Identification of Carnitine Transporter CT1 Binding Protein Lin-7 in Nervous System

_L-Carnitine is an essential component of mitochondrial fatty acid b-oxidation in the muscle and may control the acetyl moiety levels in the brain for acetylcholine synthesis. Carnitine transporter 1(CT1)is the high affinity _L-carnitine transporter whose localization was observed in the kidney, testis, liver, skeletal muscle and brain. To clarify the molecular mechanism of carnitine transport, we sought to find the interacting protein that may be related to the transport function of CT1. Using the intracellular C-terminal region of rat CT1 containing PDZ(PSD95/DLG/ZO-1)motif as bait, we performed the yeast two-hybrid screening against rat brain cDNA library. Thirty two positive clones were obtained from the 2.7×10^7 clones screened. One of them was PDZ domain-containing protein Lin-7. We found that Lin-7 interacts specifically with C-termini of CT1:deletion and mutation of the CT1 C-terminal PDZ-motif abolished the interaction with Lin-7 in the yeast two-hybrid assay. In addition, a PDZ domain within Lin-7 associates with the CT1 C-terminal. The association of CT1 with Lin-7 enhanced _L-carnitine transport activities in HEK293 cells although there is no statistical significance. Coexpression of Lin-7 and CT1 is identified in motor neurons of the spinal cord ventral horn together with Lin-2, a binding partner of Lin-7 known to assemble proteins involved in synaptic vesicle exocytosis and synaptic junctions. Therefore, Lin-7 interacts with CT1 and may regulate their subcellular distribution or function in central nervous system

The effect of hot-pack warming on the deep body temperature -for the development of a nursing care instrument to induce sleep-

A hot-pack made of a dense polymer and covered with a cloth was manufactured as a warming instrument. This hot-pack can be readily warmed in a microwave oven. The present study was performed to examine the effects of warming the lower limbs using this hot-pack on the temperature and blood flow at various sites including the toe, mid-thigh, chest, and forehead. The results were as follows: 1. Hot-pack warming raised the deep body temperature. 2. Lower limb warming by the hot-pack increased the blood flow, by which the increase in temperature spread to the central part of the body. 3. The deep body temperature fell following the removal of the hot-pack, and, in addition, by sweating. It is suggested that hot-pack warming might be useful for inducing sleep in elderly people

The problem of using deltoid muscle for intramuscular injection

Although the deltoid muscle has often been used as a site of intramuscular injection (ImI), the risk of axillary nerve injury caused by the needle is overlooked. The present study examined the potential risk of needle insertion in the deltoid muscle during the dissection of 14 shoulders from cadavers. A needle was pierced into the deltoid muscle from the overlying skin at the middle of the horizontal line, as described in the standard nursing textbooks. The axillary nerve is located beneath the deltoid muscle, with its branches extending through the quadrangular space as far as the anterior part of the deltoid muscle. It was found that the needle passed very close to the axillary nerve trunk in all cases. This finding suggests that the deltoid muscle is not appropriate for ImI, even if the anterior part is selected as the injection site. This study warns nurse practitioners know of the potential nerve injury as the result of ImI in the deltoid muscle