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Amorphous Calcium Phosphate
Amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) is a glassy solid that is formed from the chemical decomposition of a mixture of dissolved phosphate and calcium salts (e.g. (NH4)2HPO4 + Ca(NO3)2). The resulting amorphous mixture consists mostly of calcium and phosphate, but also contains varying amounts of water and hydrogen and hydroxide ions, depending on the synthesis conditions. Such mixtures are also known as calcium phosphate cement. ACP is generally categorized into either "amorphous tricalcium phosphate" (ATCP) or calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA). CDHA is sometimes termed " apatitic calcium triphosphate." The composition of amorphous calcium phosphate is Ca''x''H''y''(PO4)''z''·''n''H2O, where ''n'' is between 3 and 4.5. CDHA has a general formula of Ca9(HPO4)(PO4)5(OH). Precipitation from a moderately supersaturated and basic solution of a magnesium salt produces amorphous magnesium calcium phosphate (AMCP), in which magnesium incorporated into the ACP structure. A commercial pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glass Transition
The glass–liquid transition, or glass transition, is the gradual and reversible transition in amorphous materials (or in amorphous regions within semicrystalline materials) from a hard and relatively brittle "glassy" state into a viscous or rubbery state as the temperature is increased. ISO 11357-2: Plastics – Differential scanning calorimetry – Part 2: Determination of glass transition temperature (1999). An amorphous solid that exhibits a glass transition is called a glass. The reverse transition, achieved by supercooling a viscous liquid into the glass state, is called vitrification. The glass-transition temperature ''T''g of a material characterizes the range of temperatures over which this glass transition occurs (as an experimental definition, typically marked as 100 s of relaxation time). It is always lower than the melting temperature, ''T''m, of the crystalline state of the material, if one exists. Hard plastics like polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phosphopeptide
Phosphopeptides are modified self antigens which may induce an immune response. Protein phosphorylation is a very important and frequent post-translational modification that can impact a protein's localization, stability, and whether or not it can dimerize or form stable bonds with other substances. It is vital to pinpoint which amino acid in the protein’s primary structure is being phosphorylated in order to understand the functions of a phosphopeptide. This is accomplished through phosphopeptide mapping, which involves digestion of a radioactively labeled protein, separation of phosphopeptide products, and finally analysis via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or mass spectrometry. Analysis of phosphopeptides can provide information about which amino acids are phosphorylated and how many sites on the primary sequence are phosphorylated. Phosphorylation of serine and threonine residues is conserved during MHC class I and MHC class II antigen processing. Phosph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoblast
Mesoblast Limited is an Australian-based regenerative medicine company. It seeks to provide treatments for inflammatory ailments, cardiovascular disease and back pain. The company is led by Silviu Itescu, who founded the company in 2004. Mesenchymal lineage cells The company is developing a range of regenerative products derived from its proprietary mesenchymal lineage cells. This includes Mesenchymal Precursor Cells (MPCs) and Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs). It is the hope of Mesoblast that these cells will behave like their natural counterparts, when injected into a patient. Such behavior would require the cells to survive in a patient's body, despite the action of the immune system, which functions to destroy anything that is foreign. Use In the laboratory, highly purified and immunoselected MPCs and the culture expanded MSCs secrete trophic factors that have multiple potential actions. It is hoped that Mesenchymal lineage precursors will retain the ability of their nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alkaline Phosphatase
The enzyme alkaline phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.1, alkaline phosphomonoesterase; phosphomonoesterase; glycerophosphatase; alkaline phosphohydrolase; alkaline phenyl phosphatase; orthophosphoric-monoester phosphohydrolase (alkaline optimum), systematic name phosphate-monoester phosphohydrolase (alkaline optimum)) catalyses the following reaction: : a phosphate monoester + H2O = an alcohol + phosphate Alkaline phosphatase has the physiological role of dephosphorylating compounds. The enzyme is found across a multitude of organisms, prokaryotes and eukaryotes alike, with the same general function but in different structural forms suitable to the environment they function in. Alkaline phosphatase is found in the periplasmic space of '' E. coli'' bacteria. This enzyme is heat stable and has its maximum activity at high pH. In humans, it is found in many forms depending on its origin within the body – it plays an integral role in metabolism within the liver and development wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biodegradability
Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting. Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegradation occurs under a specific set of circumstances. The process of biodegradation is threefold: first an object undergoes biodeterioration, which is the mechanical weakening of its structure; then follows biofragmentation, which is the breakdown of materials by microorganisms; and finally assimilation, which is the incorporation of the old material into new cells. In practice, almost all chemical compounds and materials are subject to biodegradation, the key element being time. Things like vegetables may degrade within days, while glass and some plastics take many millennia to decompose. A standard for biodegradability used by the European Union is that greater than 90% of the original material must be converted into , water and minerals by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
X-ray Crystallography
