Size bar for all frames equals 100 nm Fig. 2 Isolated chlorosomes embedded in an amorphous ice layer give hints of the overall and internal structure. a Overview of unstained chlorosomes of Chlorobium tepidum. The inset shows a fine parallel spacing of lamellae, its calculated diffraction pattern indicates a strong diffraction spot equivalent with a 2.1-nm lamellar spacing. b Unstained ice-embedded chlorosomes of Chloroflexus aurantiacus (phylum Chloroflexi or filamentous anoxygenic phototrophs). The ice layer has been prepared over a holey-carbon film, which is visible at the lower left side. Size bar for both frames equals 100 nm Early observations by Staehelin

and colleagues indicated that the chlorosome core is separated from the cytoplasm by an approx. 3-nm thick lipid-like

envelope layer, which NU7026 exhibits no substructure (Staehelin et al. 1980). The thickness of the surface layer—the chlorosome envelope—suggests EZH1/2 inhibitor that chlorosomes are surrounded by a lipid monolayer. Since then no further investigations have challenged this conclusion. The EM work clearly shows that the observations of Staehelin and co-workers are correct; the borders of the chlorosomes are never thicker than about 2.5–3 nm, which is just a bit more than the 2.1-nm striation pattern (Fig. 2). The supramolecular organization of the Bchl aggregates within the chlorosomes has been the subject of a long-standing discussion. Early EM observations on thin sections have suggested the presence of 1.2 to 2 nm wide fibrils inside chlorosomes of Chlorobaculum parvum (Cohen-Bazire et al. 1964). Based on freeze-fracture electron microscopy, Staehelin et al. (1978, 1980) concluded that Bchl is organized into rod-shaped structures, with a diameter of approx. 5 and 10 nm in Chloroflexus auranthiacus and Chlorobium limicola, respectively. The ~2 nm spacing seen in cryo-electron micrographs of C. tepidum chlorosomes (Fig. 2a, 3a), which is also observed by X-ray scattering (Pšenčík et al. 2004), seemed at first inconsistent with the results from freeze-fracture

EM. Pšenčík et al. (2004) interpreted the 2.1-nm spacing as the distance between sheets or lamellae which are oriented parallel oxyclozanide to the long axis of the chlorosome. From the extent of the observed striations, it appears that the Bchl sheets are continuous over most of the length of the chlorosomes. The 2-nm spacing remains visible in projection when the chlorosomes are rotated in the microscope about their long axis. This observation led Pšenčík et al. to propose a model of an undulating lamellar arrangement of pigment aggregates for three different Chlorobaculum species (Pšenčík et al. 2004). Fig. 3 End-on views of chlorosomes of Chlorobaculum tepidum, fixed in a vertical position in an amorphous ice layer. Cryo-EM reveals the packing of the lamellae. a Packing in the wild-type with some of the lamellae in concentric rings, Combretastatin A4 cell line others in a more irregular association.

Notes of the researcher about recruitment

and on drop outs after contact with trainers and participants b Proc. eval. form. Process evaluation forms filled in by trainer after each session c Quest. basel, 4, 8, 12, 24 months. Questionnaire filled in by participants in advance, after 4, 8, 12 and 24 months The Medical Ethics Committee of Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam approved the study design and deemed ethical review unnecessary due to the non-medical nature of the research. All participants signed informed consent. Results Recruitment of participants Participants were AR-13324 datasheet recruited for the training programme and study from late spring 2006 to January 2008. Participants were recruited via outpatient clinics, occupational health services, patient organizations, companies and so on. Presentations were given to patient organizations, doctors, nurses and social workers in outpatient clinics, professionals at occupational health centres and to a national conference on chronic diseases. In addition, mailings were sent to several large companies and one

patient organization sent a recruitment mailing to their members. Advertisements eFT-508 cell line were published in patient organization magazines, electronic newsletters and/or websites, in staff magazines at large companies and in magazines from an occupational health centre. About 3,500 paper leaflets were distributed Adenylyl cyclase via outpatient clinics, an occupational health AG-881 in vivo centre and a patient information centre. A digital leaflet was available on several websites. It is difficult to assess the relative success of the various recruitment strategies, as we had no reports of the actions of medical professionals after hearing our presentations or reading about the project. Advertisements in patient organization magazines and/or electronic newsletters were successful. Presentations at outpatient clinics were seldom successful; when they were, it was due to interested nurses

who advised patients to contact us. Contacts with occupational health services were moderately successful. Contacts with companies were successful if they paid attention to the project in the staff magazine. Table 2 presents figures on the sources of information about the project that the participants encountered (control group included). Recruitment took considerably more time than expected; we estimate roughly that it took 8–10 months of full-time effort for one person to complete. These efforts netted 122 of the planned 128 participants. One of the reasons for recruitment problems, according to some professionals of outpatient clinics and occupational health services, was that these professionals felt restrained from referring persons to the project because of the possibility of randomization to the control group (personal communications to IV).

