University of Maine

About: University of Maine is a education organization based out in Orono, Maine, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Ice sheet. The organization has 8637 authors who have published 16932 publications receiving 590124 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Maine at Orono.

Reducing Intestinal Digestion and Absorption of Fat Using a Nature-Derived Biopolymer: Interference of Triglyceride Hydrolysis by Nanocellulose.

Abstract: Engineered nanomaterials are increasingly added to foods to improve quality, safety, or nutrition. Here we report the ability of ingested nanocellulose (NC) materials to reduce digestion and absorption of ingested fat. In the small intestinal phase of an acellular simulated gastrointestinal tract, the hydrolysis of free fatty acids (FFA) from triglycerides (TG) in a high-fat food model was reduced by 48.4% when NC was added at 0.75% w/w to the food, as quantified by pH stat titration, and by 40.1% as assessed by fluorometric FFA assay. Furthermore, translocation of TG and FFA across an in vitro cellular model of the intestinal epithelium was significantly reduced by the presence of 0.75% w/w NC in the food (TG by 52% and FFA by 32%). Finally, in in vivo experiments, the postprandial rise in serum TG 1 h after gavage with the high fat food model was reduced by 36% when 1.0% w/w NC was administered with the food. Scanning electron microscopy and molecular dynamics studies suggest two primary mechanisms for ...

Offshore blooms of the red tide dinoflagellate, Alexandrium sp., in the Gulf of Maine

Abstract: Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) occurs nearly every year in the Gulf of Maine. In a study of dynamics of the causative organism, the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium sp., we conducted three surveys of the coastal and oshore waters of Gulf of Maine during the summer of 1998, sampling more than 200 stations during each cruise in June, July and August. Hydrographic data were collected and concentrations of phytoplankton chlorophyll, inorganic nutrients and densities of Alexandrium cells were measured in discrete water samples. The distributions of Alexandrium at the surface and in subsurface waters displayed maximum cell densities in the oshore waters of the Gulf on all three cruises. Highest cell densities in surface waters (ca. 5.510 3 cellsl ˇ1 ) were observed in two broad patches: one in the Bay of Fundy and another in shelf and oshore waters of the central and eastern Gulf of Maine in association with the Eastern Maine Coastal Current. Highest subsurface densities of cells appeared to be associated with the frontal edges beyond the cold surface waters associated with the Eastern Maine Coastal Current. As the summer progressed, the highest surface densities of Alexandrium receded toward the eastern portions of the Gulf and the Bay of Fundy. We suggest that the oshore distributions of relatively high densities of Alexandrium are naturally occurring and can be related to inorganic nutrient fluxes, and to the ambient light field as it varies seasonally and vertically. Locations of high cell densities were described and interpreted using a nondimensional light-nutrient parameter, computed as the ratio of the depth of the 10% surface irradiance to the depth of 4mMNO3 concentration. Possible mechanisms responsible for periodic development of PSP outbreaks in nearshore shellfish beds are discussed. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.