Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “glucose”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3

A novel reagentless sensing system for measuring glucose based on the galactose/glucose-binding protein

The galactose/glucose-binding protein (GBP) is synthesized in the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli in a precursor form and exported into the periplasmic space upon cleavage of a 23-amino-acid leader sequence. GBP binds galactose and glucose in a highly specific manner. The ligand induces a hinge motion in GBP and the resultant protein conformational change constitutes the basis of the sensing system. The mglB gene, which codes for GBP, was isolated from the chromosome of E. coli using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Since wild-type GBP lacks cysteines in its structure, introducing this amino acid by site-directed mutagenesis ensures single-label attachment at specific sites with a sulfhydro-specific fluorescent probe. Site-directed mutagenesis by overlap extension PCR was performed to prepare three different mutants to introduce a single cysteine residue at positions 148, 152, and 182. Since these residues are not involved in ligand binding and since they are located at the edge of the binding cleft, they experience a significant change in environment upon binding of galactose or glucose. The sensing system strategy is based on the fluorescence changes of the probe as the protein undergoes a structural change on binding. In this work a reagentless sensing system has been rationally designed that can detect submicromolar concentrations of glucose. The calibration plots have a linear working range of three orders of magnitude. Although the system can sense galactose as well, this epimer is not a potential interfering substance since its concentration in blood is negligible. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Non-NASA Center↗

Relief from glucose interference in microcin B17 biosynthesis by growth in a rotating-wall bioreactor

Glucose interference in production of microcin B17 by Escherichia coli ZK650 was decreased sevenfold by growth in a ground-based rotating-wall bioreactor operated in the simulated microgravity mode as compared with growth in flasks. When cells were grown in the bioreactor in the normal gravity mode, relief from glucose interference was even more dramatic, amounting to a decrease in glucose interference of over 100-fold.

NASA Discipline Environmental Health↗

Effects of 2-deoxy-D-glucose administration on immune parameters in mice

Physical exercise and diet alterations have been shown to affect immune parameters. Similar effects are also induced by the administration of the non-metabolizable glucose analog, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG). The current study was designed to characterize the effects of glucoprivation induced by 2-DG administration on leukocyte subset distribution and function. BDF1 mice (n = 8 per group) were injected intraperitoneally one or three times with 0, 500, 750, 1000 or 1500 mg/kg of 2-DG. Two hours after the last injection of 2-DG, immunological parameters were analyzed. A dose-dependent increase in plasma glucose concentrations of mice injected once with up to 1500 mg/kg of 2-DG was observed (p < 0.001). After either one or three injections of up to 1500 mg/kg of 2-DG, corticosterone levels, leukocyte counts in the spleen, and CD3+ cells in the thymus increased. In vitro proliferation of partially purified lymphocytes from the spleen in the presence of both concanavalin-A and lipopolysaccharide decreased in a dose dependent manner (p < 0.05). In addition, after three injections, the proportion of both thymocytes and splenocytes bearing alphabeta-TCR increased as the concentration of 2-DG increased (p < 0.01). These results demonstrate that 2-DG administration induced dose-dependent changes in both thymus and spleen cell distribution and function.

NASA Discipline Regulatory Physiology↗

Calibration Experiments Conducted for Noninvasive Blood Glucose Sensing Through the Eye

There are more than 16 million diabetics in the United States and more than 100 million worldwide. Diabetes can lead to severe complications over time such as blindness, renal and cardiovascular diseases, and peripheral neuropathy in the limbs. Poor blood circulation in diabetics can lead to gangrene and the subsequent amputation of extremities. In addition, this pathology is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. The most effective way to manage diabetes is frequent blood glucose monitoring performed by the patients themselves. However, because of pain, inconvenience, and the fear of developing infections from finger-prick blood tests or implants, many patients monitor their blood glucose levels less frequently than is recommended by their physicians. Therefore, a noninvasive, painless, and convenient method to monitor blood glucose would greatly benefit diabetics. Likewise, detecting, preventing, and treating the untoward effects of prolonged space travel (e.g., a human mission to Mars) in real-time requires the development of noninvasive diagnostic technologies that are compact and powerful. As a "window to the body," the eye offers the opportunity to use light in various forms to detect ocular and systemic abnormalities long before clinical symptoms appear and to help develop preventative and therapeutic countermeasures early. The noninvasive feature of these technologies permits frequent repetition of tests, enabling an evaluation of the response to therapy.

