Prevention of growth arrest-induced cell death of vascular smooth muscle cells by a product of growth arrest-specific gene, gas6

AbstractWe have purified Gas6 as a growth-potentiating factor for vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) [Nakano, T. et al. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 5702-57051. However, specific production of Gas6 in growth-arrested cells raises an intriguing question as to the physiological function of Gas6. In this study, we found that serum-starved VSMCs secreted some survival factors and depletion of the factors induced cell death of VSMCs. Finally, we demonstrated that cell death was prevented by the addition of Gas6, suggesting that one of the major biological activity of Gas6 is protection of growth-arrested VSMCs from death

DISPENSABLE ROLE OF AIRE IN cDCs

Aire, the defect of which is responsible for the development of autoimmunity, is predominantly expressed in medullary thymic epithelial cells, and it controls a wide variety of genes, including those of tissue-restricted Ags, for establishing thymic tolerance. Aire is also expressed from APCs in the periphery, called extrathymic Aire-expressing cells (eTACs), and their complementing role to thymic tolerance has been suggested. eTACs are composed of two distinct classes of APCs, conventional dendritic cell (cDC)–type and group 3 innate lymphoid cell (ILC3)-like–type expressing retinoic acid receptor–related orphan receptor γt (RORγt). Although the essential role of Aire in the latter in the Th17-mediated immune response against Candida albicans has been reported, the role of Aire in the cDC-type eTACs for this action has not been examined. Furthermore, the significance of Aire in the production of the transcriptome of the cDC-type eTACs remains unknown. We have approached these issues using a high-fidelity Aire-reporter mouse strain. We found that although the cDC-type eTACs dominated ILC3-like–type eTACs in number and they served as efficient APCs for the immune response against an exogenous Ag as well as for the C. albicans–specific Th17 immune response, loss of Aire in cDC-type eTACs showed no clear effect on these functions. Furthermore, loss of Aire showed no major impact on the transcriptome from cDC-type eTACs. These results suggested that Aire in cDC-type eTACs may not have a cell-intrinsic role in the immune response in contrast to the role of Aire in ILC3-like–type eTACs

Identification of a Novel Alternatively Spliced Form of Inflammatory Regulator SWAP-70-Like Adapter of T Cells

福岡歯科大学2016年

Th17 cells differentiated with mycelial membranes of Candida albicans prevent oral candidiasis

Candida albicans is a human commensal that causes opportunistic infections. Th17 cells provide resistance against mucosal infection with C. albicans; however, the T cell antigens remain little known. Our final goal is to find effective T cell antigens of C. albicans that are responsible for immunotherapy against candidiasis. Here, we prepared fractions including cytosol, membrane and cell wall from yeast and mycelial cells. Proteins derived from a membrane fraction of mycelial cells effectively induced differentiation of CD4+ T cells into IL-17A-producing Th17 cells. To confirm the immunological response in vivo of proteins from mycelial membrane, we performed adoptive transfer experiments using ex vivo stimulated CD4+ T cells from IL-17A-GFP reporter mice. Mycelial membrane-differentiated CD4+ Th17 cells adoptively transferred intravenously prevented oral candidiasis by oral infection of C. albicans, compared with control anti-CD3-stimulated CD4+ T cells. This was confirmed by the clinical score and the number of neutrophils on the infected tissues. These data suggest that effective T cell antigens against candidiasis could be present in the membrane protein fraction of mycelial cells. The design of novel vaccination strategies against candidiasis will be our next step.福岡歯科大学2017年

Mild Heat Stress Affects on the Cell Wall Structure in Candida albicans Biofilm

福岡歯科大学2018年

Structural and magnetic properties of epitaxially grown full-Heusler alloy Co2MnGe thin films deposited using magnetron sputtering

Full-Heusler alloy Co2MnGe thin films were epitaxially grown on MgO (001) substrates using magnetron sputtering. The films were deposited at room temperature and subsequently annealed in situ at temperatures ranging from 400 to 600 degrees C. X-ray pole figure measurements for the annealed films showed (111) peaks with fourfold symmetry, which gives direct evidence that these films are epitaxial and crystallized in the L2(1) structure. Furthermore, cross-sectional transmission electron microscope images of a fabricated film indicated that it is single crystalline. The annealed films had sufficiently flat surface morphologies with roughnesses of about 0.26 nm rms at film thicknesses of 45 nm. The saturation magnetization of the annealed films was 4.49 mu(B)/f.u. at 10 K, corresponding to about 90% of the Slater-Pauling value for Co2MnGe

Epitaxial growth of Heusler alloy Co2MnSi/MgO heterostructures on Ge(001) substrates

We prepared Heusler alloy Co2MnSi/MgO heterostructures on single-crystal Ge(001) substrates through magnetron sputtering for Co2MnSi and electron beam evaporation for MgO as a promising candidate for future generation spin-based functional devices. Structural investigations showed that the Co2MnSi/MgO heterostructure was grown epitaxially on a Ge(001) substrate with extremely smooth and abrupt interfaces and showed the L2_[1] structure for the Co2MnSi film. Furthermore, a sufficiently high saturation magnetization (μs) value of 5.1 μB/f.u. at 10 K, which is close to the theoretically predicted μs of 5.0 μB/f.u. for half-metallic Co2MnSi, was obtained for prepared Co2MnSi films

Improved tunnel magnetoresistance characteristics of magnetic tunnel junctions with a Heusler alloy thin film of Co2MnGe and a MgO tunnel barrier

We fabricated magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a Co-based full-Heusler alloy thin film of Co2MnGe (CMG) and a MgO tunnel barrier. The microfabricated MTJs with a Co-rich CMG film showed relatively high tunnel magnetoresistance ratios of 83% at room temperature and 185% at 4.2 K. These values are much higher than those previously obtained for CMG/MgO MTJs with a Co-deficient CMG film

Giant tunneling magnetoresistance in epitaxial Co2MnSi/MgO/Co2MnSi magnetic tunnel junctions by half-metallicity of Co2MnSi and coherent tunneling

Giant tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratios of up to 1995% at 4.2K and up to 354% at 290K were obtained for epitaxial Co2MnSi/MgO/Co2MnSi magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) featuring a reduced lattice mismatch in the MTJ trilayer by introducing a thin Co2MnSi lower electrode deposited on a Co50Fe50 buffer layer. The obtained giant TMR ratios can be explained by the enhanced contribution of coherent tunneling originating from the increased misfit dislocation spacing at the lower and upper interfaces with a MgO barrier along with the half-metallicity of Co2MnSi electrodes

Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation in Treatment of Non-COPD Related Acute Respiratory Failure Cases

We used Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation (NPPV) in nine patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF), not related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). After separating the nine patients into a hypercapnic group (five patients) and a non-hypercapnic group (four patients), we investigated its effectiveness in physiological improvement and avoiding intubation. Dyspnea, physiological findings and ABG improved rapidly in both groups without serious adverse effects. The intubation avoidance rate was 66.7% (6 of 9) in total, and 80% in the hypercapnic group and 50% in the non-hypercapnic group. The ratio of PaO_2 to FiO_2 (P/F ratio) increased during NPPV in most cases where intubation could be avoided. It is worthwhile to use NPPV as a bridging therapy between O_2 therapy and invasive ventilation in patients with non-COPD related ARF, regardless of the existence of hypercapnia. Careful monitoring of the P/F ratio and complications is needed to make an appropriate decision whether avoiding intubation will be possible or not