Serum homocysteine level and gestational diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis.

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: Homocysteine levels during pregnancy in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have been studied; however, it remains unclear whether hyperhomocysteinemia is a useful predictor of insulin resistance. The present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between homocysteine level and GDM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PubMed, Elsevier, Web of Science and CNKI were searched for relevant studies published up to January 2015. Manual searches of references of the relevant original studies were carried out. Meta-analysis was used to assessed the relationship between homocysteine level and GDM using the stata 12.0 software. RESULTS: Homocysteine levels were significantly elevated in women with GDM compared with those without GDM (weighted mean difference 0.77, 95% confidence interval 0.44-1.10). This evidence was more consistent during the second trimester measurement of homocysteine (weighted mean difference 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.67-1.23) and for women aged older than 30 years (weighted mean difference 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.63-1.17). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis shows that homocysteine level is significantly elevated among women with GDM compared with women with normal glucose tolerance, and this finding persists more during the second trimester.

Improvement of D-Ribose Production from Corn Starch Hydrolysate by a Transketolase-Deficient Strain Bacillus subtilis UJS0717.

D-Ribose is a five-carbon sugar and generally used as an energy source to improve athletic performance and the ability. The culture conditions for maximum D-ribose production performance from cheap raw material corn starch hydrolysate were improved by using one-factor-at-a-time experiments and a three-level Box-Behnken factorial design. The optimal fermentation parameters were obtained as 36°C culture temperature, 10% inoculum volume, and 7.0 initial pH. The mathematical model was then developed to show the effect of each medium composition and their interactions on the production of D-ribose and estimated that the optimized D-ribose production performance with the concentration of 62.13 g/L, yield of 0.40 g/g, and volumetric productivity of 0.86 g/L·h could be obtained when the medium compositions were set as 157 g/L glucose, 21 g/L corn steep liquor, 3.2 g/L (NH4)2SO4, 1 g/L yeast extract, 0.05 g/L MnSO4·H2O, and 20 g/L CaCO3. These findings indicated the D-ribose production performance was significantly improved compared to that under original conditions.

Preparation of cross-linked bimodal mesoporous SBA-15 with numerous pore openings.

Using poly (ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer (P123) as template and tetraethyl orthosilicate as silica source, well-ordered cross-linked bimodal mesoporous SBA-15 was easily prepared via an one-pot synthetic strategy, where a pre-self-assembly of P123 with TEOS in strong acidic media was introduced followed by pH-adjusting. The pH-adjusting can effectively change the copolymer micelle size, which directly lead to the formation of the bimodal mesoporous structure at pH range of 6-7.5, with most typical value at pH = 7.5. Meanwhile, these bimodal mesopores are interconnected, which generates a 3D intra-particle porosity with many pore-openings on the surfaces of particles. After modified with tetraethylenepentamine, the as-synthesized bimodal mesoporous SBA-15 exhibited the CO2 adsorption capacities much higher than as-synthesized conventional SBA-15. These bimodal mesoporous SBA-15 materials have great potential application in CO2 capture.