Disintegration, degradation

Abbau-mittel, n. decomposing or disintegrating agent, -produkt, n. decomposition product, degradation product, -stufe, /. step or stage in decomposition or degradation. 

Desizing by chemical decomposition is applicable to starch-based sizes. Since starch and its hydrophilic derivatives are soluble in water, it might be assumed that a simple alkaline rinse with surfactant would be sufficient to effect removal from the fibre. As is also the case with some other size polymers, however, once the starch solution has dried to a film on the fibre surface it is much more difficult to effect rehydration and dissolution. Thus controlled chemical degradation is required to disintegrate and solubilise the size film without damaging the cellulosic fibre. Enzymatic, oxidative and hydrolytic degradation methods can be used. 

In their study of branched PSA, Maniar et al. (1990) found that the molecular architecture of branched polymers affects the release kinetics in a variety of ways. They found that the branched polymers degraded faster than linear PSA of comparable molecular weight (Maniar et al., 1990). They also noted that drug (morphine) release profiles were more characteristic of bulk erosion than surface erosion An initial lag time during which very little drug was released was associated with the time required for water to swell the polymer. This was followed by a period of relatively fast release, which tapered off as the device disintegrated. The polymer matrix lost its mechanical integrity before the release experiment was complete (Maniar et al., 1990). Despite the increase... 

Necrosis is a dramatic and very rapid form of cell death in which essentially every compartment of the cell disintegrates. Necrosis is characterized by marked dysregulation of ion homeostasis resulting in cell swelling, dilation of mitochondria and the ER and the formation of vacuoles in the cytoplasm [33], Proteases play important roles in the degradation of cells during necrosis. In contrast to apoptosis, where caspases are the key death proteases, calpains and lysosomal proteases (cathepsins B and D, in particular) are major players in necrosis. Caspases may be activated in response to mitochondrial damage and... 

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