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a three-dimensional picture of the density of electrons within the crystal. From this electron density, the mean positions of the atoms in the crystal can be determined, as well as their chemical bonds, their crystallographic disorder, and various other information. Since many materials can form crystals—such as salts, metals, minerals, semiconductors, as well as various inorganic, organic, and biological molecules—X-ray crystallography has been fundamental in the development of many scientific fields. In its first decades of use, this method determined the size of atoms, the lengths and types of chemical bonds, and the atomic-scale differences among variou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octacalcium Phosphate
Octacalcium phosphate (sometimes referred to as OCP) is a calcium phosphate with a formula Ca8H2(PO4)6⋅5H2O. OCP may be a precursor to tooth enamel, dentine, and bones. OCP is a precursor of hydroxylapatite (HAP), an inorganic biomineral that is important in bone growth. OCP has been suggested as a replacement for HAP in bone grafts. Properties Boiling water decomposes OCP into hydroxyapatite and dicalcium phosphate. Both thermal and hydrothermal treatments sometimes yield apatitic single crystal pseudomorphs after OCP, the c-axes being parallel to the c of the original OCP. OCP has the lattice constants ''a'' = 19.7 Å, ''b'' = 9.59 Å, ''c'' =6.87 Å, ''α'' = ''β'' = 90.7° and ''γ = 71.8°, slightly different from those of hydroxyapatite. OCP has a strong crystal twinning tendency. The average crystal size of OCP is 13.5 ± 0.2 nm. Synthesis It can be prepared by treating calcium acetate Calcium acetate is a chemical compound which is a calci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serum (blood)
Serum () is the fluid and solute component of blood which does not play a role in clotting. It may be defined as blood plasma without the clotting factors, or as blood with all cells and clotting factors removed. Serum includes all proteins not used in blood clotting; all electrolytes, antibodies, antigens, hormones; and any exogenous substances (e.g., drugs or microorganisms). Serum does not contain white blood cells ( leukocytes), red blood cells (erythrocytes), platelets, or clotting factors. The study of serum is serology. Serum is used in numerous diagnostic tests as well as blood typing. Measuring the concentration of various molecules can be useful for many applications, such as determining the therapeutic index of a drug candidate in a clinical trial. To obtain serum, a blood sample is allowed to clot (coagulation). The sample is then centrifuged to remove the clot and blood cells, and the resulting liquid supernatant is serum. Clinical and laboratory uses The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urine
Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in humans and in many other animals. Urine flows from the kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder. Urination results in urine being excreted from the body through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates many by-products that are rich in nitrogen and must be cleared from the bloodstream, such as urea, uric acid, and creatinine. These by-products are expelled from the body during urination, which is the primary method for excreting water-soluble chemicals from the body. A urinalysis can detect nitrogenous wastes of the mammalian body. Urine plays an important role in the earth's nitrogen cycle. In balanced ecosystems, urine fertilizes the soil and thus helps plants to grow. Therefore, urine can be used as a fertilizer. Some animals use it to mark their territories. Historically, aged or fermented urine (known as lant) was also used for gunpowder production, household cleaning, tanning of leather and dyeing of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Micelle
A micelle () or micella () (plural micelles or micellae, respectively) is an aggregate (or supramolecular assembly) of surfactant amphipathic lipid molecules dispersed in a liquid, forming a colloidal suspension (also known as associated colloidal system). A typical micelle in water forms an aggregate with the hydrophilic "head" regions in contact with surrounding solvent, sequestering the hydrophobic single-tail regions in the micelle centre. This phase is caused by the packing behavior of single-tail lipids in a bilayer. The difficulty filling all the volume of the interior of a bilayer, while accommodating the area per head group forced on the molecule by the hydration of the lipid head group, leads to the formation of the micelle. This type of micelle is known as a normal-phase micelle (oil-in-water micelle). Inverse micelles have the head groups at the centre with the tails extending out (water-in-oil micelle). Micelles are approximately spherical in shape. Other phas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casein
Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins ( αS1, aS2, β, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of the proteins in human milk. Sheep and buffalo milk have a higher casein content than other types of milk with human milk having a particularly low casein content. Casein has a wide variety of uses, from being a major component of cheese, to use as a food additive. The most common form of casein is sodium caseinate. In milk, casein undergoes phase separation to form colloidal casein micelles, a type of secreted biomolecular condensate. As a food source, casein supplies amino acids, carbohydrates, and two essential elements, calcium and phosphorus. Composition Casein contains a high number of proline amino acids which hinder the formation of common secondary structural motifs of proteins. There are also no disulfide bridges. As a result, it has rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemical Decomposition
Chemical decomposition, or chemical breakdown, is the process or effect of simplifying a single chemical entity (normal molecule, reaction intermediate, etc.) into two or more fragments. Chemical decomposition is usually regarded and defined as the exact opposite of chemical synthesis. In short, the chemical reaction in which two or more products are formed from a single reactant is called a decomposition reaction. The details of a decomposition process are not always well defined but some of the process is understood; much energy is needed to break bonds. Since all decomposition reactions break apart the bonds holding it together in order to produce into its simpler basic parts, the reactions would require some form of this energy in varying degrees. Because of this fundamental rule, it is known that most of these reactions are endothermic although exceptions do exist. The stability of a chemical compound is eventually limited when exposed to extreme environmental conditions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
