309 research outputs found
Contribution of lactobacillus casei to the recovery from chemically induced skeletal muscle damage under chronic stress
Background: Regeneration of damaged skeletal muscle requires sufficient supply of nutrients. Fully functional intestine and colon assure sufficient supply of nutrients. Gut commensal bacteria are known to support intestinal function. Previously lactobacillus treatment of elite athletes was shown to be effective in attenuating fatigue and impaired performance. We hypothesized that Lactobacillus casei (L.casei) administration may facilitate recovery of damaged skeletal muscle when the gut function is suppressed under chronic stress in which muscle regeneration is compromised.
Objective: To investigate contribution of L.casei under chronic stress to the recovery of damaged skeletal muscle in young and older adult mice.
Methods: L.casei was given orally at a dose of 10-8 /day for 7days to 10 weeks old (young) and 45-55 weeks old (older adult) male C57BL/6J mice. Vehicle control mice received an equivalent volume of water for 7 days. On the eighth day, cardiotoxin (CTX) was injected to gatrocnemius muscle to induce muscle damage. Both groups were assigned 2 hours repeated-restraint stress everyday (chronic stress). On days 3, 5, 7, 10, 14 and 20 after CTX injection, mice were sacrificed. Excised gastrocnemius muscle was subjected to weight measurement and immunohistochemical analyses.
Results: There were significant differences in both the recovery of muscle weight and the regeneration process of gastrocnemius muscle examined immunohistochemically between control and L.casei treated young and older adult groups. Especially, the expression of developmental MHC (dMHC), a marker of premature regeneration, was positive up to 3 days in older adult groups. The delay in the recovery of muscle weight was obvious in older adult mice regardless of the treatment. However, while the expression of dMHC was prolonged up to day 7 in the vehicle control, dMHC expression was notable only up to day 3 or day 5 in the L.casei treated. Therefore, in older adult mice L.casei treatment under chronic stress may have facilitated the maturation process of regenerating skeletal muscle.
Conclusion: Our results suggests that L.casei favor under chronic stress favors the recovery of skeletal muscle from muscle damage. The maintenance of gut function by L. casei treatment may have facilitated the maturation process of regenerating skeletal muscle
Development of super broadband interferometer in FIR
We are developing the super broad band interferometer by applying the Fourier
Transform Spectrometer(FTS) to aperture synthesis system in mm and sub-mm
bands. We have constructed a compact system based on the Martin and Puplett
type Fourier Transform spectrometer (MP-FT). We call this equipment
Multi-Fourier Transform interferometer (MuFT). The band width of the system can
be extended as large as one wants contrary to the severely limited band width
of the usual interferometer due to the speed of the AD converter. The direct
detectors, e.g. bolometer, SIS video detector, can be used as the focal plane
detectors. This type of detectors have a great advantage in FIR band since they
are free from the quantum limit of the noise which limits the sensitivity of
the heterodyne detectors used in the usual interferometers. Further, the direct
detectors are able to make a large format array contrary to the heterodyne
detectors for which construction of a large format array is practically
difficult. These three characteristics make one be possible to develop high
sensitive super broad band FIR interferometer with wide field of view. In the
laboratory experiments, we have succeeded in measuring the spectroscopically
resolved 2D image of the source in 150GHz-900GHz band. The future application
of this technique to the observations from the space could open new interesting
possibilities in FIR astronomy.Comment: 9 pages, presented at the Glasgow SPIE conference "Optical, Infrared,
and Millimeter Space Telescopes", to appear in Proc. SPIE, vol. #5487-20
Ferromagnetism induced in anisotropic stacked kagome-lattice antiferromagnet CsCuCeF
The magnetic properties of CsCuCeF were investigated through
magnetization and specific heat measurements. CsCuCeF is
composed of a buckled kagome lattice of Cu, which is stacked along the b
axis. The exchange network in the buckled kagome lattice is strongly
anisotropic. Consequently, CsCuCeF can be divided into two
subsystems: alternating Heisenberg chains with strong antiferromagnetic
exchange interactions and dangling spins. The dangling spins couple with one
another via effective exchange interactions, which are mediated by chain spins.
