Glycative stress and skeletal muscle dysfunctions: as an inducer of "Exercise-Resistance."

Skeletal muscle, the largest tissue in the body, is often overlooked for its role as a locomotor organ, however over the past few decades it has been revealed that it also has an important role as a metabolic organ. In recent years, its role as an endocrine organ that controls the homeostatic functions of organs throughout the body mediated by myokine secretion has come under close scrutiny. Skeletal muscle is indispensable for our daily life activities, and in order to maintain its function, it is necessary to understand the factors that deteriorate muscle function and establish a countermeasure. Glycative stress has recently received attention as a factor that impairs skeletal muscle function. Accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in skeletal muscle impairs contractile function and myogenic potential. Furthermore, AGEs in the blood elicit inflammatory signals through binding to RAGE (Receptor for AGEs) expressed on muscle cells, resulting in muscle proteolysis. Habitual exercise is important to mitigate the negative effects of such glycative stress on skeletal muscle. On the other hand, it is known that the beneficial effects of exercise vary among individuals. The state in which the effects of exercise are difficult to obtain is called "exercise-resistance, " and we hypothesize that glycative stress may be one of the causes of exercise-resistance. In this paper, we will discuss the possibility of glycative stress as an inducer of exercise resistance and summarize its impacts on skeletal muscle

Synergistic effect of sulfonation followed by precipitation of amorphous calcium phosphate on the bone-bonding strength of carbon fiber reinforced polyetheretherketone

Sulfonation and applications of amorphous calcium phosphate are known to make polyetheretherketone (PEEK) bioactive. Sulfonation followed by precipitation of amorphous calcium phosphate (AN-treatment) may provide PEEK with further bone-bonding strength. Herein, we prepared a carbon-fiber-reinforced PEEK (CPEEK) with similar tensile strength to cortical bone and a CPEEK subjected to AN-treatment (CPEEK-AN). The effect of AN-treatment on the bone-bonding strength generated at the interface between the rabbit’s tibia and a base material was investigated using a detaching test at two time-points (4 and 8 weeks). At 4 weeks, the strength of CPEEK-AN was significantly higher than that of CPEEK due to the direct bonding between the interfaces. Between 4 and 8 weeks, the different bone forming processes showed that, with CPEEK-AN, bone consolidation was achieved, thus improving bone-bonding strength. In contrast, with CPEEK, a new bone was absorbed mainly on the interface, leading to poor strength. These observations were supported by an in vitro study, which showed that pre-osteoblast on CPEEK-AN caused earlier maturation and mineralization of the extracellular matrix than on CPEEK. Consequently, AN-treatment, comprising a combination of two efficient treatments, generated a synergetic effect on the bonding strength of CPEEK

Dual-time-point 18F-FDG PET imaging for diagnosis of disease type and disease activity in patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia

Purpose Individual clinical courses of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP) are variable and difficult to predict because the pathology and disease activity are contingent, and chest computed tomography (CT) provides little information about disease activity. In this study, we applied dual-time-point [18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET), commonly used for diagnosis of malignant tumors, to the differential diagnosis and prediction of disease progression in IIP patients. Methods Fifty patients with IIP, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF, n=21), nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP, n=18), and cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP, n=11), underwent 18F-FDG PET examinations at two time points: Scan 1 at 60 min (early imaging) and Scan 2 at 180 min (delayed imaging) after 18F-FDG injection. The standardized uptake values (SUV) at the two points and the retention index (RI-SUV) calculated from them were evaluated and compared with chest CT findings, disease progression, and disease types. To evaluate short term disease progression, all patients were examined pulmonary function test every 3 months for 1 year after 18F-FDG PET scanning. Results The early SUV for COP (2.47±0.74) was significantly higher than that for IPF (0.99±0.29, P=0.0002) or NSIP (1.22±0.44, P=0.0025). When an early SUV cut-off value of 1.5 and greater was used to distinguish COP from IPF and NSIP, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 90.9%, 94.3%, and 93.5%, respectively. The RI-SUV for IPF and NSIP lesions was significantly greater in patients with deteriorated pulmonary function after 1-year of follow-up (progressive group, 13.0±8.9%) than in cases without deterioration during the 1-year observation period (stable group, -16.8±5.9%, P<0.0001). However, the early SUV for all IIP types provided no additional information of disease progression. When an RI-SUV cut-off value of 0% and greater was used to distinguish progressive IIPs from stable IIPs, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 95.5%, 100%, and 97.8%, respectively. Conclusion Early-SUV and RI-SUV obtained from dual-time point 18F-FDG PET are useful parameter for the differential diagnosis and prediction of disease progression in patients with IIP

Status Report of Neutral Kaon photo-production study using Neutral Kaon Spectrometer 2 (NKS2) at LNS-Tohoku(I. Nuclear Physics)

The approach described in this paper uses an array of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices to implement a fault tolerant hardware system that can be compared to the running of fault tolerant software on a traditional processor. Fault tolerance is achieved is achieved by using FPGA with on the fly partial programmability feature. Major considerations while mapping to the FPGA includes the size of the area to be mapped and communication issues related to their communication. Area size selection is compared to the page size selection in Operating System Design. Communication issues between modules are compared to the software engineering paradigms dealing with module coupling, fan-in, fan-out and cohesiveness. Finally, the overhead associated with the downloading of the reconfiguration files is discussed

Paraarticular osteochondroma of a cervico-thoracic facet joint presenting as myelopathy.