These results were an indication of the growth phase dependency of the culture for during stress. Conclusion In this study, we were able to show that the system to simulate the stomach-intestine passage developed by Sumeri et al. [9] was suitable for the assessment of survival of 8 Bifidobacterium

strains and Lactobacillus gasseri K7 even though we did not simulate the removal of gastric juice and Dinaciclib ic50 bile salts. For L. gasseri K7 we were able to compare the results with an in-vivo study on piglets and obtained similar results. The single reactor system presented here allows a more straightforward identification of the ideal growth phase for any possible probiotic strain which is required to pass the stomach-intestine passage than if it had to be performed with other systems Selleckchem Danusertib with a difficult setup. The study also showed that all tested Bifidobacterium strains, except for B. animalis subsp. lactis, would require protective agents to survive the passage through the stomach-intestine in high numbers. This could be done using an appropriate food matrix or encapsulation of the cells. Methods Bacterial strains All bifidobacteria strains were selected from the strain collection of Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux ALP Research Station Switzerland, isolated by ALP from human sources. Lactobacillus gasseri K7 originated from the ZIM Collection of Industrial Microorganisms of University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical

Faculty (ZIM 105) [10] and was also deposited in the ALP strain collection. The tested strains and their identification numbers of the ALP strain collection are listed in table 3. All bifidobacteria Thalidomide strains are the property of ALP. Media and growth conditions For pre-cultures, 1 ml frozen conserves of the strains were inoculated in 250 ml Wilkins-Chalgren broth (WC CM0643, Oxoid, Hampshire, UK) supplemented with 9 g l-1 additional lactose-monohydrate (Bifidobacteria) or De Man-Rogosa-Sharpe (MRS; Biolife, selleck chemicals Milano, Italy) medium (Lactobacillus gasseri K7) [32]. For L. gasseri K7, a trial with a 100 ml pre-culture was also performed.

All strains, except Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis, were incubated at 37°C for 15 hours under anaerobic conditions. Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis was incubated for 12 h since it was very sensitive to extended incubation periods. The pre-cultures were centrifuged for 15 min at 3500 rpm and the pellets resuspended in 10 ml of phosphate-buffered physiological sodium chloride solution (PBS). Determination of cell count The cell count was determined by 10-fold serial dilution of the culture in physiological saline solution. The two highest dilutions were then plated on MRS agar (Biolife, Milano, Italy) using a spiral plater (IUL Instruments, Barçelona, Spain) and evaluated by an automated colony counter with the corresponding software (IUL Instruments, Barçelona, Spain).

Japanese Journal of Cancer Research 2002,93(9):960–967.PubMed 23. Inoue M, Senju S, Hirata S, Ikuta Y, Hayashida Y, Irie A, Harao M, Imai K, Tomita Y, Tsunoda T, Furukawa Y,

Ito T, Nakamura Y, Baba H, Nishimura Y: Identification of SPARC as a candidate target antigen for immunowww.selleckchem.com/products/MLN-2238.html therapy of various cancers. Int J Cancer 2010. 24. Porte H, Chastre E, Prevot S, Nordlinger B, Empereur S, Basset P, Chambon P, Gespach C: Neoplastic progression of human colorectal cancer is associated click here with overexpression of the stromelysin-3 and BM-40/SPARC genes. Int J Cancer 1995,64(1):70–75.PubMedCrossRef 25. Tremble PM, Lane TF, Sage EH, Werb Z: SPARC, a secreted protein associated with morphogenesis and tissue remodeling, induces expression of metalloproteinases in fibroblasts through a novel extracellular matrix-dependent pathway. J Cell Biol 1993,121(6):1433–1444.PubMedCrossRef 26. Rempel SA, Ge S, Gutierrez JA: SPARC: a potential diagnostic

