Effect Of Mirthful Laughter On Vascular Function

In contrast to the well-established scientific evidence linking negative emotional states (e.g., depression, anxiety, or anger) to increased risk for cardiovascular disease, much less is known about the association between positive emotional states (e.g., laughter, happiness) and cardiovascular health. We determined the effects of mirthful laughter, elicited by watching comic movies, on endothelial function and central artery compliance. Seventeen apparently healthy adults (23 to 42 years of age) watched 30 minutes of a comedy or a documentary (control) on separate days (crossover design). Heart rate and blood pressure increased significantly while watching the comedy, whereas no such changes were seen while watching the documentary. Ischemia-induced brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilation (by B-mode ultrasound imaging) increased significantly after watching the comedy (17%) and decreased with watching the documentary (-15%). Carotid arterial compliance (by simultaneous application of ultrasound imaging and applanation tonometry) increased (10%) significantly immediately after watching the comedy and returned to baseline 24 hours after the watching, whereas it did not change significantly throughout the documentary condition. Comedy-induced changes in arterial compliance were significantly associated with baseline flow-mediated dilation (r = 0.63). These results suggest that mirthful laughter elicited by comic movies induces beneficial impact on vascular function. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Am J Cardiol 2010;106:856-859)Kinesiology and Health Educatio

スポーツ ト ウンドウ ニオケル シンゾウ ジリツ シンケイケイ カツドウ ノ ヘンカ ト テキオウ

自律神経系は主体に加わるストレスに対して,生体制御及び生体防御のために短い潜時で作動する調節機構であり,内分泌系や免疫系と協調して生体の諸機能を調節し,生命維持に必要な内部環境の恒常性を維持する.自律神経系 ...筑波大学博士 (体育科学) 学位論文・平成12年3月24日授与 (甲第2437号)標題紙、目次 -- 第１章　序論 -- 第２章　文献研究 -- 第３章　本研究の課題、仮説、手法、用語の定義、限界 -- 第４章　安静時心臓自律神経系活動と持久性トレーニング及び持久性体力水準との関連（課題１：実験1-1、２） -- 第５章　運動終了後の心臓副交感神経系活動回復応答と持久性トレーニング及び持久性体力水準との関連（課題１：実験1-3、４、５） -- 第６章　心臓自律神経系活動と生体リズムとの関連（課題２：実験２） -- 第７章　心臓自律神経系活動とトレーニング状況との関連（課題３：実験3-1,２） -- 第８章　総合検討 -- 第９章　結論 -- 謝辞 -- 引用文献 -- Appendix -- 付

DDBJ Activities: Contribution to the Research in Information Biology

DDBJ (DNA Data Bank of Japan; "http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/":http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/)started its database activities in 1986. From the beginning, DDBJ has been one of INSDC (International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration; "http://www.insdc.org/":http://www.insdc.org/) that is a tripartite collaboration with EMBL-Bank/EBI and GenBank/NCBI.The total base number of the primary nucleotide sequence data collected and distributed by INSDC exceeded 100 Gbases in August 2005. Since then it took only three years for the total base number to be doubled (200 Gbases). Now, the collaboration is being expanded to Traces (DNA sequence chromatograms) and Short Reads (raw reads data from 454, Solexa, SOLiD etc). DDBJ is also collecting and releasing gene expression data at CIBEX (Center for Information Biology gene EXpression database; "http://cibex.nig.ac.jp/":http://cibex.nig.ac.jp/). Furthermore, DDBJ contributed to international annotation jamborees such as FANTOM (mouse), H-Inv (human), RAP (rice) and E. coli K12. DDBJ provides many services to the research in information biology or bioinformatics. They include Web-API for Biology (WABI) "http://www.xml.nig.ac.jp/":http://www.xml.nig.ac.jp/ and All-round Retrieval of Sequence and Annotation (ARSA) "http://arsa.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/":http://arsa.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/. These activities are presented with the perspective of DDBJ in the coming years

Hybrid mode atomic force microscopy of phase modulation and frequency modulation

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Microscopy following peer review. The version of record Yamamoto T., Miyazaki M., Nomura H., et al. Hybrid mode atomic force microscopy of phase modulation and frequency modulation. 72(3), 236-242 1 June 2023 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jmicro/dfac057.We propose hybrid phase modulation (PM)/frequency modulation (FM) atomic force microscopy (AFM) to increase the imaging speed of AFM in high-Q environments. We derive the relationship between the phase shift, the frequency shift and the tip-sample interaction force from the equation of motion for the cantilever in high-Q environments. The tip-sample conservative force is approximately given by the sum of the conservative force with respect to the phase shift in the PM mode and that with respect to the frequency shift in the FM mode. We preliminarily demonstrate that the hybrid PM/FM-AFM is a new and very promising AFM operation mode that can increase imaging speed

Adipocyte-Specific Inhibition of Mir221/222 Ameliorates Diet-Induced Obesity Through Targeting Ddit4