Paraarticular ostehochondroma is a rare osteocartilagenous tumor that arises in the soft tissue adjacent to a joint with no attachment to the bone. Although several case reports have been published on this tumor, spinal paraarticular osteochondroma has not been reported in the literature. We present a patient with a paraarticular osteochondroma arising in the spinal canal just medial to the facet joint that caused severe spinal cord compression. A 69-year-old man complained of paresthesia and muscle weakness in the lower extremities. Cervical magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography revealed an intraspinal mass lesion at C7–Th1 with severe compression of the thecal sac, and concomitant spinal canal stenosis on C3–C7. Surgical en bloc resection of the calcified mass and C3–C6 laminoplasty were performed. The patient’s symptom improved dramatically. Histological analysis showed that the lesion comprised trabecular bone and bone marrow, and was capped by hyaline cartilage with no connection to the bone. This is the first report of spinal paraarticular osteochondroma

Subaxial subluxation after atlantoaxial transarticular screw fixation in rheumatoid patients

The most common cervical abnormality associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is atlantoaxial subluxation, and atlantoaxial transarticular screw fixation has proved to be one of the most reliable, stable fixation techniques for treating atlantoaxial subluxation. Following C1–C2 fixation, however, subaxial subluxation reportedly can bring about neurological deterioration and require secondary operative interventions. Rheumatoid patients appear to have a higher risk, but there has been no systematic comparison between rheumatoid and non-rheumatoid patients. Contributing radiological factors to the subluxation have also not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to evaluate subaxial subluxation after atlantoaxial transarticular screw fixation in patients with and without RA and to find contributing factors. Forty-three patients who submitted to atlantoaxial transarticular screw fixation without any concomitant operation were followed up for more than 1 year. Subaxial subluxation and related radiological factors were evaluated by functional X-ray measurements. Statistical analyses showed that aggravations of subluxation of 2.5 mm or greater were more likely to occur in RA patients than in non-RA patients over an average of 4.2 years of follow-up, and postoperative subluxation occurred in the anterior direction in the upper cervical spine. X-ray evaluations revealed that such patients had a significantly smaller postoperative C2–C7 angle, and that the postoperative AA angle correlated negatively with this. Furthermore, anterior subluxation aggravation was significantly correlated with the perioperative atlantoaxial and C2–C7 angle changes, and these two changes were strongly correlated to each other. In conclusion, after atlantoaxial transarticular screw fixation, rheumatoid patients have a greater risk of developing subaxial subluxations. The increase of the atlantoaxial angel at the operation can lead to a decrease in the C2–C7 angle, followed by anterior subluxation of the upper cervical spine and possibly neurological deterioration

Surface Modification of Carbon Fiber-Polyetheretherketone Composite to Impart Bioactivity by Using Apatite Nuclei

The authors aimed to impart the apatite-forming ability to 50 wt% carbon fiber-polyetheretherketone composite (50C-PEEK), which has more suitable mechanical properties as artificial bone materials than pure PEEK. First, the 50C-PEEK was treated with sulfuric acid in a short time to form pores on the surface. Second, the surface of the 50C-PEEK was treated with oxygen plasma to improve the hydrophilicity. Finally, fine particles of calcium phosphate, which the authors refer to as “apatite nuclei”, were precipitated on the surface of the 50C-PEEK by soaking in an aqueous solution containing multiple inorganic ions such as phosphate and calcium (modified-SBF) at pH 8.20, 25 °C. The 50C-PEEK without the modified-SBF treatment did not show the formation of apatitic phase even after immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 7 days. The 50C-PEEK treated with the modified-SBF showed the formation of apatitic phase on the entire surface within 1 day in the SBF. The apatite nuclei-precipitated 50C-PEEK will be expected as a new artificial bone material with high bioactivity that is obtained without complicated fabrication processes

Double-tracer autoradiography with Cu-ATSM/FDG and immunohistochemical interpretation in four different mouse implanted tumor models

Background: We studied the regional characteristics within tumor masses using PET tracers and immunohistochemical methods.Methods: The intratumoral distribution of 64Cu-diacetyl-bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone) ([64Cu]Cu-ATSM) and [18F] 2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18F]FDG) in mice with tumors of four different origins (LLC1, Meth-A, B16 and colon26) was compared with theimmunohistochemical staining of proliferating cells (Ki67), blood vessels (CD34 or von Willebrand factor), and apoptotic cells (terminaldeoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling method).Results: With all cell lines, [64Cu]Cu-ATSM and [18F]FDG were distributed with different gradation in the tumor mass. Theimmunohistochemical study demonstrated that the high [64Cu]Cu-ATSM uptake regions were hypovascular and consisted of tumor cellsarrested in the cell cycle, whereas the high [18F]FDG uptake regions were hypervascular and consisted of proliferating cells.Conclusion: In our study, it was revealed that one tumor mass contained two regions with different characteristics, which could bedistinguished by [64Cu]Cu-ATSM and [18F]FDG. Because hypoxia and cell cycle arrest are critical factors to reduce tumor sensitivity toradiation and conventional chemotherapy, regions with such characteristics should be treated intensively as one of the primary targets.[64Cu]Cu-ATSM, which can delineate hypoxic and cell cycle-arrested regions in tumors, may provide valuable information for cancertreatment as well as possibly for treating such regions directly as an internal radiotherapy reagent.D 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Keywords: Cu-ATSM; FDG; Hypoxia; Immunohistochemistry; Cancer imagin