marker of invasive meningiomas. Clin Cancer Res 1999,5(2):237–241.PubMed 27. Schittenhelm J, Mittelbronn M, Roser F, Tatagiba M, Mawrin C, Bornemann A: Patterns of SPARC expression and basement membrane intactness at the tumour-brain border of invasive meningiomas. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol 2006,32(5):525–531.PubMedCrossRef EX 527 concentration 28. Shi Q, Bao S, Song L, Wu Q, Bigner DD, Hjelmeland AB, Rich JN: Targeting SPARC expression decreases glioma cellular survival and invasion associated with reduced activities of FAK and ILK kinases. Oncogene 2007,26(28):4084–4094.PubMedCrossRef 29. Horie K, Tsuchihara M, Nakatsura T: Silencing of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine inhibits the growth of human melanoma cells with G arrest induction. Cancer Sci 2009. 30. Shi Q, Bao S, Maxwell JA, Reese ED, Friedman HS, Bigner

DD, Wang XF, Rich JN: Secreted protein acidic, rich in cysteine (SPARC), mediates cellular survival of gliomas through AKT activation. J Biol Chem 2004,279(50):52200–52209.PubMedCrossRef 31. Said N, Najwer I, Motamed K: Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) inhibits integrin-mediated adhesion and growth factor-dependent survival signaling in ovarian cancer. Am J Pathol 2007,170(3):1054–1063.PubMedCrossRef 32. Tai IT, Dai M, Owen DA, Chen LB: Genome-wide expression Interleukin-2 receptor analysis of therapy-resistant tumors reveals SPARC as a novel target for cancer therapy. J Clin Invest 2005,115(6):1492–1502.PubMedCrossRef 33. Tai IT, Tang MJ: SPARC in cancer biology: its role in cancer progression and potential for therapy. Drug Resist Updat 2008,11(6):231–246.PubMedCrossRef 34. Iruela-Arispe ML, Lane TF, Redmond D, Reilly M, Bolender RP, Kavanagh TJ, Sage EH: Expression of SPARC during development of the chicken chorioallantoic membrane: evidence for regulated proteolysis in vivo. Mol Biol Cell 1995,6(3):327–343.PubMed Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

10 0.03  

0.07 0.05   0.14 0.12   0.06 −0.03  ΔR 2 second model   Δ0.20     Δ0.10     Δ0.18     Δ0.12   Resources  Skill discretion     0.55     0.60     0.47     0.49  Autonomy     −0.03     −0.03     0.10     −0.01  Support from supervisor     0.09     0.07     0.07     0.12  Relation with colleagues     0.14     0.08     0.24     0.25  Opportunities for further education     0.03     0.06     −0.04     0.14  ΔR 2 final model     Δ0.32     Δ0.36     Δ0.34     Δ0.39  R 2 final model     0.53     0.55     0.55   find more   0.65 Bold values represent VX-680 significance at ≤0.05 aHigher scores indicate less favourable scores (range 1–5); mean scores of 2.5 and less were considered satisfactory Results Descriptive statistics Table 1 shows the personal characteristics per age group. The percentage of women in the oldest age group (26.6%) was significantly smaller than that in the other groups. In the whole study population, only 13% reported to have chronic disease. The prevalence differed significantly between the age groups. Occurrence

of “normal job performance impeded by poor health” varied (not significantly) from 12.7% in the 35- to 44-year olds to 20.2% in the oldest age group. Further analysis showed that this impediment had other causes than chronic disease in about 50–60% of the cases in the three oldest age groups. In the youngest age group, only about one quarter of the cases was attributable to chronic disease. In all the age groups, significantly more men than women had TSA HDAC research buy full-time jobs. Work characteristics in different age groups In Table 2, sex and job classification adjusted mean scores (i.e. estimated marginal means) (range 1–5) and their standard errors are presented per age group. Also the percentages of employees with satisfactory scores are shown. Job satisfaction had high mean scores in all the age groups. Higher age was associated with more job satisfaction. Most mean scores for work characteristics differed statistically significantly between the age groups. In all the work characteristics, standard errors of the youngest and the oldest age groups were slightly higher than in the two midst age groups. However, mean scores were almost consistently

either satisfactory or disappointing in all the age groups using the cut offs. Six out of the 20 work characteristics shown had disappointing scores in all the age ADP ribosylation factor groups. When significant differences between the age groups were present, the youngest age group most often had the most favourable scores and the two midst age groups most often had the least favourable scores. Older workers reported significantly lower scores on ‘readiness to join in further education’ and ‘I am ready to take on new tasks all the time’. In only a few work characteristics, both satisfactory and disappointing mean scores were found, namely in problems with workload, opportunities for further education and “if there is a problem, I can ask someone for help”.

