Immunohistochemical Character of Hepatic Angiomyolipoma: For Its Management

Hepatic angiomyolipoma (AML) is notoriously difficult to diagnose without an invasive surgery even with the recent development of the various imaging modalities. Additionally, recent reports showed its malignant behavior after the surgery; it is important to diagnose the character of each tumor including the possible malignant potential and determine the postoperative management for each case. For this purpose, we have reviewed reports and focused on the immunohistochemical staining with p53 and ki67 of the tumors showing the representative case of 60-year-old female. The imaging study of her tumor showed the character similar to the hepatocellular carcinoma, and she underwent the hepatectomy. The resected tumor stained positive for HMB-45 that is a marker of the AML, and 30–50% of the tumor cells were positively stained with Ki67 that is a mitotic marker. Also, the atypical epithelioid cells displayed p53 immunoreactivity. These results suggest the malignant potential of our tumor based on the previous reports; therefore the careful followup for this case is necessary for a long period whether it shows metastasis, sizing up, and so forth

Seasonal variation of non-shivering thermogenesis (NST) during mild cold exposure

Background: The physiological function of non-shivering thermogenesis (NST) has been investigated in recent years, and some studies have discussed the importance of NST with respect to human cold adaptation. The present study aimed to clarify individual and seasonal variations in NST that occurred as a result of mild cold exposure.Methods: Seventeen male university students participated in the present study during summer and winter. The climate chamber used was programmed so that ambient temperature dropped from 28°C to 16°C over an 80-min period. Physiological parameters of test subjects were recorded during the experiments.Results: Increases in oxygen intake (VO2) during cold exposure were significantly greater without shivering in winter than they were in summer. Respiratory exchange ratio (RER) was significantly lower during thermoneutral baseline and cold exposure in winter than it was during the same periods in summer. In addition, there was a significant negative correlation between ΔVO2 and ΔRER.Conclusions: Increase of VO2 without shivering indicated increase of NST, and decrease of RER depends on the metabolization of fat in winter. These results suggested that NST activity was activated by seasonal acclimatization, and individual variation of NST depends on individual variation of fat metabolism

A Rapid Optical Clearing Protocol Using 2,2'-Thiodiethanol for Microscopic Observation of Fixed Mouse Brain

Elucidation of neural circuit functions requires visualization of the fine structure of neurons in the inner regions of thick brain specimens. However, the tissue penetration depth of laser scanning microscopy is limited by light scattering and/or absorption by the tissue. Recently, several optical clearing reagents have been proposed for visualization in fixed specimens. However, they require complicated protocols or long treatment times. Here we report the effects of 2,2'-thiodiethanol (TDE) solutions as an optical clearing reagent for fixed mouse brains expressing a yellow fluorescent protein. Immersion of fixed brains in TDE solutions rapidly (within 30 min in the case of 400-mu m-thick fixed brain slices) increased their transparency and enhanced the penetration depth in both confocal and two-photon microscopy. In addition, we succeeded in visualizing dendritic spines along single dendrites at deep positions in fixed thick brain slices. These results suggest that our proposed protocol using TDE solution is a rapid and useful method for optical clearing of fixed specimens expressing fluorescent proteins

岐阜県飛騨市種蔵集落における土地所有からみた入会林野の空間構成

本研究は山間集落である岐阜県飛騨市種蔵集落において、1986-87年頃に作成された測量図を基に入会林野の土地所有を明らかにすることでその傾向を捉え、既往研究で明らかとなった土地利用を踏まえ、昭和初期から戦後（1955年）頃の入会林野の空間構成について考察することを目的とする。種蔵集落の入会林野は種蔵集落に居住する世帯でエリアごとに分散所有されていた。また比較的小さい区画面積の所有地が多く集まるエリアと中程度の区画面積のエリアと、大きな区画面積を持つエリアが確認された。所有地は、かつてより個人所有が継承されたものと共有地を分割したものがあり、字家廻からの距離、標高、土地利用等によりエリアごとに所有地分割の差異が見られることが考察された

肩付柱と貫通する横架材を持つ民家構法―落し込み横架材が用いられる高さに着目して―

本研究は、民家で用いられる中間横架材のつくり方の一つである肩付柱とそれが貫通する横架材を持つ民家を対象とし、既往研究、文献資料より、その構法を図示してその仕組みを明らかとし、落し込み横架材が用いられる高さに着目して考察することを目的とした。肩付柱と落し込み横架材を持つ構法は、主に床高さに用いられるものと内法高さに用いられるものがあった。床高さに用いられたものは高床構造が起源と考えられ、また内法高さに用いられたものは仕口加工が容易なこともあり必要に応じて採用された可能性が考えられた

Heterogeneous distribution of doublecortin-expressing cells surrounding the rostral migratory stream in the juvenile mouse

In the postnatal mammalian brain, neural stem cells of the ventricular-subventricular zone continue to generate doublecortin (Dcx)-expressing immature neurons. Throughout life, these immature neurons migrate to the olfactory bulb through the rostral migratory stream (RMS). In this study, we investigated the distribution of these putative immature neurons using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression in the area surrounding the RMS of the juvenile Dcx-EGFP mice. Through the combined use of an optical clearing reagent (a 2,2 '-thiodiethanol solution) and two-photon microscopy, we visualized three-dimensionally the EGFP-positive cells in the entire RMS and its surroundings. The resulting wide-field and high-definition images along with computational image processing methods developed in this study were used to comprehensively determine the position of the EGFP-positive cells. Our findings revealed that the EGFP-positive cells were heterogeneously distributed in the area surrounding the RMS. In addition, the orientation patterns of the leading process of these cells, which displayed the morphology of migrating immature neurons, differed depending on their location. These novel results provide highly precise morphological information for immature neurons and suggest that a portion of immature neurons may be detached from the RMS and migrate in various directions