Ansari, Rafat R.↗

Glucose determination in human aqueous humor with Raman spectroscopy

It has been suggested that spectroscopic analysis of the aqueous humor of the eye could be used to indirectly predict blood glucose levels in diabetics noninvasively. We have been investigating this potential using Raman spectroscopy in combination with partial least squares (PLS) analysis. We have determined that glucose at clinically relevant concentrations can be accurately predicted in human aqueous humor in vitro using a PLS model based on artificial aqueous humor. We have further determined that with proper instrument design, the light energy necessary to achieve clinically acceptable prediction of glucose does not damage the retinas of rabbits and can be delivered at powers below internationally acceptable safety limits. Herein we summarize our current results and address our strategies to improve instrument design. 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Spectrum Analysis, Raman/methods↗

Protective coating and hyperthermal atomic oxygen texturing of optical fibers used for blood glucose monitoring

Disclosed is a method of producing cones and pillars on polymethylmethacralate (PMMA) optical fibers for glucose monitoring. The method, in one embodiment, consists of using electron beam evaporation to deposit a non-contiguous thin film of aluminum on the distal ends of the PMMA fibers. The partial coverage of aluminum on the fibers is randomly, but rather uniformly distributed across the end of the optical fibers. After the aluminum deposition, the ends of the fibers are then exposed to hyperthermal atomic oxygen, which oxidizes the areas that are not protected by aluminum. The resulting PMMA fibers have a greatly increased surface area and the cones or pillars are sufficiently close together that the cellular components in blood are excluded from passing into the valleys between the cones and pillars. The optical fibers are then coated with appropriated surface chemistry so that they can optically sense the glucose level in the blood sample than that with conventional glucose monitoring.

Banks, Bruce A.↗

Texturing Blood-Glucose-Monitoring Optics Using Oxygen Beams

A method has been invented for utilizing directed, hyperthermal oxygen atoms and ions for texturing tips of polymeric optical fibers or other polymeric optical components for use in optical measurement of concentration of glucose in blood. The required texture of the sensory surface of such a component amounts to a landscape of microscopic hills having high aspect ratios (hills taller than they are wide), with an average distance between hills of no more than about 5 m. This limit on the average distance between hills is chosen so that blood cells (which are wider) cannot enter the valleys between the hills, where they could obstruct optical sensing of glucose in the blood plasma. On the other hand, the plasma is required to enter the valleys, and a high aspect ratio is intended to maximize the hillside and valley surface area in contact with the plasma, thereby making it possible to obtain a given level of optical glucose- measurement sensitivity with a relatively small volume of blood. The present method of texturing by use of directed, hyperthermal (particle energy >1 eV) oxygen atoms and ions stands in contrast to a prior method of texturing by use of thermal monatomic oxygen characterized by a temperature of the order of 0.5 eV. The prior method yields low-aspect- ratio (approximately hemispherical) craters that are tens of microns wide . too wide to exclude blood cells. The figure schematically depicts parts of a typical apparatus for texturing according to the present method. One or more polymeric optical components to be textured (e.g., multiple optical fibers bundled together for simultaneous processing) are mounted in a vacuum chamber facing a suitable ion- or atom-accelerating device capable of generating a beam of oxygen atoms and/or ions having kinetic energies >1 eV. Typically, such a device includes a heated cathode, in which case it is desirable to interpose a water-cooled thermal-radiation shield to prevent melting of the polymeric component(s) to be textured. In operation, the chamber is evacuated to a pressure .10.5 torr (less than or equal to approximately 1.3 mPa), then the beam is turned on. The resulting texture is characterized by approximately conical hills having aspect ratios greater than 1. In experiments, it was demonstrated that separations between adjacent hills can be made .1 m and that the separations and heights of the hills can be varied by varying the fluence of monatomic oxygen and/or oxygen ions.