We used the PanCGHweb web-tool to find presence/absence of OGs in these strains [37]. Visualizing and identifying presence or absence of a genomic segment Presence or absence of contiguously located genes (i.e. a gene cluster) in a query strain indicates that the whole genomic region encompassing these www.selleckchem.com/products/mln-4924.html genes is present or absent in this particular strain. Therefore presence or absence of a genomic segment in a query strain compared to a reference strain was identified. To this end,

probes aligning to a genomic region of interest in a reference strain were identified. The log ratio of probe signals in a query strain to the reference strain was visualized to identify presence or absence of a genomic region in a query strain. Data TGF-beta inhibition pre-processing In PhenoLink, genotype and phenotype data are pre-processed before using them in genotype-phenotype matching analysis.

PhenoLink is based on the Random Forest algorithm [38]. In random forest classification, trees are trained based on random selections of genes and strains, genes with the same occurrence pattern could get different contribution scores [39]. This score is an estimate of how important a gene is to correctly classify a certain strain. Additionally, genes that are either present or absent in (almost) all queried strains have negligible impacts to separate strains of differing phenotypes [40]. Thus we did not use genes with homogeneous occurrence patterns and used only one of the highly correlated genes in further analysis. Prior to classification, phenotypes with continuous measurements were grouped into 3 bins, where each bin represents a different category. Strains that belong to the middle category were not used in genotype-phenotype

matching to improve the classification accuracy. Additionally, in some experiments most of the strains exhibited a single phenotype such as the capability to grow on a certain sugar. Such an Captisol chemical structure imbalance often leads to biased classification. Sodium butyrate Therefore imbalance in the number of strains per phenotype was decreased by creating 100 bags [22]. Genotype-phenotype matching Genes related to phenotypes were identified using PhenoLink mostly with default parameter settings. To decrease effects of random selection, the same genotype and phenotype data were classified 3 times and only genes consistently relating to phenotypes were selected. Additionally, only genes with a positive contribution score for at least a few (in this study 3) strains of a phenotype were used for further classification, which decreases spurious relations between genes and phenotypes. This iterative removal of genes continued until no more than a few (in this study 5) genes were removed [22].

To address this question we randomized the O-glycosylation

positions for all the proteins. In this new set of data, the proteins displayed the same number of O-glycosylation sites as predicted by NetOGlyc but their positions were chosen at random. When these hypothetical proteins were analyzed in search of pHGRs, we obtained the results presented in Figure 3. The number of proteins displaying pHGRs was considerably smaller when the positions of the O-glycosylation sites were randomized. Between 42.6% (S. cerevisiae) to 75.7% (M. grisea) of the proteins displaying pHGRs with the O-glycosylation sites predicted by NetOGlyc lost them with the randomization of the O-glycosylation positions, indicating that at least in the majority of proteins there is really a selective pressure to localize the O-glycosylation sites grouped in pHGRs. The total number Ubiquitin inhibitor of pHGRs

was also lower with the randomized data (Figure 3B), although in this case the difference was not so big, and in the case of S. cerevisiae the total number of pHGRs actually increased with the randomization of the O-glycosylation positions. The selleck chemicals llc reason for this result may be related to the presence of proteins predicted to have a very high number of O-glycosylation sites in this yeast, for which the randomization of the O-glycosylation positions leads to the scattering of the sites throughout the whole protein and the appearance of a greater number of smaller pHGRs. As discussed before, S. cerevisiae differentiates from the rest of the organisms under study in the sense that it possesses a higher proportion of these highly O-glycosylated proteins (Figure 2). Figure 3 Effect of the randomization of the position of the O -glycosylation sites on pHGR prediction. Number of proteins with pHGRs (A) and total number of pHGRs (B) found in every genome with the O-glycosylation positions predicted by NetOGlyc (blue columns) or the randomized positions (red columns). pHGRs

show a small tendency to be located at protein ends We then addressed the question of whether the location of pHGRs shows a random distribution along the length of the proteins or, alternatively, there is preference for any given regions such as the C- or N-terminus. The central positions of all pHGRs detected L-NAME HCl for any given organism were calculated and classified in ten different groups according to their relative location along their respective protein. The first group contained those pHGRs having their center in the N-terminal 10% of the protein check details sequence; the second group those with center in the second 10%, and so on. Figure 4A shows the frequency distribution of these ten groups for the eight fungi and indicates that there is no clear preference for any protein region, although slightly higher frequencies are observed for the N- and C-terminus, especially the latter, for almost all fungi examined. The clearer exception is S.

