(C) 2010 American

Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3459876]“
“Co-culture of primary rat hepatocytes with hepatic non-parenchymal cells or sinusoidal endothelial cells for albumin production activity as an index of liver-specific function was studied. The co-cultures were effective for the expression and maintenance of albumin production activity. However, the co-culture effect was not observed when we used a suitable culture BYL719 supplier medium, which had already been reported to be sufficient for albumin production activity. Albumin production of dispersed cells in collagen get culture was higher than that of spheroid culture. In addition, albumin production of spheroids in collagen gel culture was higher than that of spheroid culture and dispersed cell collagen gel culture Crenolanib research buy with a suitable culture medium. We found that culture medium composition was more important than co-culture for expression and maintenance of albumin production. Furthermore, we found that cell-cell interaction was effective for the expression of albumin production, but heterotypic

cell-cell interaction was not necessary. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“We investigate the film-growth process of the inhomogeneous sputtered TiO2 thin films by the in situ real-time spectroscopic ellipsometer. The growth process of the film is analyzed by both the uniform and the island film growth models. Based on the analyses from the Psi-Delta trajectories, the initial thin-film growth

corresponds to the island film growth model for a single-layer film. As the film grows, the microstructural phase changes cause the transition from the single-to the double-layer physical MI-503 ic50 model, because of the development of the inhomogeneity in the TiO2 thin film. The dynamic fits with the double-layer physical model and the Cody-Lorentz optical model indicate three different stages of the film growth: the nucleation stage, the coalescence stage, and the continuous-layer stage. Although our presented model works well for most of the experimental data, the determination of the refractive index at the ultrathin thickness may be problematic. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3457839]“
“Introduction:

Although African Americans (AA) are considered higher risk kidney donors than Caucasians, limited data are available regarding outcomes of AA donors.

Methods:

We performed a single-center retrospective review of all kidney donors from 1993 to 2007 and evaluated race/ethnic differences in post-donation changes in renal function, incident proteinuria, and systolic blood pressure (SBP) using linear mixed models.

Results:

A total of 336 kidney donors (63 AA, 263 Caucasian, 10 other) were evaluated. Before donation, AA had higher serum creatinine concentrations, estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) values, and SBP levels than Caucasians.