• Title/Summary/Keyword: biometals

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Zinc in Pancreatic Islet Biology, Insulin Sensitivity, and Diabetes

  • Maret, Wolfgang
    • Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2017
  • About 20 chemical elements are nutritionally essential for humans with defined molecular functions. Several essential and nonessential biometals are either functional nutrients with antidiabetic actions or can be diabetogenic. A key question remains whether changes in the metabolism of biometals and biominerals are a consequence of diabetes or are involved in its etiology. Exploration of the roles of zinc (Zn) in this regard is most revealing because 80 years of scientific discoveries link zinc and diabetes. In pancreatic ${\beta}$- and ${\alpha}$-cells, zinc has specific functions in the biochemistry of insulin and glucagon. When zinc ions are secreted during vesicular exocytosis, they have autocrine, paracrine, and endocrine roles. The membrane protein ZnT8 transports zinc ions into the insulin and glucagon granules. ZnT8 has a risk allele that predisposes the majority of humans to developing diabetes. In target tissues, increased availability of zinc enhances the insulin response by inhibiting protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, which controls the phosphorylation state of the insulin receptor and hence downstream signalling. Inherited diseases of zinc metabolism, environmental exposures that interfere with the control of cellular zinc homeostasis, and nutritional or conditioned zinc deficiency influence the pathobiochemistry of diabetes. Accepting the view that zinc is one of the many factors in multiple gene-environment interactions that cause the functional demise of ${\beta}$-cells generates an immense potential for treating and perhaps preventing diabetes. Personalized nutrition, bioactive food, and pharmaceuticals targeting the control of cellular zinc in precision medicine are among the possible interventions.

Pulsed laser surface modification for heat treatment and nano-texturing on biometal surface

  • Jeon, Hojeong
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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    • 2016.11a
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    • pp.118.1-118.1
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    • 2016
  • The laser surface modification has been reported for its functional applications for improving tribological performance, wear resistance, hardness, and corrosion property. In most of these applications, continuous wave lasers and pulsed lasers were used for surface melting, cladding, alloying. Since flexibility in processing, refinement of microstructure and controlling the surface properties, technology utilizing lasers has been used in a number of fields. Especially, femtosecond laser has great benefits compared with other lasers because its pulsed width is much shorter than characteristic time of thermal diffusion, which leads to diminish heat affected zone. Moreover, laser surface engineering has been highlighted as an effective tool for micro/nano structuring of materials in the bio application field. In this study, we applied femtosecond and nanosecond pulsed laser to treat biometals, such as Mg, Mg alloy, and NiTi alloy, by heating to improve corrosion properties and functionalize their surface controlling cell response as implantable biomedical devices.

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