Vitamin D Affects Neuronal Peptides in Neurodegenerative Disease: Differences of V-D2 and V-D3 for Affinity to Amyloid-β and Scrapie Prion Protein In Vitro

The misfolding of neuronal peptides such as Aβ40/42 in Alzheimer’s disease and cellular prion protein in scrapie induce abnormal aggregation of the peptides in the brain. The seeding of peptides’ oligomers from monomers is the initial step to form molten-globule states before abnormal aggregation. Therefore, compounds targeting the step are useful to clarify the mechanisms underlying aggregation of the proteins and Vitamin D derivatives, which can interact with both Aβ40 and cellular prion protein; however they show different effects in the oligomerization step of the proteins. We discuss the different effects of Vitamin D2 and Vitamin D3 in the interaction with these peptides in brain

サイユウシュウ ロンブン Mother Girl ハハナル ショウジョ ビショウジョ センシ セーラームーン ニ ミル ツウカ ギレイ

The TV animation Sailor Moon,broadcast from 1992 to 1997,won an unusual popularity among the young female audience in Japan at that time. This study is an attempt to clarify an implicit message theanimation conveys to the audience under the disguise of a childish story of love, peace and justice by examining the underlying structure each episode of the animation has. A TV animation which repeats practically the same story every week is a very effective cultural apparatus but hasbeen seldom studied in detail. Each episode generally follows the pattern of a typical initiation story: the heroine undergoes a process of maturity through the experienceof symbolic death and rebirth. But the story at the same time cleverly escapes from such an interpretation. What is characteristic with the story is that the initiation process is definitely related to consumer behavior: endless pursuit of commercial goods. And in this sense the heroine never accomplishes the initiation and this incompleteness or failure in initiation indeed places Sailor Moon in a unique position in the lineage of popularlegends. We see many other examples of such incompleteness. The heroine\u27s metamorphosis itself betrays this. For what she puts on after taking off her girlish clothes is, unlike a traditional heroine, a "sailor suit", the symbol of eternal girlishness which accompanies an implication of commercialized sexuality. In the last episode,the heroine discloses her naked body of a matured woman before she becomes the savior of the world. Seemingly she finally attains motherhood and succeeds in showing a role model to the young audience but only to turn out to be a false one. Forher final purpose remains to be to reproduce her duplicates: ideal consumersof the consumption society. It is at that moment that a "Girl" throws off the mask of "Lovely One" and exposes her true face of"Woman"

Cross-breed comparisons identified a critical 591-kb region for bovine carcass weight QTL (CW-2) on chromosome 6 and the Ile-442-Met substitution in NCAPG as a positional candidate

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Growth-related traits have been mapped on bovine chromosome 6 (BTA 6) in various bovine breed populations. We previously mapped a significant quantitative trait locus (QTL) for carcass and body weight (<it>CW-2</it>) between 38 and 55 cM on BTA 6 using a Japanese Black half-sib family. Additional QTL mapping studies detected four QTL for body or carcass weight that overlapped with <it>CW-2 </it>in Japanese Black and Japanese Brown half-sib families. To map the region in greater detail, we applied cross-breed comparisons of haplotypes that have been shown to be powerful in canine.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used 38 microsatellite markers to search for a shared <it>Q </it>(increasing carcass and/or body weight) haplotype within the 17-cM <it>CW-2 </it>region among five sires. Linkage disequilibrium mapping using maternal alleles of the offspring showed that an 815-kb shared <it>Q </it>haplotype was associated with body or carcass weight in both breeds. The addition of 43 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers narrowed the region to 591 kb containing 4 genes. The SNP changing Ile-442 to Met in <it>NCAPG </it>(chromosome condensation protein G) was significantly associated with carcass weight (<it>p </it>< 1.2 × 10^-11) in a large Japanese Black population as well as in the five families. The <it>Q </it>allele of the SNP was also associated with a larger longissimus muscle area and thinner subcutaneous fat thickness in steers of all five families, indicating that the <it>CW-2 </it>locus is pleiotropic and favorable for marker-assisted selection of beef cattle.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A 591-kb critical region for <it>CW-2 </it>was identified. The SNP changing Ile-442 to Met in <it>NCAPG </it>(chromosome condensation protein G) can be used as a positional candidate of <it>CW-2 </it>for marker-assisted selection.</p