Banks, Bruce↗

Optoelectronic Apparatus Measures Glucose Noninvasively

An optoelectronic apparatus has been invented as a noninvasive means of measuring the concentration of glucose in the human body. The apparatus performs polarimetric and interferometric measurements of the human eye to acquire data from which the concentration of glucose in the aqueous humor can be computed. Because of the importance of the concentration of glucose in human health, there could be a large potential market for instruments based on this apparatus.

Ansari, Rafat R.↗

Short term response of insulin, glucose, growth hormone and corticosterone to acute vibration in rats.

Study carried out to obtain some notion of the initial phasing and interactive effects among some hormones known to be responsive to vibration stress. Sprague-Dawley derived rats were exposed to the acute effects of confinement and confinement with lateral (plus or minus G sub y) vibration. The coincident monitoring of glucose, insulin, growth hormone, and corticosterone plasma levels, during and immediately subsequent to exposure to brief low level vibration, exhibits the effects of inhibition of insulin release by epinephrine. The ability of insulin (IRI) to return rapidly to basal levels, from appreciably depressed levels during vibration, in the face of elevated levels of glucose is also shown. Corticosterone responds with almost equal rapidity, but in opposite phase to the IRI. The immuno-assayable growth hormone (IGH) dropped from a basal level of 32 ng/ml to 7.3 ng/ml immediately subsequent to vibration and remained at essentially that level throughout the experiment (60 min). Whether these levels represent a real fall in the rat or whether they merely follow the immuno-logically deficient form is still in question.

Dolkas, C. B.↗

A role for glucose in hypothermic hamsters

Hypothermic hamsters at a rectal temperature of 7 C showed a fivefold increase in survival times from 20 to 100.5 hr when infused with glucose which maintained a blood level at about 45 mg/100 ml. A potential role for osmotic effects of the infusion was tested and eliminated. There was no improvement in survival of 3-O-methylglucose or dextran 40-infused animals. The fact that death eventually occurs even in the glucose-infused animal after about 4 days and that oxygen consumption undergoes a slow decrement in that period suggests that hypothermic survival is not wholly substrate limited. Radioactive tracer showed that localization of the C-14 was greatest in brain tissue and diaphragm, intermediate in heart and kidney, and lowest in skeletal muscle and liver. The significance of the label at sites important to respiration and circulation was presented.

Resch, G. E.↗

Effect of denervation and reinnervation on oxidation of 6-(C-14) glucose by rat skeletal muscle homogenates

The effects of denervation and reinnervation of the rat extensor digitorum longus muscle on the oxidation of 6-(C-14) glucose to (C-14)O2 is investigated. Results show that the rate of (C-14)O2 production decreased dramatically following denervation and the decrease became significant 20 days after nerve section. The changes which occurred prior to day 20 apparently reflected the decline of muscle mass. The decreased (C-14)O2 production was found to be due to reduced capacity of the enzymatic system, while there was no change in the apparent affinity for glucose. Results of mixing experiments showed that the loss of oxidative capacity following denervation is not caused by the production of soluble inhibitors by degenerating muscle. Measurements of the (C-14)O2 revealed that oxidative metabolism recovered during reinnervation. The specific activity in reinnervated muscles displayed an 'overshoot' of approximately 50 percent, which returned to control levels by day 60. The time-course of the denervation-mediated change indicates that altered oxidative capacity is secondary to events that initiate dennervation changes in muscle, although diminished oxidative capacity may be of considerable metabolic significance in denervated muscle.

Dubois, D. C.↗

Effect of insulin-like factors on glucose transport activity in unweighted rat skeletal muscle

The effect of 3 or 6 days of unweighting on glucose transport activity, as assessed by 2-deoxyglucose uptake, in soleus strips stimulated by maximally effective concentrations of insulin, IGF-I, vanadate, or phospholipase C (PLC) is examined. Progressively increased responses to maximally effective doses of insulin or insulin-like growth factor were observed after 3 and 6 days of unweighting compared with weight matched control strips. Enhanced maximal responses to vanadate (6 days only) and PLC (3 and 6 days) were also observed. The data provide support for the existance of postreceptor binding mechanisms for the increased action of insulin on the glucose transport system in unweighted rat skeletal muscle.

