Our findings indicate that LDrFVIIa (1000 or 1200 mcg) is more effective at reversing the INR compared to PCC3 (20 units/kg) as evident by more patients achieving an INR of 1.5 or less. Furthermore, only one patient receiving LDrFVIIa required a second dose for additional warfarin reversal, compared to 16 PCC3 patients who received a second dose, all of these due to failure of the first dose to effectively reverse the INR to 1.5 or less. There was no difference in mortality or thromboembolic complications, although the small sample size makes this difficult to interpret. Further, no association can be made from this

data as to whether the thromoboembolic events were the result of the coagulation factor administered independent of other existing risk factors for thromboembolic events. Prothrombin complex concentrate products are derived from purified pooled human plasma. All PCC products contain factors II, IX, and X along with variable amounts of factor Alectinib research buy VII. Some PCC products, referred to as 4 factor PCC, contain larger amounts of factor VII (36–100 I.U. per 100 I.U. factor IX) compared

to PCC3 products, that contain relatively low amounts of factor VII (0–25 I.U. per 100 I.U. factor IX) [11]. Both PCC3 products (dosed at 12–50 units/kg) and 4 factor PCC products (dosed at 7–50 units/kg) have been reported to provide rapid reversal of the INR [11]. Two PCC products available Selleck Y 27632 in the United States (Profilnine® SD and Bebulin® VH) are PCC3 products. Give the absence of a standardized dosing regimen at the

time of this work and the wide range of doses of PCC reported in the literature, we chose 20 units/kg as an initial PCC dose with recommendations to repeat the INR post-PCC3 administration. A 4 factor PCC product available in Europe has completed clinical trials and has recently Montelukast Sodium been approved by the FDA (Kcentra®) for warfarin reversal in patients with acute major bleeding. When compared with plasma, this 4 factor PCC product was found to be non-inferior at achieving hemostasis at 24 hours (72.4% vs. 65.4%) and superior at achieving rapid correction of INR to 1.3 or less at 30 minutes (62.2% vs. 9.6%). The recommended dosing strategy for this product is 25–50 units/kg based on patient weight and baseline INR [15]. The fixed dosing used in our patients may have contributed to the results of fewer patients achieving the goal INR of 1.5 or less. A recent evaluation of PCC3 found suboptimal reversal of warfarin in patients with an INR greater than 5. The INR was reversed to less than 3 in 50% of patients receiving PCC3 25 units/kg and 43% of patients receiving PCC 50 units/kg. Transfusion of additional FFP (mean of 2.1) was required to provide further INR lowering to below 3, resulting in 89% and 88% of patients in the 25 U/kg and 50 U/kg groups achieving that INR goal, respectively [16]. Imberti et al. used a PCC3 administered at 35–50 units/kg in patients with ICH effectively reversed the INR from a mean of 3.5 (range 2.0–9.0) to 1.

39 ± 1.97, 6.44 ± 1.72 mm), indicating that folic acid may prevent the growth of adenomas. Figure 2 Main results of the animal experiment after sacrificed at the 24 weeks. A. The morphology of normal colon in macroscopic observation (Upper) and microscopy (HE stained) (Lower). Neither signs of injury nor tumor were found in NS group and cFA group. B. The morphology of colon adenocacinoma in macroscopic observation (Upper) and microscopy (HE stained) (Lower). C. The incidences of DMH-induced colorectal tumor

in different groups. DMH group is 90%, which is much higher than any other groups such as FA2, FA3 which are 63%, 45% respectively. Meanwhile, there is none in NS and cFA group. D. Maximum diameter of tumor among the 5 groups (NS, cFA, DMH, FA1 and FA2). E. Tumor number in mice among the above 5 groups. Adriamycin solubility dmso (a: P < 0.05, FA3 and FA2 compared to DMH group; b: P < 0.05,

FA2 compared to FA3 group) Although the incidence in FA2 is higher than FA3, no significant difference was seen between them (63% vs 45%). However, the number and the maximum diameter learn more of the masses in FA3 group (2.11 ± 1.05, 2.11 ± 0.60 mm) showed a significant smaller than FA2 group (3.83 ± 1.11, 4.92 ± 1.24 mm), P < 0.05 (Figure 2D and Figure 2E). There is no tumor shaped and weight loss in Folic Acid control group and the mice behavior normal, so we conclude that folic acid is safe to normal colon. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference in the growth and development of mice among DMH and FA2, FA3 groups but groups between NS and DMH. Also, a macroscopic and microscopic examination of their kidneys, stomachs, lungs, liver, and spleen showed no obvious abnormalities (data not shown). FA-mediated differential gene expression profile in mouse colorectal carcinogenesis model induced by DMH With the quality control step, all twelve colonic tissues were analyzed as described in the Methods section. The microarray analysis was conducted

