Kidney stone disease, also known as nephrolithiasis or urolithiasis, is when a solid piece of material develops in the urinary tract. Kidney stones typically form in the kidney and leave the body in the urine stream. A small stone may pass without causing symptoms. If a stone grows to more than 5 millimeters (0.2 in), it can cause blockage of the ureter, resulting in severe pain in the lower back or abdomen. A stone may also result in blood in the urine, vomiting, or painful urination. About half of people who have had a kidney stone will have another within ten years.
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratch hardness comparison, defines value 3 as "calcite".
Calcium oxalate (in archaic terminology, oxalate of lime) is a calcium salt of oxalate with the chemical formula CaC2O4·(H2O)x, where x varies from 0 to 3. All forms are colorless or white. The monohydrate occurs naturally as the mineral whewellite, forming envelope-shaped crystals, known in plants as raphides. The rarer dihydrate (mineral: weddellite) and trihydrate (mineral: caoxite) are also recognized. Calcium oxalates are a major constituent of human kidney stones. Calcium oxalate is also found in beerstone, a scale that forms on containers used in breweries.
Ultrastructure is the architecture of cells and biomaterials that is visible at higher magnifications than found on a standard optical light microscope. This traditionally meant the resolution and magnification range of a conventional transmission electron microscope (TEM) when viewing biological specimens such as cells, tissue, or organs. Ultrastructure can also be viewed with scanning electron microscopy and super-resolution microscopy, although TEM is a standard histology technique for viewing ultrastructure. Such cellular structures as organelles, which allow the cell to function properly within its specified environment, can be examined at the ultrastructural level.
Oxalic acid is an organic compound with the IUPAC name ethanedioic acid and formula HO2C−CO2H. It is the simplest dicarboxylic acid. It is a white crystalline solid that forms a colorless solution in water. Its name comes from the fact that early investigators isolated oxalic acid from flowering plants of the genus Oxalis, commonly known as wood-sorrels. It occurs naturally in many foods, but excessive ingestion of oxalic acid or prolonged skin contact can be dangerous.
Ergastic substances are non-protoplasmic materials found in cells. The living protoplasm of a cell is sometimes called the bioplasm and distinct from the ergastic substances of the cell. The latter are usually organic or inorganic substances that are products of metabolism, and include crystals, oil drops, gums, tannins, resins and other compounds that can aid the organism in defense, maintenance of cellular structure, or just substance storage. Ergastic substances may appear in the protoplasm, in vacuoles, or in the cell wall.
Oxalate (IUPAC: ethanedioate) is the dianion with the formula C
2O2−
4, also written (COO)2−
2. Either name is often used for derivatives, such as salts of oxalic acid, for example sodium oxalate Na2C2O4, or dimethyl oxalate ((CH3)2C2O4). Oxalate also forms coordination compounds where it is sometimes abbreviated as ox.
Biomineralization, or biomineralisation is the process by which living organisms produce minerals, often to harden or stiffen existing tissues. Such tissues are called mineralized tissues. It is an extremely widespread phenomenon; all six taxonomic kingdoms contain members that are able to form minerals, and over 60 different minerals have been identified in organisms. Examples include silicates in algae and diatoms, carbonates in invertebrates, and calcium phosphates and carbonates in vertebrates. These minerals often form structural features such as sea shells and the bone in mammals and birds. Organisms have been producing mineralised skeletons for the past 550 million years. Ca carbonates and Ca phosphates are usually crystalline, but silica organisms (sponges, diatoms...) are always non crystalline minerals. Other examples include copper, iron and gold deposits involving bacteria. Biologically-formed minerals often have special uses such as magnetic sensors in magnetotactic bacteria (Fe3O4), gravity sensing devices (CaCO3, CaSO4, BaSO4) and iron storage and mobilization (Fe2O3•H2O in the protein ferritin).
Arisaema triphyllum is a herbaceous perennial plant growing from a corm. It is a highly variable species typically growing 30–65 centimetres (12–26 in) in height with three-parted leaves and flowers contained in a spadix that is covered by a hood. It is native to eastern North America, occurring in moist woodlands and thickets from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota, and south to southern Florida and Texas.
Osteopontin (OPN), also known as bone sialoprotein I, early T-lymphocyte activation (ETA-1), secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1), 2ar and Rickettsia resistance (Ric), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SPP1 gene. The murine ortholog is Spp1. Osteopontin is a SIBLING (glycoprotein) that was first identified in 1986 in osteoblasts.
Glyoxylic acid or oxoacetic acid is an organic compound. Together with acetic acid, glycolic acid, and oxalic acid, glyoxylic acid is one of the C2 carboxylic acids. It is a colourless solid that occurs naturally and is useful industrially.
Raphides are needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate monohydrate or calcium carbonate as aragonite, found in more than 200 families of plants. Both ends are needle-like, but raphides tend to be blunt at one end and sharp at the other.
Oxalis pes-caprae is a species of tristylous yellow-flowering plant in the wood sorrel family Oxalidaceae. Oxalis cernua is a less common synonym for this species. Some of the most common names for the plant reference its sour taste owing to oxalic acid present in its tissues. Indigenous to South Africa, the plant has become a pest plant in different parts of the word that is difficult to eradicate because of how it propagates through underground bulbs.
In enzymology, a glycerate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.29) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
Glyoxylate reductase, first isolated from spinach leaves, is an enzyme that catalyzes the reduction of glyoxylate to glycolate, using the cofactor NADH or NADPH.
Antinutrients are natural or synthetic compounds that interfere with the absorption of nutrients. Nutrition studies focus on antinutrients commonly found in food sources and beverages. Antinutrients may take the form of drugs, chemicals that naturally occur in food sources, proteins, or overconsumption of nutrients themselves. Antinutrients may act by binding to vitamins and minerals, preventing their uptake, or inhibiting enzymes.
Crystal arthropathy is a class of joint disorder that is characterized by accumulation of tiny crystals in one or more joints. Polarizing microscopy and application of other crystallographic techniques have improved identification of different microcrystals including monosodium urate, calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate, calcium hydroxyapatite, and calcium oxalate.
An idioblast is an isolated plant cell that differs from neighboring tissues. They have various functions such as storage of reserves, excretory materials, pigments, and minerals. They could contain oil, latex, gum, resin, tannin or pigments etc. Some can contain mineral crystals such as acrid tasting and poisonous calcium oxalate or carbonate or silica. Any of the tissue or tissue systems of plants can contain idioblasts. Idioblasts are divided into three main categories: excretory, tracheoid, and sclerenchymatous.
Chromium(II) oxalate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula CrC2O4.
Alarm photosynthesis is a variation of photosynthesis where calcium oxalate crystals function as dynamic carbon pools, supplying carbon dioxide (CO2) to photosynthetic cells when stomata are partially or totally closed. This biochemical appendance of the photosynthetic machinery is a means to alleviate the perpetual plant dilemma of using atmospheric CO2 for photosynthesis and losing water vapor, or saving water and reducing photosynthesis. The function of alarm photosynthesis seems to be rather auxiliary to the overall photosynthetic performance. It supports a low photosynthetic rate, aiming at the maintenance and photoprotection of the photosynthetic apparatus rather than a substantial carbon gain.