The dangling spins are further divided into two subsystems, DS1 and DS2. The
dangling spins in DS1 undergo three-dimensional ferromagnetic ordering at 3.14
K, while those in DS2 remain paramagnetic down to 0.35 K. The effective
interaction between the DS1 spins is approximately expressed by the
ferromagnetic model with the direction parallel to the
crystallographic c axis. A magnetic phase diagram for was
obtained and was analyzed within the framework of the molecular field
approximation. With increasing magnetic field, the dangling spins are polarized
and the magnetization curve exhibits a wide plateau at one-third of the
saturation magnetization.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure
Measurement of a Long Electronic Spin Relaxation Time of Cesium Atoms in Superfluid Helium
Adenine-and-Uridine-rich element RNA-binding factor 1 (AUF1) as an additional marker in human gliomas
AUF1 is one of Adenine-and-Uridine-rich elements binding protein which regulates the mRNA stability of many genes related to growth regulation, cytokines, and cell cycle-regulatory genes. There was no report about the expression of AUF1 in gliomas. Sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues from 71 gliomas were stained immunohistochemically using a polyclonal antibody against the adenine-and-uridine-rich element RNA-Binding factor 1 (AUF1) oncoprotein. Positive staining, which is known to correlate with gene amplification, was not associated with patients\u27 sex, age, Karnofsky performance status scores (KPS), tumor size, Bcl-2 expression, or longer overall survival. However, positive staining was negatively correlated with the MIB-1 labeling index, while it was positively correlated with the lower grade group of WHO classification. Expression of the AUF1 oncoprotein appears to be an important additional indicator in human gliomas
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect at Five Arc-seconds: RXJ1347.5-1145 Imaged by ALMA
We present the first image of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE)
obtained by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Combining
7-m and 12-m arrays in Band 3, we create an SZE map toward a galaxy cluster
RXJ1347.5-1145 with 5 arc-second resolution (corresponding to the physical size
of 20 kpc/h), the highest angular and physical spatial resolutions achieved to
date for imaging the SZE, while retaining extended signals out to 40
arc-seconds. The 1-sigma statistical sensitivity of the image is 0.017 mJy/beam
or 0.12 mK_CMB at the 5 arc-second full width at half maximum. The SZE image
shows a good agreement with an electron pressure map reconstructed
independently from the X-ray data and offers a new probe of the small-scale
structure of the intracluster medium. Our results demonstrate that ALMA is a
powerful instrument for imaging the SZE in compact galaxy clusters with
unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity. As the first report on the
detection of the SZE by ALMA, we present detailed analysis procedures including
corrections for the missing flux, to provide guiding methods for analyzing and
interpreting future SZE images by ALMA.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS
Cool core disturbed: Observational evidence for coexistence of sub-sonic sloshing gas and stripped shock-heated gas around the core of RX J1347.5-1145
RXJ1347.5-1145 (z = 0.451) is one of the most luminous X-ray galaxy clusters,
which hosts a prominent cool core and exhibits a signature of a major merger.
We present the first direct observational evidence for sub-sonic nature of
sloshing motion of the cool core. We find that a residual X-ray image from the
Chandra X-ray Observatory after removing the global emission shows a clear
dipolar pattern characteristic of gas sloshing, whereas we find no significant
residual in the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) image from the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We estimate the equation of state of
perturbations in the gas from the X-ray and SZE residual images. The inferred
velocity is 420 +310 -420 km s-1, which is much lower than the adiabatic sound
speed of the intracluster medium in the core. We thus conclude that the
perturbation is nearly isobaric, and gas sloshing motion is consistent with
being in pressure equilibrium. Next, we report evidence for gas stripping of an
infalling subcluster, which likely shock-heats gas to high temperature well in
excess of 20 keV. Using mass distribution inferred from strong lensing images
of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we find that the mass peak is located away
from the peak position of stripped gas with statistical significance of >
5{\sigma}. Unlike for the gas sloshing, the velocity inferred from the equation
of state of the excess hot gas is comparable to the adiabatic sound speed
expected for the 20 keV intracluster medium. All of the results support that
the southeast substructure is created by a merger. On the other hand, the
positional offset between the mass and the gas limits the self-interaction
cross section of dark matter to be less than 3.7 h-1 cm2 g-1 (95% CL).Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Fluorescence-guided bone resection by using Visually Enhanced Lesion Scope in diffuse chronic sclerosingosteomyelitis of the mandible: clinical and pathological evaluation
Diffuse chronic sclerosingosteomyelitis (DCSO) is a refractory disease, becausethe etiology and pathogenesis remain poorly understood and to determine the border betweenunhealthy boneandhealthybone is difficult. However,
progressive inflammation, clinical symptoms and a high recurrence rate of DCSO were the reasons for surgical
treatment. We report a case of a 66-year old woman with DCSO of the right side of mandible who was treated with
hemimandibulectomy and simultaneous reconstruction by vascularized free fibula flap. After preoperative administration of minocycline for 1 month, the bone fluorescence was successfully monitored by using a Visually Enhanced Lesion Scope (VELscope®). Intraoperatively, we could determine the resection boundaries. We investigated
the clinical and histopathological findings. The fluorescence findings were well correlated with histopathological
findings. Using a VELscope®was handy and useful to determine the border between DCSO lesion andhealthybone.
The free fibula flap under the minocycline-derived bone fluorescence by using a VELscope®offered a good quality
of mandibular bone and the successful management of an advanced and refractory DCSO
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