in the check details NS group (3 samples), DMH group (3 samples), FA2 group (3 samples) and FA3 group (3 samples). Then we compared the gene expression levels between the samples of group NS and DMH, FA3 and DMH, FA2 and FA3. A homogenous expression profile among the samples of each group was shown after the hierarchical clustering analysis. And when the Fold Change (FC) is set > 1.5 and the p value at ≤ 0.05, we found that the expression of 12395 genes was significantly altered in the DMH group compared to those in the NS group (see additional file 1). Together with the result of FA3 vs DMH (see additional file 2), we found that 642 genes down-regulated and 428 genes up-regulated in FA3 group compared to DMH, which may indicate that folic acid can reverse the gene expression that changed by DMH (see additional file 3).

Stability of fraction B cytotoxin to protease digestion and heat treatment Pool B was used for further analysis as it contained the highest level of cytotoxic activity. To further characterise the toxin and confirm that it is a protein, we examined the effect of protease digestion on cytotoxin activity. Incubation with trypsin reduced the toxicity of the partially purified cytotoxin for CHO cells (Figure 3). This finding likely reflects that the cytotoxic component of the preparation is a protein. The partially purified cytotoxin was subjected to incubation at elevated https://www.selleckchem.com/products/MG132.html temperatures and the observed cytotoxic activity was compared with the unincubated control samples (22°C) and we found

that activity was unaffected at 50°C, but was reduced at higher temperatures (90% active at 60°C and 70% active at 70°C) suggesting that the cytotoxin is relatively heat- stable (data not shown). Figure 3 Stability of cytotoxic activity of pool B to trypsin digestion. Pool B (2 μg/ml) was treated with and without 125 μg/ml trypsin. The samples were then incubated with CHO cells overnight. Percent CHO cell death was determined using the MTT assay. Experiment was performed

in triplicate, error bars represent standard error of mean (n = 3). Cytotoxin activity confirmation in vivo To further confirm that the activity isolated in pool B was due to the cytotoxin, the rabbit ileal loop assay was employed to detect the presence of diarrhoeagenic activity. The positive E. coli control induced p38 MAPK Kinase pathway a large amount of fluid (mean volume [ml] to length of loop [cm] ratio was 2.0), C. jejuni C31 whole cell lysate and the pool B fraction induced moderate amounts of fluid (mean volume/length ratio was 0.4 for C31 lysate and 0.8 for pool B fraction). The negative

control, Sorensen’s buffer, and fractions A and C did not induce any fluid secretion. On histopathology, the intestinal loops injected with the pool B fraction or C. jejuni C31 whole lysate showed oedema, congestion, haemorrhagic necrosis and inflammation of the mucosa (Figure 4A), Dichloromethane dehalogenase whereas the loops injected with Sorenson’s buffer and fractions A and C appeared normal (Figure 4B). The fluid accumulation and mucosal changes are similar to the findings of a previous study using C. jejuni isolates from patients with inflammatory diarrhoea [10]. This shows that fluid secretion and mucosal inflammatory changes are mediated by the cytotoxic pool B. Previous studies with crude lysate of C31 showed fluid accumulation in the rabbit ileal loop assay [8]. Figure 4 Histopathology of the adult rabbit intestinal loops inoculated with pool B fraction. In panel A, the loop was injected with pool B fraction and stained with eosin and haematoxylin. The mucosa shows oedema, inflammation and necrosis. In panel B, the loop was injected with Sorenson’s buffer (negative control) and stained with eosin and haematoxylin. The mucosa appears normal. (Magnification x 50 for both sections).

