The electrospun polymer nanofibrous materials can be used as carriers for hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. This research work focused on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and blends of PLA with poly (e-caprolactone) (PCL) that are reinforced with different concentrations of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and various cosolvents for electrospinning including chloroform : acetone, chloroform

: methanol, and dichloromethane (DCM) : N,N, dimethylformamide (DFM). The fibers produced from the DCM : DMF system without HNTs were more uniform resulting in smaller fiber diameters as compared to the chloroform: methanol system due to the increased solution conductivity. The addition of HNT nanoparticles produced electrospun fibers with large diameters because the viscosity of the solution increased. Cosolvent was important in CH5183284 manufacturer determining fiber diameters

because it strongly influenced the solution viscosity and conductivity. HNTs had relatively small impact on the growth of a crystalline morphology in PCLHNT composites. The solvent mixture of chloroform : methanol was better for PLA-based systems since PLA was found to have slightly higher crystallinity and larger enthalpy value indicating the improved structural orderness in the PLA polymer matrix. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012″
“The ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels are generally cardioprotective under conditions of metabolic impairment, consisting of pore-forming Kir 6.X (Kir 6.1 and HIF-1�� pathway Kir 6.2) subunits in combination with regulatory sulfonylurea receptor (SUR1, SUR2A and SUR2B) subunits. E23K is SB525334 a missense

single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located in the cytosolic proximal N-terminal tail of the Kir6.2 subunit. We investigated the E23K polymorphism of Kir6.2 gene in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients to assess its role in susceptibility to CAD. The CAD group included 340 patients (257 male and 83 female; mean age, 60.5 +/- 9.1 years) who underwent coronary angiography after recent myocardial infarction or angina. The control group consisted of 91 non cardiac individuals (45 male and 46 female; mean age, 55.6 +/- 9.4 years) with normal coronary vessels. The E23K polymorphism of Kir6.2 gene was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in CAD and control groups. The frequency of the G allele was found to be significantly higher in patients than in control group (58.2% vs. 47.8, p = 0.01). There were also significant differences in GG and combined (GA+AA) genotypes frequencies (35.9 vs. 23.1% and 64.1 vs. 76.9%, p = 0.02). The E23K polymorphism of Kir6.2 gene may be associated with the development of CAD.