MicroRNA-133 regulates the expression of GLUT4 by targeting KLF15 and is involved in metabolic control in cardiac myocytes

GLUT4 shows decreased levels in failing human adult hearts. We speculated that GLUT4 expression in cardiac muscle may be fine-tuned by microRNAs. Forced expression of miR-133 decreased GLUT4 expression and reduced insulin-mediated glucose uptake in cardiomyocytes. A computational miRNA target prediction algorithm showed that KLF15 is one of the targets of miR-133. It was confirmed that over-expression of miR-133 reduced the protein level of KLF15, which reduced the level of the downstream target GLUT4. Cardiac myocytes infected with lenti-decoy, in which the 3′UTR with tandem sequences complementary to miR-133 was linked to the luciferase reporter gene, had decreased miR-133 levels and increased levels of GLUT4. The expression levels of KLF15 and GLUT4 were decreased at the left ventricular hypertrophy and congestive heart failure stage in a rat model. The present results indicated that miR-133 regulates the expression of GLUT4 by targeting KLF15 and is involved in metabolic control in cardiomyocytes

Relationship between motor coordination, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement in Japanese children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Background/Objective: Motor coordination impairment is common in children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between motor coordination, cognitive ability, and academic achievement in Japanese children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Methods: Thirty-four school-age (6?12 years old) children with neurodevelopmental disorders and 34 age-matched typically developing (TD) children were recruited in this study. Correlations between the scores of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (M-ABC2) and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children ? Second Edition (K-ABCII) that assesses cognitive abilities, and academic achievement were analyzed. Results: The children with neurodevelopmental disorders obtained a lower total score and all component scores on M-ABC2 compared to the TD children. In children with neurodevelopmental disorders, M-ABC2 Manual Dexterity score was significantly correlated with K-ABCII Simultaneous Processing (r =.345, p =.046), Knowledge (r =.422, p =.013), Reading (r =.342, p =.048), Writing (r =.414, p =.017), and Arithmetic (r =.443, p =.009) scores. In addition, M-ABC2 Balance score was significantly correlated with K-ABCII Learning (r =.341, p =.048), Writing (r =.493, p =.004), and Arithmetic (r =.386, p =.024) scores. Conclusion: These findings stress that it is essential to accurately identify motor coordination impairments and the interventions that would consider motor coordination problems related to cognitive abilities and academic achievement in Japanese children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Cardiac side population cells have a potential to migrate and differentiate into cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo

Side population (SP) cells, which can be identified by their ability to exclude Hoechst 33342 dye, are one of the candidates for somatic stem cells. Although bone marrow SP cells are known to be long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells, there is little information about the characteristics of cardiac SP cells (CSPs). When cultured CSPs from neonatal rat hearts were treated with oxytocin or trichostatin A, some CSPs expressed cardiac-specific genes and proteins and showed spontaneous beating. When green fluorescent protein–positive CSPs were intravenously infused into adult rats, many more (∼12-fold) CSPs were migrated and homed in injured heart than in normal heart. CSPs in injured heart differentiated into cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, or smooth muscle cells (4.4%, 6.7%, and 29% of total CSP-derived cells, respectively). These results suggest that CSPs are intrinsic cardiac stem cells and involved in the regeneration of diseased hearts

キョウシ ノ タイガイテキ ケイエイ リキリョウ ニ カンスル ケンキュウ : シコク 4ケン ノ ショウ チュウガッコウチョウ ノ イシキ チョウサ オ トオシテ

In this paper, we define teacher\u27s external management ability as the power to create school, family, community partnership for children\u27s development and education. In Japan, parents and residents have no voice for school policy-making, because school management was done by principal and staffs for a long time. So management ability was mainly disputed as ability of principal. But today, all teachers are needed to get external management ability. The aim of this paper is to investigate contents of teacher\u27s external management ability and the opportunities which it should be obtained. Questionnaire survey was done to 1,414 principals of elementary and secondary schools in four prefectures in Shikoku Island which students number is over twenty. 824 (58.3%) usable responses are analyzed. Main findings are as follows: 1) Many principals think that external management ability is needed not only managerial post, but also all teachers. They don\u27t think that external management ability was developed step by step according to the career stage (newly appointed teachers, about 3-5 years experienced teachers, head teachers, vice-principal and principal). This ability is needed and should be obtained according to the phases which each teacher encounters. 2) Many principals place great importance on \u27practice in own school\u27 as an opportunity to obtain this ability. By contrast, training opportunities outside school (for example, in-service training by administrative agency and university) have no high priority. The result of this survey show that teacher\u27s external management ability should be obtained at the early stage of teaching profession.国立情報学研究所『研究紀要公開支援事業』により電子化

