• Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2015

Facile immobilization of growth factors in hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels using dual enzymes is reported in the paper. The hydrogels were formed by using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) and transforming growth factor-${\beta}3$ (TGF-${\beta}3$) was covalently conjugated on the hydrogels in situ using tyrosinase (Ty) without any modifications. For the preparation of hydrogels, HA was grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), which was modified with a tyrosine. The gelation times of the HA hydrogels were ranging from 415 to 17 s and the storage moduli was dependent on the concentration of $H_2O_2$ and Ty (470-1600 Pa). A native TGF-${\beta}3$ (200 ng/mL) was readily encapsulated in the HA hydrogels and 17% of the TGF-${\beta}3$ was released over 1 month at the Ty concentration of 0.5 KU/mL, while the release was faster when 0.3 KU/mL of Ty was used for the encapsulation (27%). It can be suggested that the growth factors resident in the hydrogels for a long period of time may lead cells proliferating and differentiating, whereas the growth factors that are initially released from the hydrogels can induce the ingrowth of cells into the matrices. Therefore, the dual enzymatic methods as facile gel forming and loading of various native growth factors or therapeutic proteins could be highly promising for tissue regenerative medicines.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.139-144
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• 2022

This study reports a microfluidic approach to produce monodisperse hydrogel microparticles in a simple and highly efficient manner. Specifically, we produce double emulsion drops with a thin oil shell surrounding an aqueous prepolymer solution, which is solidified via UV-induced free radical polymerization. When they are dispersed in an aqueous solution, the oil shell is dewetted due to the absence of surfactants, resulting in production of highly uniform hydrogel microparticles (C.V.=1%). Results show that production of monodisperse hydrogel microparticles with controllable size and composition can be achieved with minimal use of oil unlike water-in-oil (w/o) single emulsion-based approach. Furthermore, in-depth study of flow patterns in microfluidic device using a phase diagram exhibits a crucial relationship among relative flow rates while providing windows of readily controllable parameters for reliable manufacturing of hydrogel microparticles.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2011

In order to investigate rice stem proteome in response to heat stress, rice plants were subjected to heat treatment at 42$^{\circ}C$ and total soluble proteins were extracted from stem tissues, and were fractionated with 15% PEG (poly ethylene glycol) and separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE). After staining of 2-DE gels, 46 of differentially expressed proteins were extracted, digested by trypsin, and subjected to matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) analysis. Proteins were identified through database search by using peptide mass fingerprints. Among them, 10 proteins were successfully identified. Seven proteins were up- and 3 proteins were down-regulated, respectively. These proteins are involved in energy and metabolism, redox homeostasis, and mitochondrial small heat shock proteins. The identification of some novel proteins in the heat stress response provides new insights that can lead to a better understanding of the molecular basis of heat-sensitivity in plants, and also useful to molecular breeding of thermotolerant forage crops.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.1-2
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• 2011

Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.