A Mathematical Model for Estimating Biological Damage Caused by Radiation

We propose a mathematical model for estimating biological damage caused by low-dose irradiation. We understand that the Linear Non Threshold (LNT) hypothesis is realized only in the case of no recovery effects. In order to treat the realistic living objects, our model takes into account various types of recovery as well as proliferation mechanism, which may change the resultant damage, especially for the case of lower dose rate irradiation. It turns out that the lower the radiation dose rate, the safer the irradiated system of living object (which is called symbolically "tissue" hereafter) can have chances to survive, which can reproduce the so-called dose and dose-rate effectiveness factor (DDREF).Comment: 22 pages, 6 Figs, accepted in Journal of the Physical Society of Japa

Anti-tumor activity of murine peritoneal macrophages induced by porcine skin gelatin

Aim: To study the induction of anti-tumor activity of murine peritoneal macrophages in vitro by porcine skin gelatin. Methods: Anti-tumor activity of the macrophages was evaluated with tritium thymidine uptake by target tumor cells. ELISA was used to measure amounts of cytokines secreted in culture medium. Results: The ability of the gelatin to induce anti-tumor activity of the macrophages was stronger than that of lipopolysaccharide of E. coli. Combination of the lipopolysaccharide and interferon-g synergistically stimulated the macrophages but that of the gelatin and interferon-g additionally did. The culture supernatant of the macrophages incubated with the gelatin also showed higher anti-tumor activity than that with the lipopolysaccharide though the lipopolysaccharide was more excellent than the gelatin in stimulating secretion of anti-tumor cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, TNF-a, IFN-g) by the macrophages. Anti-TNF-a antibody partially suppressed the anti-tumor activity of the culture supernatant of the macrophages incubated with the lipopolysaccharide but not with the gelatin. The gelatin induced anti-tumor activity of the macrophages of C3H/HeJ as well as C3H/HeN mice whereas the lipopolysaccharide did only in C3H/HeN mice. The macrophages stimulated in vitro by the gelatin exerted anti-tumor activity in vivo. Moreover, the gelatin stimulated peritoneal exudates cells in vivo when subcutaneously administered with them. Conclusions: Porcine skin gelatin induces anti-tumor activity of macrophages in mice and its magnitude is greater than that of lipopolysaccharide of E. coli. Its mechanism is different from that of the lipopolysaccharide but not fully clarified.Цель: изучить in vitro противоопухолевую активность мышиных перитонеальных макрофагов, индуцированную желатином кожи свиньи. Методы: противоопухолевую активность макрофагов оценивали по включению меченного тимидина опухолевыми клетками-мишенями. Уровень цитокинов, секретируемых в культуральную среду, определяли с помощью ELISA. Результаты: cпособность желатина индуцировать противоопухолевую активность макрофагов была сильнее, чем у липополисахарида E. coli. Комбинация липополисахарида и интерферона-γ (IFN-γ) синергично стимулировала макрофаги, что показано и для комбинации желатина с IFN-γ. Противоопухолевая активность культурального супернатанта макрофагов, инкубированных с желатином, была выше, чем в случае применения липополисахарида, хотя липополисахарид индуцировал более сильную секрецию противоопухолевых цитокинов (IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ) макрофагами. Антитела против TNF-α частично угнетали противоопухолевую активность культурального супернатанта макрофагов, инкубированных с липополисахаридом, но не с желатином. Желатин индуцировал противоопухолевую активность макрофагов как C3H/HeJ мышей, так и мышей C3H/ HeN, в то время как липополисахарид влиял только на макрофаги C3H/HeN мышей. Макрофаги, стимулированные in vitro, показывали противоопухолевую активность in vivo. Более того, желатин стимулировал клетки перитонеального экссудата in vivo при одновременном подкожном введении. Выводы: желатин свиной кожи индуцирует противоопухолевую активность макрофагов у мышей, причем более эффективно, чем липополисахарид E. coli. Механизм действия желатина отличается от механизма действия липополисахарида и остается пока невыясненным до конц