An accurate and early diagnosis is essential for efficient management of PCa [23–25]. Therefore, to complement improvements in the clinical management, substantial progress in the diagnostic pathway of PCa is urgently

needed [26–28]. So evaluation of the expression and role of potential proteins LY294002 in PCa is required for defining molecular and cellular factors associated with PCa aggressiveness and therapy resistance, developing more effective therapeutic interventions, and identifying novel PCa biomarkers. Our previous reports indicated that NUCB2 mRNA was upregulated in PCa tissues [29, 30]. The data revealed that NUCB2 mRNA may be an independent prognostic factor for BCR-free survival in patients with PCa [29, 30]. To date, the associations between NUCB2 protein overexpression and the prognosis of PCa have not been reported. This is the first study to investigate the impact of NUCB2 protein overexpression on the prognosis of PCa based on a relatively large number of clinical samples. In this study, we analyzed NUCB2 protein expression Selleck Poziotinib in 180 patients with PCa using immunohistochemistry. We demonstrated, here, that NUCB2 is overexpressed in a large

proportion of patients with PCa and high NUCB2 protein expression correlated with the disease progression and poor clinical outcome in PCa. Furthermore, NUCB2 proved to be an independent molecular biomarker of prognosis in PCa and may become a novel molecular target in the strategies for the prognosis of this disease. We analyzed the association between NUCB2 protein expression and traditional clinicopathogical characteristics in PCa. We observed that the NUCB2 protein levels were significantly higher in PCa tissues compared to those in Janus kinase (JAK) BPH tissues. We also found that expression of NUCB2 protein expression was significantly associated with seminal vesicle invasion, the higher level of preoperative PSA, positive lymph node metastasis, the positive angiolymphatic invasion, BCR, and the higher Gleason score. These

observations support the hypothesis that NUCB2 may function as an oncogene in PCa and that NUCB2 may play an important role in the tumorigenesis of PCa. The data showed that NUCB2 protein overexpression was associated with poor overall and BCR-free survival. These results suggest that high NUCB2 protein expression plays an important role in the progression of PCa and is significantly associated with a poor prognosis independently of other factors. This raises the possibility that NUCB2 may be a prognostic parameter for PCa that is as or more reliable than the clinicopathologic factors currently in use and suggests the possibility to use NUCB2 in individualization of both patient prognosis and therapy. In the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, the BCR-free survival period of patients with PCa with high NUCB2 protein expression was significantly shorter than that of patients with low NUCB2 expression.

Their role as receptors for Neisseria meningitidis[21], N. gonorrhoeae[22, 23], Mycobacterium tuberculosis[24], Enterococcus faecalis[25], Listeria monocytogenes[26], Streptococcus and Staphylococcus[27], Brucella[28], Escherichia coli[29] and even intracellular parasites such as Chlamidia pneumoniae[30] have been described. Besides this, it seems that binding of group A streptococci to GAGs leads to a cytoskeleton conformational change that allows pathogen penetration [31, 32]. The requirement of GAGs

for viral infection has been demonstrated, among others, for papilloma virus [33], herpes virus [34], and HIV [35]. Finally, it is known that GAGs act as receptors for Toxoplasma gondii[36], Leishmania[37] and Plasmodium[38]. However, the microbial ligands involved in most of these processes have not yet been identified. This role of PGs as the eukaryotic learn more receptors for many pathogens is the basis of our initial hypothesis which suggests the same function of these molecules when interacting with autochthonous no pathogenic microorganisms such as lactobacilli.

In this report we provide data on the involvement of GAGs in attachment of Lactobacillus salivarius Lv72, isolated from a human vaginal exudate, to cultures of HeLa cells. Based on these data, a bacterial adhesin was identified which, once purified, significantly interfered with attachment of the lactobacilli to HeLa cell cultures. GSK-3 activity Results Interference of GAGs on HeLa cell-Lactobacillus salivarius Lv72 adhesion To study the role of GAGs on Lv72 adhesion to HeLa cells, addition of commercial preparations of HS, heparin, CS A or CS C to HeLa to cell monolayers was performed

immediately before until the addition of exponentially growing L. salivarius Lv72 cells. The results showed a decrease in the adherence between them (Figure 1). This depletion, although being dose dependent, does not follow a linear correlation. The estimated dissociation constants (KD) were of 2.5 nM for HS, 6.8 nM for CS A, 39.9 nM for CS C and 280.9 nM for heparin, which indicates that the affinity of the bacteria for the different receptors varied markedly, up to two orders of magnitude between HS and heparin. However, care must be taken with this interpretation, as the KDs are approximate values. Surprisingly, CS B did not produce any inhibitory effect, and even promoted a slight increase in the adhesion (Figure 1). Remarkably, the combined use of these GAGs dramatically increased the inhibition, reaching values up to 85% and 90% at total concentrations of 10 and 100 μg/ml respectively, although this effect was not strictly additive (Figure 1A). Figure 1 Inhibition of Lactobacillus attachment to HeLa cells by the presence of different GAGs.