Henriksen, Erik J.↗

Immune Alterations in Male and Female Mice after 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose Administration

Administration of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), an analog of glucose which inhibits glycolysis by competitive antagonism for phosphohexose isomerase, results in acute periods of intracellular glucoprivation and hyperglycemia resulting in hyperphagia. In addition to these changes in the carbohydrate metabolism, injection of 2-DG results in alterations of both the endocrine and neurological systems as suggested by modifications in oxytocin and glucocorticoid levels and norepinephrine production. Moreover, alterations of the immune response, such as a decrease in the in vitro proliferation of splenocytes after mitogen-stimulation, were observed in mice injected with 2-DG. Sex, genotype and environment are among the factors that may modulate effects of catecholamines and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis on these immune changes. Sexual dimorphism in immune function resulting from the effects of sex hormones on immune effector cells has been shown in both animals and humans. These observations have important implications, especially with regard to higher incidence of many autoimmune diseases in females. Evidence exists that reproductive hormones influence the immune system and increase the risk of immunologically related disorders in both animals and humans. Indeed, immunological responses in stressful situations may also be confounded by fluctuations of sex hormones especially in females. Lymphocyte distribution, cytoldne production, and the ability of lymphocyte to proliferate in vitro were analyzed in male and female mice to determine if sex influenced 2-DG immunomodulation. In addition, the influence of hormones, especially sex hormones, on these changes were evaluated.

Dreau, Didier↗

Redox Disproportionation of Glucose as a Major Biosynthetic Energy Source

Previous studies have concluded that very little if any energy is required for the microbial biosynthesis of amino acids and lipids from glucose -- processes that yield almost as much ATP (adenosine triphosphate) as they consume. However, these studies did not establish the strength nor the nature of the energy source driving these biological transformations. To identify and estimate the strength of the energy source behind these processes, we calculated the free energy change due to the redox disproportionation of substrate carbon of (a) 26 redox-balanced fermentation reactions, and (b) the biosynthesis of amino acids, lipids, and nucleotides of E. coli from glucose. A plot of the negative free energy of these reactions per mmole of carbon as a function of the number of disproportionative electron transfers per mmol of carbon showed that the energy yields of these fermentations and biosyntheses were directly proportional to the degree of redox disproportionation of carbon. Since this linear relationship showed that redox disproportionation was the dominant energy source of these reactions, we were able to establish that amino acid and lipid biosynthesis obtained most of their energy from redox disproportionation (greater than 94%). In contrast nucleotide biosynthesis was not driven by redox disproportionation of carbon, and consequently depended completely on ATP for energy. This crucial and previously unrecognized role of sugars as an energy source of biosynthesis suggests that sugars were involved at the earliest stage in the origin of anabolic metabolism.

Weber, Arthur L.↗

Polarimetric Glucose Sensing Using Brewster Reflection off of Eye Lens: Theoretical Analysis

An important task of in vivo polarimetric glucose sensing is to find an appropriate way to optically access the aqueous humor of the human eye. In this paper two different approaches are analyzed theoretically and applied to the eye model of Le Grand. First approach is the tangential path of Cote, et al. (G.L. Cot6, M.D. Fox, and R.B. Northrop: Noninvasive Optical Polarimetric Glucose Sensing Using a True Phase Measurement Technique. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 752-756, 1992.) and the second is a new scheme of this paper of applying Brewster reflection off the eye lens.

Boeckle, Stefan↗

A Theoretical Analysis of a New Polarimetric Optical Scheme for Glucose Sensing in the Human Eye

The challenging task of in vivo polarimetric glucose sensing is the identification and selection of a scheme to optically access the aqueous humor of the human eye. In this short communication an earlier approach of Cote et al. is theoretically compared with our new optical scheme. Simulations of the new scheme using the eye model of Navarro, suggest that the new optical geometry can overcome the limitations of the previous approach for in vivo measurements of glucose in a human eye.

Rovati, Luigi L.↗