In VIVO anti-tumor activities of gelatin

Aim: As reported previously, porcine skin gelatin exerted direct anti-tumor effect in vitro and induced anti-tumor peritoneal macrophages in vitro. The present study investigated whether or not the gelatin exerted anti-tumor effect in vivo. Methods: In vitro anti-tumor activities of peritoneal macrophages and the gelatin were evaluated with tritium thymidine uptake by target tumor cells. In vivo anti-tumor activity was evaluated with the survival of tumor-bearing animals and the size of the tumor. Results: Intraperitoneal daily administration of 12.5 mg of the gelatin prolonged the survival of mice which had been intraperitoneally inoculated with MH134 (hepatic cell carcinoma cell line) or Colon 26 (colon carcinoma cell line) tumor cells, and there were no tumors in case of MH134 cells inoculation. Intraperitoneal daily administration of 12.5 mg of the gelatin did not affect growth of subcutaneous MH134 tumor. The gelatin administered subcutaneously did not affect the survival of mice with intraperitoneal MH134 tumor. On the other hand, bovine skin gelatin administered subcutaneously achieved statistically significant prolongation of the survival. The contact of MH134 cells with porcine skin gelatin for 5 min was required for the gelatin to exert its anti-tumor activity in vitro. Porcine skin gelatin of 12.5 mg injected intraperitoneally was detected as protein in the peritoneal cavity 5 min after the injection. Peritoneal macrophages elicited by intraperitoneal injection with porcine skin gelatin suppressed tritium thymidine uptake by MH134 cells more strongly than those elicited by thioglycollate injection. Conclusion: Porcine skin gelatin administered intraperitoneally prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice via activation of peritoneal macrophages and involvement of direct anti-tumor activity of porcine skin gelatin. Key Words: porcine skin, gelatin, dissemination

Serum factors that suppress cytotoxic effect of methotrexate

To study the phenomenon that human erythroid leukemia K-562 cells are more sensitive to cytotoxic effect of antimetabolites when cultured in a serum-free medium than in a conventional medium containing fetal calf serum (FCS). Methods: Cytotoxic effects of methotrexate, azaserine and 5-fluorouracil were estimated by accessing the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity of viable tumor cells. Proteins of FCS were separated using two-dimensional electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry analysis. Results: Addition of 10% FCS attenuated anti-tumor activity of methotrexate and azaserine against K-562 cells compared with serum-free medium. Such an activity of FCS was different for each serum lot. Comparison of the proteins in active serum lot with those in not active one using two-dimensional electrophoresis showed that in the active serum there were proteins 150 kDa, which were absent in the not active serum lot. Mass spectrometry indicated that all those proteins had the amino acid sequence of albumin. Sera of one healthy volunteer and two patients with thyroid cancer also attenuated the activity of the agent. Conclusion: Several lots of FCS and human serum demonstrated the ability to attenuate the cytotoxic effect of methotrexate in vitro, possibly due to the formation of albumin dimers/MTX complexes

Enhancements to linear least squares localization through reference selection and ML estimation

Linear least squares (LLS) estimation is a low complexity but sub-optimum method for estimating the location of a mobile terminal (MT) from some distance measurements. It requires selecting one of the fixed terminals (FTs) as a reference FT for obtaining a linear set of expressions. However, selection of the reference FT is commonly performed arbitrarily in the literature. In this paper, a method for selection of the reference FT is proposed, which improves the location accuracy compared to a fixed selection of the reference FT. Moreover, a covariancematrix based LLS estimator is proposed in line of sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) environments which further improves accuracy since the correlations between the observations are exploited. Simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. © 2008 IEEE

Influence of Mg, Ag and Al substitutions on the magnetic excitations in the triangular-lattice antiferromagnet CuCrO2

Magnetic excitations in CuCrO$_{2}$, CuCr$_{0.97}$Mg$_{0.03}$O$_{2}$, Cu$_{0.85}$Ag$_{0.15}$CrO$_{2}$, and CuCr$_{0.85}$Al$_{0.15}$O$_{2}$ have been studied by powder inelastic neutron scattering to elucidate the element substitution effects on the spin dynamics in the Heisenberg triangular-lattice antiferromagnet CuCrO$_{2}$. The magnetic excitations in CuCr$_{0.97}$Mg$_{0.03}$O$_{2}$ consist of a dispersive component and a flat component. Though this feature is apparently similar to CuCrO$_{2}$, the energy structure of the excitation spectrum shows some difference from that in CuCrO$_{2}$. On the other hand, in Cu$_{0.85}$Ag$_{0.15}$CrO$_{2}$ and CuCr$_{0.85}$Al$_{0.15}$O$_{2}$ the flat components are much reduced, the low-energy parts of the excitation spectra become intense, and additional low-energy diffusive spin fluctuations are induced. We argued the origins of these changes in the magnetic excitations are ascribed to effects of the doped holes or change of the dimensionality in the magnetic correlations.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Increased MicroRNA-34b and -34c Predominantly Expressed in Stromal Tissues Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Human Colon Cancer

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