In fact, patients with recurrent EOC usually receive multiple lines of chemotherapy, with disappointing and unsatisfactory results, due to the occurrence

of drug-resistant clones [15, 16]. The pharmacological activity of drugs used in EOC learn more could be reduced by a biological phenomenon that is able to induce the transformation of epithelial to mesenchymal cells (EMT) and the progression, invasion and diffusion of the tumor [17]. In the last years a growing scientific knowledge about the molecular pathways involved in ovarian carcinogenesis has led to the discovery and evaluation of several novel molecular targeted agents, with the aim to test alternative

models of treatment in order to overcome the clinical problem of resistance. In this context the study of ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) is taking on an increasingly important strategic role, mostly for the potential therapeutic application in next future [18]. Now we know that self-renewing ovarian CSCs or ovarian cancer-initiating cells, and mesenchymal stem cells (SCs) too, are probably implicated in the etiopathogenesis of EOC, Doramapimod in its intra- and extra-peritoneal diffusion and in the occurrence of chemoresistance [19]. EOC can be classified into multiple types (serous, endometrioid, clear cell, and mucinous), with different clinical- pathologic properties, prognostic characteristics and therapeutic outcomes [20–22]. Moreover, several works support the fact

that all histological cell types of EOC have different cellular origin with specific biologic and genetic profiles [23–27]. Consequently, the CSC population for each type may also be variable. Obatoclax Mesylate (GX15-070) It is therefore not surprising that SC properties have been reported in EOC cells isolated using different cell surface markers, including CD44, CD133 or CD24. Each of these EOC cells may represent either a hierarchy of CSC or an entirely different population of CSC for that particular ovarian histology [28–33]. CSCs support the succession of clonal tumor cell proliferation and MMP inhibitor repopulation in the tumor microenvironment. In fact they are predominantly quiescent, have up-regulated DNA repair capacity, are noncommittal to apoptosis and over-express ATP-binding cassette (ABC) drug efflux transporters and a profusion of cancer gene signatures [34, 35]. The optimal management modality for EOC includes histopathological diagnosis and staging, surgical debulking of tumor, and the use of several cycles of chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel at maximum tolerated doses, eventually associated with bevacizumab, followed by maintenance or salvage treatments, in cases of disease recurrence [36].

Yuan et al. also found that the maximum diameter of microvascular permeability in human colon cancer is between 400 and 600 nm [31]. In addition, Desai [32] and Cortes and Saura [33] found that albumin nanoparticles could increase albumin receptor, 60-kDa glycoprotein (gp60)-mediated transcytosis, through microvessel endothelial cells in angiogenic tumor vasculature and targets the albumin-binding

protein SPARC, which subsequently increased intratumoral accumulation. Therefore, a relatively high antitumor activity of PXD101 purchase 406-nm GEM-ANPs could be expected due to the passive targeting by EPR effect and gp60-mediated transcytosis [8–10, 23, 32, 33]. Here, the antitumor effects of GEM-ANPs were assessed in vivo using the implanted tumor model of nude mice. We found selleck kinase inhibitor that the antitumor effect of 406-nm GEM-ANPs was greatest (Figures 2 and 3), with 168.8% inhibitory rate compared to the control. Finally, selleck products the slow release of gemcitabine from 406-nm GEM-ANPs could also prolong the drug action, and it might be another possible reason for the higher antitumor activity of GEM-ANPs. Conclusions GEM-ANPs with different sizes had been prepared by the modified desolvation-cross-linking method. Their biodistribution, toxic side effects,

and in vitro and in vivo antitumor activity were studied. The following conclusions can be drawn from the study described here: (1) GEM-ANPs showed significant inhibition effects on human pancreatic carcinoma, but the inhibition rate was size dependent. Ureohydrolase (2) The suitable size of 406-nm GEM-ANPs resulted in a higher gemcitabine content in the pancreas, liver, and spleen of SD rats and a lower blood toxicity through a passive targeting model. (3) A more efficient antitumor

