ILs, and with the side chain of the amino acids used as anions in the ILs. Moreover, the formulations were stable for up to 3 months. The driving force for the stability of the formulation was hypothesized to be the involvement of different types of interactions between the IL and PTX. In vitro cytotoxicity and antitumor activity of the IL-based formulations were evaluated on HeLa cells. The IL vehicles without PTX were found to be less cytotoxic than Taxol, while both the IL-based PTX formulation and Taxol exhibited similar antitumor activity. Finally, in vitro hypersensitivity reactions were evaluated on THP-1 cells and found to be significantly lower with the IL-based formulation than Taxol. This study demonstrated that specially designed ILs could provide a potentially safer alternative to Cremophor EL as an effective PTX formulation for cancer treatment giving fewer hypersensitivity reactions.
In order to prevent common hypersensitivity reactions to paclitaxel injections (Taxol), we previously reported an ionic liquid-mediated paclitaxel (IL-PTX) formulation with small particle size and narrow size distribution. The preliminary work showed high PTX solubility in the IL, and the formulation demonstrated similar antitumor activity to Taxol, while inducing a smaller hypersensitivity effect in in vitro cell experiments. In this study, the stability of the IL-PTX formulation was monitored by quantitative HPLC analysis, which showed that IL-PTX was more stable at 4 °C than at room temperature. The in vivo study showed that the IL-PTX formulation could be used in a therapeutic application as a biocompatible component of a drug delivery system. To assess the in-vivo biocompatibility, IL or IL-mediated formulations were administered intravenously by maintaining physiological buffered conditions (neutral pH and isotonic salt concentration). From in vivo pharmacokinetics data, the IL-PTX formulation was found to have a similar systemic circulation time and slower elimination rate compared to cremophor EL mediated paclitaxel (CrEL-PTX). Furthermore, in vivo antitumor and hypersensitivity experiments in C57BL/6 mice revealed that IL-PTX had similar antitumor activity to CrEL-PTX, but a significantly smaller hypersensitivity effect compared with CrEL-PTX. Therefore, the IL-mediated formulation has potential to be an effective and safe drug delivery system for PTX.
In this work, a pair of biopolymer materials has been used to prepare high ion-conducting electrolytes for energy storage application (ESA). The chitosan:methylcellulose (CS:MC) blend was selected as a host for the ammonium thiocyanate NH4SCN dopant salt. Three different concentrations of glycerol was successfully incorporated as a plasticizer into the CS-MC-NH4SCN electrolyte system. The structural, electrical, and ion transport properties were investigated. The highest conductivity of 2.29 × 10-4 S cm-1 is recorded for the electrolyte incorporated 42 wt.% of plasticizer. The complexation and interaction of polymer electrolyte components are studied using the FTIR spectra. The deconvolution (DVN) of FTIR peaks as a sensitive method was used to calculate ion transport parameters. The percentage of free ions is found to influence the transport parameters of number density (n), ionic mobility (µ), and diffusion coefficient (D). All electrolytes in this work obey the non-Debye behavior. The highest conductivity electrolyte exhibits the dominancy of ions, where the ionic transference number, tion value of (0.976) is near to infinity with a voltage of breakdown of 2.11 V. The fabricated electrochemical double-layer capacitor (EDLC) achieves the highest specific capacitance, Cs of 98.08 F/g at 10 mV/s by using the cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique.
The exponential fed-batch cultivation of Bacillus sphaericus UPMB10 in 2 l stirred tank fermenter was performed by feeding the initial batch culture with 14 g l-1 of glycerol according to the algorithm aimed at controlling the specific growth rate (μ) of the bacterium. Very high viable cell count (1.14 x 1010 cfu ml-1), which was four times higher as compared to batch cultivation, was achieved in the fed-batch with a controlled μ at 0.4 h-1. In repeated exponential fed-batch cultivation, consisting of four cycles of harvesting and recharging, a final cell concentration of 1.9 x 1011 cfu ml-1 was obtained at the end of the fourth cycle (46 h). Meanwhile, acetylene reduction of cell samples collected from repeated fed-batch cultivation remained unchanged and was maintained at around 20 nmol C2H2 h-1 ml-1 after prolonged cultivation period, and was comparable to those obtained in batch and exponential fed-batch cultivation. Glycerol could be used as a carbon source for high performance cultivation of B. sphaericus, a nitrogen fixing bacterium, in repeated fed-batch cultivation with high cell yield and cell productivity. The productivity (0.68 g l-1 h-1) for repeated fed-batch cultivation increased about 6 times compared to that obtained in conventional batch cultivation (0.11 g l1 h-1). A innovative method in utilizing glycerol for efficient cultivation of nitrogen fixing bacterium could be beneficial to get more understanding and reference in manipulating the integrated plans for sustainable and profitable biodiesel industry.