Moreover, many studies have assessed the risk of workers

who handle anti-neoplastic drugs [1–15]. The health hazard for medical personnel administering these drugs is a major concern as these drugs are classified as potentially carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic [16]. Exposure can occur mainly to hands and sporadically to other body parts as well. As these drugs directly or indirectly affect DNA, not only the cancer patients but also the medical personnel chronically handling these drugs are at a higher risk for acquiring DNA damage. Cardiotoxicity is a major complication of anticancer drugs, including anthracyclines and 5-fluorouracil (5FU) [17–20]. Anthracyclines are the best studied among the anticancer drugs with established cardiotoxicity [21, 22]. They produce cardiac toxicity Navitoclax manufacturer accompanied selleck kinase inhibitor by an increase in myofibrillar disarray that is mediated by the signaling function of neuregulin 1 [23]. In addition, anthracyclines induce mitochondrial apoptosis pathways and free radical production [24,

25]. The mechanisms by which other chemotherapy drugs produce cardiovascular toxicities have also been investigated. 5-FU, a widely used chemotherapeutic, has direct toxic effects on vascular endothelium that involves endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase and leads to coronary spasms and endothelium-independent vasoconstriction via protein kinase C [26–32]. Therefore, also for this latter drug unexpected cardiotoxicity can occur above all in old patients who have often associated co-morbidities

and can be defined frail patients. Above all in this latter category of patients, the understanding of the molecular mechanisms at the basis of the cardiotoxic effects induced by anti-cancer agents could be useful in order to determine possible pharmacological strategies in order to prevent this deleterious side effect. Moreover, the toxic effects on normal cells (cardiocytes) could differ from those induced in cancer cells (i.e.: colon cancer cells) and this could allow the Epothilone B (EPO906, Patupilone) use of cardioprotective agents without affecting the anti-cancer properties of 5-FU. It has also to be considered that an unexpected high risk of exposure to 5-FU was recently found in a population of workers of South Italy involved in the manipulation of cytostatic agents [33]. In the present study, we have evaluated the cardiotoxic effects of 5-FU and DOXO on rat cardiocytes (H9c2) [30] and a human colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29) cell line, already reported to be sensitive to 5-FU, for the study of the cell death pathways induced in cardiac and colon cancer cells. Materials and methods Materials RPMI, DMEM, and FBS were purchased from Flow Laboratories (Milan, Italy). Tissue culture plasticware was from Microtech (Naples, Italy). Rabbit antiserum raised against caspase 9 and monoclonal antibodies (mAb) raised against caspase 3 and caspase 7 were purchased from Enzo Life Sciences (Florence, Italy).

45 σ. These results indicated that plasmid and chromosomal encoded genes exhibit a comparable expression pattern at the single cell level. Furthermore, promoter::gfp fusions of

constitutively expressed genes result in fluorescence of all living cells. After that, a plasmid containing a promoter::gfp fusion for the lux operon in addition to the intact luxCDABE operon was constructed to test whether bioluminescence in single cells correlated with the fluorescence intensity of the corresponding P luxC ::gfp fusion. The wild type strain conjugated with a plasmid encoding a P luxC ::gfp fusion was grown to the mid-exponential growth phase, and single cells in the same field of view were analyzed in phase contrast (Figure 2A left), bioluminescence (Figure 2A middle) and MLN8237 chemical structure fluorescence (Figure 2A right) modes. Intensity data for 450 living bacteria were acquired and depicted in a correlation plot, with each dot representing a single cell (Figure 2B). There was a strong correlation between bioluminescence and fluorescence (r = 0.84, p < 0.001) (Figure 2B), indicating that the P luxC ::gfp fusion reliably mirrors natural bioluminescence induction. Figure 2 Characterization of AI-regulated gene activity in V. harveyi strains containing promoter:: gfp reporter fusions. V. harveyi strains

containing P luxC ::gfp (A, B) and P vhp ::gfp (C, D) reporter fusions were grown to the mid-exponential growth phase (OD600 = 0.2), and single cell analysis was performed. 450 (P luxC ::gfp) and 300 (P vhp ::gfp) cells were individually analyzed using ImageJ. In panels B and Adriamycin molecular weight D, fluorescence and bioluminescence levels (normalized for cell size and expressed in arbitrary units) are plotted for individual cells bearing the reporter fusions indicated. The correlation coefficient r and the oxyclozanide p-value are indicated. A regression line could be drawn only for strain P luxC ::gfp (red). Panels A and C show phase-contrast (left), bioluminescence (middle) and fluorescence (right) views of cells expressing promoter::gfp fusions for luxC and vhp, respectively. The