activity was demonstrated in a pancreatic cancer xenograft model for 406-nm GEM-ANPs with respect to that of free gemcitabine. Therefore, the orthotopic model for pancreatic cancer remains to be examined in our future work. Acknowledgments This work was financially supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (08431902500), Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau (2010Y081), Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University (10L-10), and the National Science Foundation of China (30901760, 81071884, and 81201896). Additionally, we also thank Jinming Li (Department of Colorectal & Anal Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China) for his help in the antitumor activity in vivo. References 1. Berlin J, Benson AB 3rd: Chemotherapy: gemcitabine remains the standard of care for pancreatic cancer. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2010,7(3):135–137.CrossRef 2. Burris HA 3rd, Moore MJ, Andersen J, Green MR, Rothenberg ML, Modiano MR, Cripps MC, Portenoy RK, Storniolo AM, Tarassoff P, Nelson R, Dorr FA, Stephens CD, Von Hoff DD: Improvements in survival and clinical benefit with gemcitabine as first-line therapy for patients with advanced pancreas cancer: a randomized trial.

Zeta potential values measured for uncoated Cyclosporin A nmr SPIONs in different suspension vehicles demonstrated a dramatic impact of charged buffer ions on the diffuse layer capacitance. This effect is further augmented by an increased particle concentration facilitating significant aggregation. The results from these experiments imply that surface adsorption of trivalent citrate ions most effectively protect SPIONs from aggregation. Even at a concentration of 1.0 mg/mL, the mean particle size was significantly smaller

than that measured for the same colloid at a 50-fold lower concentration in Hanks’ balanced salt solution (HBSS) or phosphate learn more buffered saline (PBS). Zeta potential values in excess of -32.4 mV implied strong electrostatic repulsion due to surface-associated, fully ionized citrate ions [23]. To fabricate lipid-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles at the desired target size range of <200 nm, the avidin coating step was performed at 0.02 mg/mL in citrate buffer, which afforded particle populations with a mean hydrodynamic diameter of approximately 80 nm. The lipid composition was selected with the objective to fabricate Selleckchem NSC 683864 thermoresponsive colloids that exhibit a transition temperature consistent with clinical hyperthermia applications (40°C to 45°C) [11]. Table 1 Physicochemical properties

of uncoated and lipid-coated SPIONs in different buffer solutions at pH 7.4 Buffer system Particle concentration (mg/mL) Particle size (nm) Zeta potential (mV) Uncoated SPIONs Lipid-coated SPIONs Uncoated SPIONs Lipid-coated SPIONs   1.0 520.0 ± 45.4 651.6 ± 25.3 -32.4 ± 1.0 -11.9 ± 1.4 Citrate, pH 7.4 0.24 286.6 ± 25.4 460.3 ± 15.4 -40.7 ± 1.4 -15.6 ± 1.4   0.02 80.0 ± 1.7* 179.3 ± 35.0** -47.1 ± 2.6* -19.1 ± 1.3**   1.0 1860.0 ± 180.9a 2422.0 ± 223.5a -11.2 ± 1.0 -4.5 ± 0.9 HBSS, pH 7.4 0.24 1255.0 ± 35.2a 1560.0 ± 135.2a -12.3 ± 1.1 -5.5 ± 1.0   0.02 580.0 ± 8.5 193.5 ± 32.6**

-23.3 ± 0.8 -7.4 ± 1.4   1.0 2800.0 ± 320.4a 2990.0 ± 412.5a -10.3 ± 0.5 -2.2 ± 0.6 PBS, pH 7.4 0.24 2214.0 ± 45.3a 2500.0 ± 245.3a Suplatast tosilate -10.8 ± 1.0 -3.4 ± 1.1   0.02 931.0 ± 4.5 229.9 ± 12.42** -22.5 ± 0.8 -5.2 ± 1.6 Data are represented as mean ± SD (n = 4). aValue outside qualification range of Zetasizer Nano-ZS. *Significantly different from uncoated control SPIONs (p < 0.05). **Significantly different from lipid-coated SPIONs (p < 0.05). Earlier experiments performed in our laboratory with DPPC-coated SPIONs revealed limited colloidal stability in physiological buffer systems due to low surface charge (zeta potential -5.0 mV) [12]. DPPG is a negatively charged phosphatidyl glycerol with the same transition temperature as DPPC (i.e., 41°C). Stability of liposomes prepared with mixtures of these two phospholipids has been studied previously, and an equimolar lipid ratio was demonstrated to enhance colloidal stability [24].