Oxygenated fuel additives can be produced by acetylation of glycerol. A 91% glycerol conversion with a selectivity of 38%, 28% and 34% for mono-, di- and triacetyl glyceride, respectively, was achieved at 120 °C and 3 h of reaction time in the presence of a catalyst derived from activated carbon (AC) treated with sulfuric acid at 85 °C for 4h to introduce acidic functionalities to its surface. The unique catalytic activity of the catalyst, AC-SA5, was attributed to the presence of sulfur containing functional groups on the AC surface, which enhanced the surface interaction between the glycerol molecule and acyl group of the acetic acid. The catalyst was reused in up to four consecutive batch runs and no significant decline of its initial activity was observed. The conversion and selectivity variation during the acetylation is attributed to the reaction time, reaction temperature, catalyst loading and glycerol to acetic acid molar ratio.
Oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion is utilized as an insecticide delivery system for mosquito control. However, evaporation inhibition adjuvant is needed to prevent fog drift, inhibit release of insecticidal actives and prolong suspension time. In the current study, we evaluated the effect of different short-chain alcohols, namely, propylene glycol, 1,3-propanediol, glycerol and crude glycerol, as adjuvants on the physicochemical properties of d-phenothrin o/w emulsion system. The bioactivity of optimized formulations containing 20 wt% glycerol (D1), 20 wt% propylene glycol (D2) and without added alcohol (negative control) were tested against larvae, pupae and adult Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti). It was found that propylene glycol produced smaller droplets at lower concentrations but poor long-term stability at higher concentrations, whereas glycerol had an appreciable effect on initial droplet size and stability with increasing concentration. According to the dose-response bioassays and room size chamber testing, the highest larvicidal, pupicidal and adulticidal activities were observed with D2, followed by D1 and negative control. Overall, the above study demonstrated improved emulsion stabilities and potency against Ae. aegypti larvae, pupae and adults using glycerol as adjuvant for effective mosquito control.
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are novel solvent media that are currently under investigation as an alternative to ionic liquids and conventional solvents. The physical properties of DESs as well as their mild environmental footprint and potentially critical industrial application necessitate understanding the interaction of functional groups on both the salt and hydrogen bond donor (HBD). In this study, four DESs were prepared by mixing triethylenglycol, diethylenglycol, ethylenglycol, and glycerol as HBDs with methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide as a salt at a molar ratio of 1:4. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was conducted to highlight the chemical structure and mechanism of the combination of the four DESs. New spectra illustrating the combination of the functional groups of the HBDs and salt were observed and interpreted. This study is the first to investigate the properties of neoteric phosphonium-based DESs.
Deep eutectic solvent (DES) affinities with cellular membranes structures dictate the degree of cytotoxicity that results from these interactions. The physicochemical properties of choline chloride (ChCl)-DESs suggest non-negligible cytotoxicities that were attested by published researches. In this study, the profiles of novel N,N-diethylammonium chloride (DAC)-based-deep eutectic solvents (DESs) prepared with various hydrogen bond donors (urea, glycerol, ethylene glycol, malonic acid, and zinc chloride) were compared to those of ChCl-DESs by using HelaS3, AGS, MCF-7, and WRL-68 cancer cell lines. The molecular interactions between salts and cellular membranes were investigated to explain the observed cytotoxicity. The results show that ChCl-based DESs (279 ≤ IC50 ≥ 1260 mM) were less toxic than DAC-based DESs (37 ≤ IC50 ≥ 109 mM). COSMO-RS analysis emphasized the importance of salt hydrophobicity with regards to DESs cytotoxicity. Malonic acid increased hydrophobicity and cytotoxicity in general, thus highlighting the potential of ammonium salt-based DESs as anticancer agents.
Human amniotic membrane that has been processed and sterilised by gamma irradiation is widely used as a biological dressing in surgical applications. The morphological structure of human amniotic membrane was studied under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess effects of gamma radiation on human amniotic membrane following different preservation methods. The amniotic membrane was preserved by either air drying or submerged in glycerol before gamma irradiated at 15, 25 and 35 kGy. Fresh human amniotic membrane, neither preserved nor irradiated was used as the control. The surface morphology of glycerol preserved amnion was found comparable to the fresh amniotic membrane. The cells of the glycerol preserved was beautifully arranged, homogonous in size and tended to round up. The cell structure in the air dried preserved amnion seemed to be flattened and dehydrated. The effects of dehydration on intercellular channels and the microvilli on the cell surface were clearly seen at higher magnifications (10,000×). SEM revealed that the changes of the cell morphology of the glycerol preserved amnion were visible at 35 kGy while the air dried already changed at 25 kGy. Glycerol preservation method is recommended for human amniotic membrane as the cell morphological structure is maintained and radiation doses lower than 25 kGy for sterilization did not affect the appearance of the preserved amnion.
Bioconverting glycerol into various valuable products is one of glycerol's promising applications due to its high availability at low cost and the existence of many glycerol-utilizing microorganisms. Bioethanol and biohydrogen, which are types of renewable fuels, are two examples of bioconverted products. The objectives of this study were to evaluate ethanol production from different media by local microorganism isolates and compare the ethanol fermentation profile of the selected strains to use of glucose or glycerol as sole carbon sources. The ethanol fermentations by six isolates were evaluated after a preliminary screening process. Strain named SS1 produced the highest ethanol yield of 1.0 mol: 1.0 mol glycerol and was identified as Escherichia coli SS1 Also, this isolated strain showed a higher affinity to glycerol than glucose for bioethanol production.