Clinical training stress and autonomic nervous function in female medical technology students : analysis of heart rate variability and 1/f fluctuation

To evaluate the level of stress induced by clinical training, ambulatory electrocardiograms from 12 healthy female medical technology students were recorded and the spectral components of heart rate variability (HRV) were analyzed as an index of autonomic nervous function. The HF power reflecting parasympathetic tone was significantly decreased at awakening, compared with that before clinical training (p 0.01). The LF/HF ratio reflecting sympathetic activity also significantly increased during, compared with before clinical training (p 0.01). The slope of the spectral density also changed before and during the clinical training from -1.20 0.04 to -1.09 0.03 (p 0.05). The 1/f fluctuation of HRV appeared comfortable, and tension was apparently adequate while undergoing clinical training. None of these HRV indices statistically changed while asleep. Thus, the students perceived the stress as a comfortable level of tension and analyzing spectral components and 1/f fluctuation of HRV might be a useful method for evaluating study stress

Difteria: situação imunitária de uma população infantil urbana de São Paulo, SP, Brasil

An ascertainment of the level diphtheria antibodies in 130 children, 7 to 10 years old, in the city of S. Paulo (Brazil), revealed susceptibility in 31% of the 7-year-olds, 14% in the eight-year-olds, and 5% in the nine-year-olds. All ten-year-olds had protective circulating antitoxin at levels superior to 0.01 IU/ml. Analysis of the results thus showed that susceptibility varies inversely to age. In the population examined, the mean diphtheric antitoxin content oscillated between 0.0385 and 0.1315 IU/ml of serum.A verificação do teor de anticorpos antidiftéricos provenientes de 130 crianças de 7 a 10 anos de idade, do município de São Paulo, Brasil, revelou 31, 14 e 5% de indivíduos susceptíveis nas idades de 7, 8 e 9 anos, respectivamente. Todas as crianças de 10 anos de idade apresentaram proteção contra a difteria, revelando teor de antitoxina circulante em níveis superiores a 0,01 UI/ml. O teor médio de antitoxina diftérica encontrada variou de 0,0385 a 0,1315 UI/ml de soro, na população examinada

Essential functions of the CNOT7/8 catalytic subunits of the CCR4-NOT complex in mRNA regulation and cell viability

Shortening of mRNA poly(A) tails (deadenylation) to trigger their decay is mediated mainly by the CCR4-NOT deadenylase complex. While four catalytic subunits (CNOT6, 6L 7, and 8) have been identified in the mammalian CCR4-NOT complex, their individual biological roles are not fully understood. In this study, we addressed the contribution of CNOT7/8 to viability of primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). We found that MEFs lacking CNOT7/8 expression [Cnot7/8-double knockout (dKO) MEFs] undergo cell death, whereas MEFs lacking CNOT6/6L expression (Cnot6/6l-dKO MEFs) remain viable. Co-immunoprecipitation analyses showed that CNOT6/6L are also absent from the CCR4-NOT complex in Cnot7/8-dKO MEFs. In contrast, either CNOT7 or CNOT8 still interacts with other subunits in the CCR4-NOT complex in Cnot6/6l-dKO MEFs. Exogenous expression of a CNOT7 mutant lacking catalytic activity in Cnot7/8-dKO MEFs cannot recover cell viability, even though CNOT6/6L exists to some extent in the CCR4-NOT complex, confirming that CNOT7/8 is essential for viability. Bulk poly(A) tail analysis revealed that mRNAs with longer poly(A) tails are more numerous in Cnot7/8-dKO MEFs than in Cnot6/6l-dKO MEFs. Consistent with elongated poly(A) tails, more mRNAs are upregulated and stabilized in Cnot7/8-dKO MEFs than in Cnot6/6l-dKO MEFs. Importantly, Cnot6/6l-dKO mice are viable and grow normally to adulthood. Taken together, the CNOT7/8 catalytic subunits are essential for deadenylation, which is necessary to maintain cell viability, whereas CNOT6/6L are not