images in each row show the same field of view. Note the tight correlation between luminescence and luxC reporter expression in panel A. White arrows indicate two cells displaying signals of equal intensity in the bioluminescence and fluorescence channels. In panel C red arrows point to cells that exhibit high bioluminescence and low fluorescence or vice versa. Scale bar = 2.5 μm. We analyzed the third construct, which contains a P vhp ::gfp fusion. vhp encodes an exoprotease. Bacteria were cultivated as described above, and 300 living cells were quantitatively analyzed with respect to bioluminescence and fluorescence intensities (Figure 2C, D). Here, single cell analysis revealed no correlation between bioluminescence and fluorescence (r = 0.06, p = 0.28) (Figure 2D). This is reflected in the fact that luminescent cells were not necessarily fluorescent and vice versa (Figure 2D).

Conclusions We show here that cell synchronization may improve the efficacy of retroviral suicide gene transfer in a human and a murine colon cancer cell lines. Because the effect of cell synchronization on retroviral gene transfer differs between the two colon cancer cell lines used in this study, further investigations in more colon cancer cell lines are needed to draw definitive conclusion on the improvement of retroviral gene transfer after cell synchronization. Nevertheless, we demonstrate click here in the present study that this improvement increases the level of apoptosis induced

with GCV treatment. This approach could be fruitful in colon cancer liver metastases because tumor cells are proliferating in a quiescent parenchyma. Therefore, we are currently assessing in a rat model of liver tumors whether this strategy

could improve the antitumoral efficacy of cancer gene therapy using defective retroviral vectors. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Grants from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, the Académie de Médecine, the Chancelleries de Paris and the Association de Recherche en OncoLogie Digestive (AROLD). Electronic supplementary material Additional file 1: Ara-C and Aphidicolin mediated effects on DHDK12 cell cycle. DHDK12 cells were treated with 0.075 μM ara-C or 25 μ M aphidicolin for 24 h. The percentage of cells in S phase (open square: aphidicolin; filled square: ara-C) and in G1 phase (open triangle: aphidicolin; filled triangle: ara-C) at various time after ara-C or aphidicolin removal was determined www.selleckchem.com/products/Nolvadex.html by flow cytometry analysis of DNA content (PDF 25 KB) References 1. Edelstein ML, Abedi MR, Wixon J: Gene therapy clinical trials worldwide to 2007–an update. J Gene Med 2007, 9:833–842.PubMedCrossRef 2. Thomas CE, Ehrhardt A, Kay MA: Progress and problems with the use of viral vectors for gene therapy. Nat Rev Genet 2003, 4:346–358.PubMedCrossRef 3. Sandmair AM, Loimas S, Puranen P, Immonen

A, Kossila M, Puranen M, Hurskainen H, Tyynela K, Turunen M, Vanninen R, Lehtolainen P, Paljarvi L, Johansson R, Vapalahti M, Yla-Herttuala Axenfeld syndrome S: Thymidine kinase gene therapy for human malignant glioma, using replication-deficient retroviruses or adenoviruses. Hum Gene Ther 2000, 11:2197–2205.PubMedCrossRef 4. Rainov NG: A phase III clinical evaluation of herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase and ganciclovir gene therapy as an adjuvant to surgical resection and radiation in adults with previously untreated glioblastoma multiforme. Hum Gene Ther 2000, 11:2389–2401.PubMedCrossRef 5. Culver KW, Ram Z, Wallbridge S, Ishii H, Oldfield EH, Blaese RM: In vivo gene transfer with retroviral vector-producer cells for treatment of experimental brain tumors. Science 1992, 256:1550–1552.PubMedCrossRef 6.

Granular bodies of approximately 35 nm in diameter were observed in the spaces between the parallel lamellae of the main rod (Figure 5B). The ventral side

of the main rod was embedded in an amorphous matrix that became thinner toward the posterior end of the cell, until it disappeared altogether (Figure 6A-D). A single row of longitudinal microtubules lined the external side of the main rod, which delimited the boundary between the main rod and the accessory rod for most of their length (Figure 5A-B). Figure 5 Transmission electron micrographs (TEM) of non-consecutive serial sections of Bihospites bacati n. gen. et sp. through the vestibular selleckchem region of the cell. A. TEM showing the nucleus (N) with