MicroRNAs expressed in adipocytes are involved in transcriptional regulation of target mRNAs in obesity, but miRNAs critically involved in this process is not well characterized. Here, we identified upregulation of miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p in the white adipose tissues in C57BL/6 mice fed with high fat-high sucrose (HFHS) chow by RNA sequencing. Mir221 and Mir222 are paralogous genes and share the common seed sequence and Mir221/222AdipoKO mice fed with HFHS chow demonstrated resistance to the development of obesity compared with Mir221/222(flox/y). Ddit4 is a direct target of Mir221 and Mir222, and the upregulation of Ddit4 in Mir221/222AdipoKO was associated with the suppression of TSC2 (tuberous sclerosis complex 2)/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1)/S6K (ribosomal protein S6 kinase) pathway. The overexpression of miR-222-3p linked to enhanced adipogenesis, and it may be a potential candidate for miRNA-based therapy

Relationship between Aortic Compliance and Impact of Cerebral Blood Flow Fluctuation to Dynamic Orthostatic Challenge in Endurance Athletes

Aorta effectively buffers cardiac pulsatile fluctuation generated from the left ventricular (LV) which could be a mechanical force to high blood flow and low-resistance end-organs such as the brain. A dynamic orthostatic challenge may evoke substantial cardiac pulsatile fluctuation via the transient increases in venous return and stroke volume (SV). Particularly, this response may be greater in endurance-trained athletes (ET) who exhibit LV eccentric remodeling. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of aortic compliance to the response of cerebral blood flow fluctuation to dynamic orthostatic challenge in ET and age-matched sedentary (SED) young healthy men. ET (n = 10) and SED (n = 10) underwent lower body negative pressure (LBNP) (−30 mmHg for 4 min) stimulation and release the pressure that initiates a rapid regain of limited venous return and consequent increase in SV. The recovery responses of central and middle cerebral arterial (MCA) hemodynamics from the release of LBNP (~15 s) were evaluated. SV (via Modeflow method) and pulsatile and systolic MCA (via transcranial Doppler) normalized by mean MCA velocity (MCAv) significantly increased after the cessation of LBNP in both groups. ET exhibited the higher ratio of SV to aortic pulse pressure (SV/AoPP), an index of aortic compliance, at the baseline compared with SED (P < 0.01). Following the LBNP release, SV was significantly increased in SED by 14 ± 7% (mean ± SD) and more in ET by 30 ± 15%; nevertheless, normalized pulsatile, systolic, and diastolic MCAv remained constant in both groups. These results might be attributed to the concomitant with the increase in aortic compliance assessed by SV/AoPP. Importantly, the increase in SV/AoPP following the LBNP release was greater in ET than in SED (P < 0.01), and significantly correlated with the baseline SV/AoPP (r = 0.636, P < 0.01). These results suggest that the aortic compliance in the endurance athletes is able to accommodate the additional SV and buffer the potential increase in pulsatility at end-organs such as the brain

Integral Effects of Systemic Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibition on Carotid Arterial Compliance

Decreased arterial compliance (increased arterial stiffness) is associated with cardiovascular events. Nitric oxide regulates vascular tone, which can influence arterial compliance. We previously investigated the effects of systemic nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition on arterial compliance under the systemic α-adrenergic receptor blocking. In the present study, we investigated the effect of systemic NOS inhibition alone on central arterial compliance (via carotid arterial ultrasound imaging and applanation tonometry). Eighteen apparently healthy young adults (26±1 years) underwent intravenous infusions of NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) or placebo (saline) on separate days. In the placebo control condition, no significant changes were observed in mean arterial pressure, cross-sectional compliance, and β-stiffness index. Mean arterial pressure increased significantly (84±2 vs. 96±3 mmHg) after the administration of L-NMMA, whereas there were no significant changes in cross-sectional compliance (0.11±0.01 vs. 0.12±0.01 mm2/mmHg), β-stiffness index (6.44±0.37 vs. 5.51±0.41 unit), or isobaric arterial compliance. Theses results in young healthy adults are not consistent with the idea that carotid arterial compliance is modulated by nitric oxide. Grant Support: This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (18300215, 18650186), JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research Abroad, and NIH grant AG20966

Impact of Short-Term Training Camp on Aortic Blood Pressure in Collegiate Endurance Runners

To investigate the influence of short-term vigorous endurance training on aortic blood pressure (BP), pulse wave analysis was performed in 36 highly trained elite collegiate endurance runners before and after a 7-day intense training camp. Subjects participated three training sessions per day, which mainly consisted of long distance running and sprint training to reach the daily target distance of 26 km. After the camp, they were divided into two groups based on whether the target training was achieved. Aortic systolic BP, pulse pressure, and tension-time index (TTI, a surrogate index of the myocardial oxygen demand) were significantly elevated after the camp in the accomplished group but not in the unaccomplished group, whereas the brachial BP remained unchanged in both groups. The average daily training distance was significantly correlated with the changes in aortic systolic BP (r = 0.608, p = 0.0002), pulse pressure (r = 0.415, p = 0.016), and TTI (r = 0.438, p = 0.011). These results suggest that aortic BP is affected by a short-term vigorous training camp even in highly trained elite endurance athletes presumably due to a greater training volume compared to usual