Biological and Biochemical Studies on Melanogenesis and M elanoma Cells

For the previous ten years, we have been studying intracellular transport of melanosoma1 proteins and their biological and biochemical functions in melanoma cells. Melanosoma1 proteins,tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1) and TYRP2/DOPAchrome tautomerase (DCT), gp100/Pme117 are transported from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) to earlystage melanosomes via endosoma1 compartments. We suggest that Rab7 is involved in the vesicular transport of tyrosinase and TYRP1 and in the melanogenesis through the regulation of gp100/Pme117 maturation. TYRP1 and TYRP 2/DCT were shown to play an essential role in suppressing TYR-mediated cytotoxicity in melanocytic cells, possibly through interaction with TYR in melanosomes. We also studied apoptotic cell death of melanoma cells and death mediators. Among p53 family members, p51A (p63) induced apoptosis in both wild-type and mutant p53-expressing melanoma cells more significantly than p53 and 73β. Interferon(IFN) exerts anti-tumor activities possibly by regulating IFN-stimulated genes. Caspase-2 activation was commonly associated with induction of apoptosis in IFN一β一sensitive melanoma cells. The diacylglycero1 kinase (DGK) , expressed in several human melanoma cell lines but not in melanocytes, was a novel positive regulator of NF-KB, which suppresses TNF一α一induced melanoma cell apoptosis

High Field Pulse Dipoli and Quadrupole Magnets for Compact Medical Pulse Synchrotron

Pulse dipole and quadrupole magenets are being developed for the compact proton synchrotron dedicated to the medical radiotherapy.The highest proton energy is 200MeV,wich will cover more than 80persent of patients,and the machine itself will be made compact and planned to promote the advanced cancer treatment bu using accelerators.For this purpose the compact dipole magnet generating 3Tat the peak current of 200kA was manufactured and tested by feeding the pulse excitatio current of a half sinusoidal waveform having the rise and fal time almost equivalent to 50Hz.Quadrupole is also designed and will be manufactured in this fiscal year after elaborate dynamical 3D computationaldesign study.Detailed design works will be presented for both magnets and the beam dynamical issues based on the accelerator performance will be discuissed in relation to the estimated field properties.APAC200

MAGNET AND RF SYSTEMS OF SMALL PULSE SYNCHROTRON

The pulse synchrotron aims to reduce the size of the accelerator by generating the high magnetic field in a short time which leads to a compact ring of high field magnets. Acceleration time is only 5 msec by using the discharge current of capacitor bank as large as 200 kA at peak, almost equivalent to half sinusoidal 50 Hz waveform. Part of the discharge current is branched to excite the quadrupole magnets to assure the tracking between the dipole and quadrupole fields. Pulsed power technique is also adopted to drive the RF power tubes. Both magnet and RF systems have been developed and being extensively studied. Technological sides of both systems will be treated in details as well as the theoretical beam parameters of this pulse synchrotron.EPAC2004（第９回ヨーロッパ加速器国際会議

Characterization of a hypoallergenic wheat line lacking ω-5 gliadin

Background: There is no curative treatment for wheat-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis (WDEIA). ω-5 Gliadin is one of the dominant allergens affecting WDEIA patients. The use of ω-5 gliadin-free wheat flour in the regular diet is considered one of the prophylactic approaches against the elicitation of allergic symptoms and sensitization to ω-5 gliadin. We sought to find hypoallergenic bread wheat (or common wheat) that lacked the genes encoding ω-5 gliadin and to evaluate its in vitro allergenicity. We also aimed to evaluate the sensitization ability of one of the selected hypoallergenic wheat lines by using a possible animal model of wheat allergy. Methods: We screened the deletion lines of bread wheat by western blotting to ascertain common wheat lines lacking the ω-5 gliadin locus. The deletion lines we used have partial deficiency of chromosome 1B (Endo and Gill, 1996). To assess sensitization ability of gluten from the selected deletion line, guinea pigs were fed with either the gluten from the selected deletion line or commercially available gluten, and allergic score was evaluated after challenging the same gluten preparations. Results: We found that a deletion line 1BS-18 had the least deficiency of chromosome 1B among the deletion stocks lacking the ω-5 gliadin locus. The challenge test using the guinea pigs revealed that the symptoms induced by application of the 1BS-18 gluten were much less than that of commercially available gluten. Conclusions: The deletion line 1BS-18, which lacked the ω-5 gliadin locus, is likely to have a low sensitization capacity in the guinea pig. The use of the wheat products of the 1BS-18 line in daily life may provide a feasible solution for the onset of wheat allergy

Spatially Resolved Spectroscopic Study of Arcjet Helium Plasma Expanding through a Rectangular Converging and Diverging Nozzle

An arcjet discharge device with a rectangular converging and diverging nozzle was developed, which allowed us to optically observe high-density plasma inside the anode nozzle Spectroscopic observation along the plasma expansion axis was carried out to examine the characteristics of the arc plasma inside the nozzle Analyzing intense continuum and line emission spectra, we successfully obtained spatial variations in electron temperature and density. Moreover, we found that two-dimensional optical measurement is highly useful in visualizing the transition from atmospheric thermal plasma to a strongly nonequilibrium recombining plasma due to adiabatic expansion

Involvement of Phytosulfokine in the Attenuation of Stress Response during the Transdifferentiation of Zinnia Mesophyll Cells into Tracheary Elements1[W][OA]

Phytosulfokine (PSK) is a sulfated peptide hormone required for the proliferation and differentiation of plant cells. Here, we characterize the physiological roles of PSK in transdifferentiation of isolated mesophyll cells of zinnia (Zinnia elegans ‘Canary Bird’) into tracheary elements (TEs). Transcripts for a zinnia PSK precursor gene, ZePSK1, show two peaks of expression during TE differentiation; the first accumulation is transiently induced in response to wounding at 24 h of culture, and the second accumulation is induced in the final stage of TE differentiation and is dependent on endogenous brassinosteroids. Chlorate, a potent inhibitor of peptide sulfation, is successfully applied as an inhibitor of PSK action. Chlorate significantly suppresses TE differentiation. The chlorate-induced suppression of TE differentiation is overcome by exogenously applied PSK. In the presence of chlorate, expression of stress-related genes for proteinase inhibitors and a pathogenesis-related protein is enhanced and changed from a transient to a continuous pattern. On the contrary, administration of PSK significantly reduces the accumulation of transcripts for the stress-related genes. Even in the absence of auxin and cytokinin, addition of PSK suppresses stress-related gene expression. Microarray analysis reveals 66 genes down-regulated and 42 genes up-regulated in the presence of PSK. The large majority of down-regulated genes show significant similarity to various families of stress-related proteins, including chitinases, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis enzymes, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase, and receptor-like protein kinases. These results suggest the involvement of PSK in the attenuation of stress response and healing of wound-activated cells during the early stage of TE differentiation