condensed chromatin, the dorsal side of the C-shaped rod apparatus consisting of the main rod (r) and the accessory rod (ar), and the vestibulum (vt). Several rod-shaped bacteria (black arrows) and spherical-shaped bacteria line inner surface of the vestibulum (vt) (bar = 10 μm). B. High magnification view of the C-shaped rod apparatus in Figure A showing the single row of microtubules (arrowheads) positioned at the junction between the tightly connected rod and accessory rod. Granular bodies (arrows) are present between the parallel lamellae Z-VAD-FMK order that form the main rod (bar = 500 nm). C, D. Transverse TEMs showing the cytostomal funnel (cyt) and two separate lobes of the feeding pocket (arrowheads). Bacterial profiles can be seen inside the feeding pocket (arrows). Figure D uses color to distinguish between the feeding pocket (red), the vestibulum (blue), and the two branches of the flagellar pocket (green). E, F. Transverse TEMs at a more posterior level than in Figure C-D showing the posterior end of the main C-shaped rod (arrow) emerging within the posterior end of the feeding Nintedanib (BIBF 1120) pocket. The cytostomal funnel (arrowheads) opens and fuses with the feeding

pocket. Figure F uses color to distinguish between the feeding pocket (red), the vestibulum (blue), and the two branches of the flagellar pocket (green). (C-F bar = 2 μm). Figure 6 Transmission electron micrographs (TEM) of non-consecutive serial sections through the flagellar apparatus and feeding pockets of Bihospites bacati n. gen. et sp. TEMs taken at levels posterior to those shown in Figure 5 and presented from anterior (A) to posterior (D). A. TEM showing the posterior end of the main C-shaped rod (r) embedded in an amorphous matrix (double arrowhead) and surrounded by a thick membrane with fuzzy material (arrowhead). At this level, the rod is associated with ‘congregated globular structure’ (CGS), and the striated fibres that form the accessory rod (ar) appear near the cytostomal funnel (cyt) at the junction between the feeding pocket and the flagellar pocket.

For this purpose, we made another set of inverted solar cells based on P3HT:ICBA with the configuration ITO/ZnO:Cs2CO3/P3HT:ICBA/PEDOT:PSS/Al. As a reference, solar cells without interface modification were also fabricated. Figure 5b shows the J-V characteristics of P3HT:ICBA-based find more devices with two different structures. As mentioned in the ‘Experimental’ Section, these two different types of structures are ITO/ZnO/P3HT:ICBA/PEDOT:PSS/Al-device C and ITO/ZnO:Cs2CO3/P3HT:ICBA/PEDOT:PSS/Al-device D. As expected, the effective dipole moment created by interface modification shifted the work function of the ITO electrode by nearly 1 eV, thereby reducing the electron injection and improving

the ohmic contact for electron injection with P3HT:ICBA. The inverted solar cells (device A) exhibited a contact energy barrier of typically 2.1 eV due to the work function of ITO (4.8 eV), resulting in Jsc that was slightly lower. As observed in Figure 5b, RG7204 in vitro the reference device exhibits Jsc, Voc, FF, and PCE of about 6.28 mA/cm2, 0.89 V, 60.7%, and 3.40%, respectively. The calculated Rs for this device is around 6,666 ohm. For

device D, the PCE increases from 3.40 to 3.43%. This 0.88% increment in the PCE is attributed to the improvement in FF, where the FF increases from 57.7 to 59.3%. A similar trend in Rs can also be seen in P3HT:ICBA-based device, where the Rs decreases together with the increment of FF. In addition, the performance of inverted solar cells in terms of external quantum efficiency (P3HT:PCBM-based devices) is shown in Figure 5c. Basically, the EQE is defined as the ratio between the generated charge carriers and the incident photons. Device A shows a maximum EQE value of ~51.80%

at the absorption wavelength of ~520 nm. However, the EQE selleck chemicals of device B has outperformed the EQEs of device A, in which it exhibits a maximum of about 55% at ~520 nm of absorption wavelength. The external quantum efficiency of the P3HT:ICBA-based devices with the inverted device geometries are shown in Figure 5d. For inverted reference solar cells (device C), the maximum EQE is 51.51% at 500 nm, where the EQE of device D is 53.05%. These results (device B and device D) further shed the light that the improvement in devices performances is related to interface modification which has modified the work function of the ITO electrode. As mentioned above, the presence of Cs2CO3 have improved the surface area of ZnO:Cs2CO3 and PEDOT:PSS through the good interfacial contact between ZnO:Cs2CO3 layer and ITO layer, and PEDOT:PSS and Al layer, leading to the considerably high EQE. In order to get a better understanding on the stability and lifetime of all fabricated inverted solar cells, we kept all devices in air under ambient condition according to the previously reported ISOS-L-1 procedure [43].