Yangia sp. ND199 is a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from mangrove samples in Northern Vietnam, which was earlier reported to grow on several sugars and glycerol to accumulate poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHA). In this study, the potential of the bacterium for co-production of exopolysaccharides (EPS) and PHA was investigated. Genome sequence analysis of the closely related Yangia sp. CCB-M3 isolated from mangroves in Malaysia revealed genes encoding enzymes participating in different EPS biosynthetic pathways. The effects of various cultivation parameters on the production of EPS and PHA were studied. The highest level of EPS (288 mg/L) was achieved using sucrose and yeast extract with 5% NaCl and 120 mM phosphate salts but with modest PHA accumulation (32% of cell dry weight, 1.3 g/L). Growth on fructose yielded the highest PHA concentration (85% of CDW, 3.3 g/L) at 90 mM phosphate and higher molecular weight EPS at 251 mg/L yield at 120 mM phosphate concentration. Analysis of EPS showed a predominance of glucose, followed by fructose and galactose, and minor amounts of acidic sugars.
In this study, we developed a glycerol-mediated safe and facile method to synthesize colored titania nanoparticles (NPs) via solution route. Our method is considerably effective and greener than other options currently available. Colored titania NPs were produced by hydrolyzing TiCl4 precursor in aqueous solution containing different concentrations of glycerol (0.0, 1.163, 3.834, and 5.815 mol/L) and subsequent calcination at 300 °C for 1 h. Our results highlight firstly that glycerol-mediated synthesis is unlikely to affect the anatase crystalline structure of TiO2, and secondly, that it would lead to coloration, band gap narrowing, and a remarkable bathochromic redshift of the optical response of titania. More importantly, the synthesized colored titania have Ti3+ ions, which, at least in terms of our samples, is the major factor responsible for its coloration. These Ti3+ species could induce mid gap states in the band gap, which significantly improve the visible light absorption capability and photocatalytic performance of the colored titania. The photocatalytic experiments showed that the colored TiO2 NPs prepared in 1.163 mol/L aqueous glycerol solution displayed the best photocatalytic performance. Almost 48.17% of phenolic compounds and 62.18% of color were removed from treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) within 180 min of visible light irradiation.
Ethylene glycol is a super commodity chemical and it has vital roles in various applications. Its co-production with other chemicals, such as ethylene carbonate and glycerol carbonate, has promised cheaper production cost. Its quantification presents a challenge as its contaminants, such as ethylene carbonate, produce a signal-reducing effect in flame ionized detector. The aim of this study is to evaluate external standard to quantify the composition of glycol mixture. Measurement system analysis was employed on the external standard method. Reliability of the external standard is statistically significant with low p-values, excellent capability indices, and high F-values. The external standard is found to have remarkable precision and trueness as both capability indices are mirroring each other. Furthermore, the capability analysis has a strong correlation with quality measurement. Based on capability indices, the limit of detection is recommended at S/N = 25 and the limit of quantification is recommended at S/N = 100 for a reliable measurement. A high degree of reliability is achieved coherently as almost all uncertainties of coefficients of variations are less than 5%. The established method was validated and successfully applied to glycol mixture at azeotropic distillation pilot plant.
The metabolic role of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (gnd) under anaerobic conditions with respect to succinate production in Escherichia coli remained largely unspecified. Herein we report what are to our knowledge the first metabolic gene knockout of gnd to have increased succinic acid production using both glucose and glycerol substrates in E. coli. Guided by a genome scale metabolic model, we engineered the E. coli host metabolism to enhance anaerobic production of succinic acid by deleting the gnd gene, considering its location in the boundary of oxidative and non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway. This strategy induced either the activation of malic enzyme, causing up-regulation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (ppc) and down regulation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (ppck) and/or prevents the decarboxylation of 6 phosphogluconate to increase the pool of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAP) that is required for the formation of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP). This approach produced a mutant strain BMS2 with succinic acid production titers of 0.35gl(-1) and 1.40gl(-1) from glucose and glycerol substrates respectively. This work further clearly elucidates and informs other studies that the gnd gene, is a novel deletion target for increasing succinate production in E. coli under anaerobic condition using glucose and glycerol carbon sources. The knowledge gained in this study would help in E. coli and other microbial strains development for increasing succinate production and/or other industrial chemicals.
The plasticized solid bio-polymer electrolytes (SBEs) system has been formed by introducing glycerol (Gly) as the plasticizer into the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) doped with oleic acid (OA) via solution casting techniques. The ionic conductivity of the plasticized SBEs has been studied using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy. The highest conductivity achieved is 1.64 × 10(-4) S cm(-1) for system containing 40 wt. % of glycerol. FTIR deconvolution technique had shown that the conductivity of CMC-OA-Gly SBEs is primarily influenced by the number density of mobile ions. Transference number measurement has shown that the cation diffusion coefficient and ionic mobility is higher than anion which proved the plasticized polymer system is a proton conductor.