The mental health status of children who have been evacuated or migrated from rural areas in Fukushima prefecture after the Fukushima daiichi nuclear power station accident: results from the Fukushima health management survey

Introduction: We evaluated the mental health status of children residing in Kawauchi village (Kawauchi), Fukushima Prefecture, after the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, based on the children's experience of the nuclear disaster. Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional study within the framework of the Fukushima Health Management Survey (FHMS);FHMS data on age, sex, exercise habits, sleeping times, experience of the nuclear disaster, and the "Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)" scores for 156 children from Kawauchi in 2012 were collected. Groups with and without experience of the nuclear disaster - "nuclear disaster (+)" and "nuclear disaster (-)" - were also compared. Results: Our effective response was 93 (59.6%);the mean SDQ score was 11.4±6.8 among elementary school-aged participants and 12.4±6.8 among junior high school-aged ones. We statistically compared the Total Difficulties Scores (TDS) and sub-item scores of the SDQ between "elementary school" and "junior high school" or "nuclear disaster" (+) and (-). There was no significant difference between these items. Conclusions: We found indications of poor mental health among elementary and junior high school-aged children in the disaster area immediately following the accident, but no differences based on their experience of the nuclear disaster. These results indicate the possibility of triggering stress, separate to that from experiences related to the nuclear disaster, in children who lived in affected rural areas and were evacuated just after the nuclear disaster

キョウイク シサク ノ ジッシ カテイ ニオケル ホゴシャ エノ セツメイ セキニン ニ カンスル ケンキュウ

In Japan, many educational reform are practiced to solve several problems. For examples, change of curriculum and school attendance days, introduction of school advisor system, school choice etc.. But we are afraid that if many parents do not understand the intention and contents, these policies will not work well. The aim of this paper is to clarify the degree of understanding of parents for such policies. For this, we practiced questionaire survey to parents. 3, 322 respondents of 12 elementary schools and 8 junior high schools were analyzed. Main findings are as follows : 1) The parents\u27 opinions to school choice were divided three groups. Generally, parents of urban area agree school choice, parents of other area oppose. About 20% of parents do not reply. Some boards of education introduced school choice system, but they did not effort to grasps parents\u27 need to this system. It intends that boards of education abandon to explain that policy to parents. 2) For integrated studies 5% or less reply "know well" and 45% is "know some." The degree of understanding to integrated studies is low. School and board of education do not execute responsibility to explain to parents. 3) For school advisor system, about 60% of parents do not know even that name. It means that school and board of education have not taken responsibility at all. The top-down reform is necessary at times, but agreement among stakeholders for policies are needed.国立情報学研究所『研究紀要公開支援事業』により電子化

Erratum to: Expression of myeloperoxidase and gene mutations in AML patients with normal karyotype: double CEBPA mutations are associated with high percentage of MPO positivity in leukemic blasts

Erratum to: International Journal of Hematology, 94(1), pp.81-89: 2011DOI 10.1007/s12185-011-0883-yThe original version of this article unfortunately contained some errors in Table 2 in the column headed ‘‘Amino acid changes’’. The corrected table is given here

Topical application of 5-fluorouracil on attic cholesteatoma results in downregulation of keratinocyte growth factor and reduction of proliferative activity.

To investigate the cell-biological effect of topically applied 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on middle ear cholesteatoma, 12 attic cholesteatomas were treated with topical application of 5-FU cream, two to five times with an interval of 2 weeks (5-FU group). The control group comprised 65 cholesteatoma that were not treated with 5-FU. All lesions were later excised surgically and processed for immunohistochemical analyses of Ki-67, keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) and its receptor (KGFR). 5-FU significantly reduced the expression of KGF, did not change KGFR expression, and significantly reduced the Ki-67 labeling index, relative to the control group. The effect of 5-FU on cholesteatoma seems to be mediated, at least in part, through downregulation of KGF in stromal cells and reduction of the proliferative activity of epithelial cells