Quantificação de anticorpos diftéricos em cobaias: I - persistência do título de anticorpos séricos em animais inoculados com uma dose de toxóide diftérico

The behavior of the kinetic genesis of antibodies in guinea pigs inoculated with doses of an alum precipitated diphtheria toxoid was studied. In a parallel study the dynamic of passive immunity, naturally transmitted to the offspring, was examined. In immunized guinea pigs, it was verified that the diphtheria antitoxin synthesis maintains detectable titers up to 36 months. Antibodies transfered via placenta by the vaccinated mother reached a plasmic concentration in the newborn superior to that of the mother, and the passive immunity persisted in the circulation of the offspring at titers detectable for up to approximately three months.Foi estudado o comportamento da cinética de anticorpogénese em cobaias inoculadas com uma dose de toxóide diftérico precipitado pelo alúmen. Paralelamente, foi estudada a dinâmica da imunidade passiva naturalmente transmitida aos filhotes. Em cobaias vacinadas com uma dose de antígeno, foi verificado que a síntese de antitoxina diftérica persiste, em títulos detectáveis, até 36 meses após. Os anticorpos transferidos, passivamente, da mãe vacinada para os filhotes atingiram, nestes, concentrações plasmáticas superiores, sendo que a imunidade perdurou em títulos detectáveis até cerca de três meses de idade dos mesmos

Coordinately Co-opted Multiple Transposable Elements Constitute an Enhancer for wnt5a Expression in the Mammalian Secondary Palate

Acquisition of cis-regulatory elements is a major driving force of evolution, and there are several examples of developmental enhancers derived from transposable elements (TEs). However, it remains unclear whether one enhancer element could have been produced via cooperation among multiple, yet distinct, TEs during evolution. Here we show that an evolutionarily conserved genomic region named AS3_9 comprises three TEs (AmnSINE1, X6b_DNA and MER117), inserted side-by-side, and functions as a distal enhancer for wnt5a expression during morphogenesis of the mammalian secondary palate. Functional analysis of each TE revealed step-by-step retroposition/transposition and co-option together with acquisition of a binding site for Msx1 for its full enhancer function during mammalian evolution. The present study provides a new perspective suggesting that a huge variety of TEs, in combination, could have accelerated the diversity of cis-regulatory elements involved in morphological evolution

Effectiveness of 18F-FDG PET/CT in finding lung metastasis from a retroperitoneal paraganglioma

A 50-year-old woman was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia on general medical examination. Further, contrast-enhanced abdominal CT and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large hypervascular mass with internal degeneration and necrosis in the retroperitoneal space. She was referred to our hospital for further evaluation and treatment. Because the paraganglioma was most likely as the imaging diagnosis, 123I-MIBG scintigraphy was performed. It revealed the marked abnormal accumulation in the retroperitoneal lesion indicating the paraganglioma and no other abnormal accumulation was noted. Several plasma catecholamines and their urinary metabolites were normal. On the subsequent 18F-FDG PET/CT, high FDG uptake was found in the retroperitoneal lesion (SUVmax=38). FDG uptake was also found in a small nodule at the base of the lower lobe of the right lung (SUVmax= 9.8). Contrast-enhanced imaging revealed a hypervascular nodule at the base of the right lung, suggesting pulmonary metastasis of a paraganglioma. The abdominal lesion and right lung nodule were excised, and retroperitoneal paraganglioma and pulmonary metastasis were diagnosed based on the pathology findings. In this case, 18F-FDG PET/CT was useful in the search for paraganglioma metastasis. We report a relationship between 123I-MIBG accumulation and 18F-FDG uptake in paraganglioma and review the relevant literature