Investigation of single nucleotide polymorphisms in porcine candidate genes for blood component traits in pigs

This study used 209 public single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays for 151 candidate genes of pigs to analyse their association with nine blood component traits (insulin-like growth factor-I, insulin, immuno globulin, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, basophil, neutrophil and atypical lymph) in 209 Korean native pigs and Yorkshire F2 hybrids. Of these, 52 SNPs in 49 candidate genes showed significant association with one or more blood component traits. Nineteen of these SNPs were found to be present in blood component QTL regions. The 49 candidate genes corresponding to 52 SNPs with significant effects were detected and used for gene ontology analysis to understand the function of the candidate genes at molecular level. Based on functional classification (biological process, cellular components, and molecular function) of annotated candidates, 34 candidate genes (11 genes of IGF-1, 9 of IS, 9 of IG, 6 of NP, and 3 of EP) were detected. Additionally, eight genes (PSMB4, PSME3, MAPKAPK3, CTLA4, CUL7, GGT1, IDH3B, and RXRB) interacting with four immune pathways (immune system, adaptive immune system, Class I MHC-mediated antigen processing and presentation, and antigen processing: ubiquitination and proteasome degradation) were found through pathway and network analyses. The eight candidate genes identified in this study are included in class I MHC-mediated antigen pathway, which is an important factor that determines the success of organ transplantation in addition to the improvement of diseases and immunity of pigs. Therefore, these genes can potentially be used in heterogeneous organ research in future research.Keywords: Association analysis, gene network, pathway, SNP, swin

Targeting Oxidative Stress and Aberrant Critical Period Plasticity in the Developmental Trajectory to Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder reflecting a convergence of genetic risk and early life stress. The slow progression to first psychotic episode represents both a window of vulnerability as well as opportunity for therapeutic intervention. Here, we consider recent neurobiological insight into the cellular and molecular components of developmental critical periods and their vulnerability to redox dysregulation. In particular, the consistent loss of parvalbumin-positive interneuron (PVI) function and their surrounding perineuronal nets (PNNs) as well as myelination in patient brains is consistent with a delayed or extended period of circuit instability. This linkage to critical period triggers (PVI) and brakes (PNN, myelin) implicates mistimed trajectories of brain development in mental illness. Strategically introduced antioxidant treatment or later reinforcement of molecular brakes may then offer a novel prophylactic psychiatr

Characteristics and treatments of large cystic brain metastasis: radiosurgery and stereotactic aspiration.

Brain metastasis represents one of the most common causes of intracranial tumors in adults, and the incidence of brain metastasis continues to rise due to the increasing survival of cancer patients. Yet, the development of cystic brain metastasis remains a relatively rare occurrence. In this review, we describe the characteristics of cystic brain metastasis and evaluate the combined use of stereotactic aspiration and radiosurgery in treating large cystic brain metastasis. The results of several studies show that stereotactic radiosurgery produces comparable local tumor control and survival rates as other surgery protocols. When the size of the tumor interferes with radiosurgery, stereotactic aspiration of the metastasis should be considered to reduce the target volume as well as decreasing the chance of radiation induced necrosis and providing symptomatic relief from mass effect. The combined use of stereotactic aspiration and radiosurgery has strong implications in improving patient outcomes

YY1 as a controlling factor for the Peg3 and Gnas imprinted domains

AbstractImprinting control regions (ICRs) often harbor tandem arrays of transcription factor binding sites, as demonstrated by the identification of multiple YY1 binding sites within the ICRs of Peg3, Nespas, and Xist/Tsix domains. In the current study, we have sought to characterize possible roles for YY1 in transcriptional control and epigenetic modification of these imprinted domains. RNA interference-based knockdown experiments in Neuro2A cells resulted in overall transcriptional up-regulation of most of the imprinted genes within the Peg3 domain and also, concomitantly, caused significant loss in the DNA methylation of the Peg3 differentially methylated region. A similar overall and coordinated expression change was also observed for the imprinted genes of the Gnas domain: up-regulation of Nespas and down-regulation of Nesp and Gnasxl. YY1 knockdown also resulted in changes in the expression levels of Xist and Snrpn. These results support the idea that YY1 plays a major role, as a trans factor, in the control of these imprinted domains

Running of Gauge Couplings in AdS5 via Deconstruction

Running of gauge couplings on a slice of AdS5 is examined using the deconstruction set-up. Logarithmic running instead of (linear) power law is justified when the cutoff is lower than the curvature scale. Most of interesting features in warped gauge theory including the localization of Kaluza-Klein modes, the widening of higher Kaluza-Klein spectrum spacing are well captured within the framework of the deconstruction.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, revtex, refereces added and typos corrected; the version published in JHE

Radius-dependent gauge unification in AdS5

We examine the relation of the 4-dimensional low energy coupling of bulk gauge boson in a slice of AdS5 to the 5-dimensional fundamental couplings as a function of the orbifold radius R. This allows us to address the gauge coupling unification in AdS5 by means of the radius running as well as the conventional momentum running. We then compute the radius dependence of 1-loop low energy couplings in generic AdS5 theory with 4-dimensional supersymmetry, and discuss the low energy predictions when the 5-dimensional couplings are assumed to be unified.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, revtex, v3: analysis was generalized to S^1/Z_2*Z_2 orbifoldin

Inflation and Gauge Hierarchy in Randall-Sundrum Compactification

We obtain the general inflationary solutions for the slab of five-dimensional AdS spacetime where the fifth dimension is an orbifold $S^1/Z_2$ and two three-branes reside at its boundaries, of which the Randall-Sundrum model corresponds to the static limit. The investigation of the general solutions and their static limit reveals that the RS model recasts both the cosmological constant problem and the gauge hierarchy problem into the balancing problem of the bulk and the brane cosmological constants.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, minor changes and more references adde

Core-Level X-Ray Photoemission Satellites in Ruthenates: A New Mechanism Revealing the Mott Transition

Ru 3d core-level x-ray photoemission spectra of various ruthenates are examined. They show in general two-peak structures, which can be assigned as the screened and unscreened peaks. The screened peak is absent in a Mott insulator, but develops into a main peak in the metallic regime. This spectral behavior is well explained by the dynamical mean-field theory calculation for the single-band Hubbard model with on-site core-hole potential using the exact diagonalization method. The new mechanism of the core-level photoemission satellite can be utilized to reveal the Mott transition phenomenon in various strongly correlated electron systems, especially in nano-scale devices and phase-separated materials.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Mixed Bino-Wino-Higgsino Dark Matter in Gauge Messenger Models

Almost degenerate bino and wino masses at the weak scale is one of unique features of gauge messenger models. The lightest neutralino is a mixture of bino, wino and higgsino and can produce the correct amount of the dark matter density if it is the lightest supersymmetric particle. Furthermore, as a result of squeezed spectrum of superpartners which is typical for gauge messenger models, various co-annihilation and resonance regions overlap and very often the correct amount of the neutralino relic density is generated as an interplay of several processes. This feature makes the explanation of the observed amount of the dark matter density much less sensitive to fundamental parameters. We calculate the neutralino relic density assuming thermal history and present both spin independent and spin dependent cross sections for the direct detection. We also discuss phenomenological constraints from b to s gamma and muon g-2 and compare results of gauge messenger models to well known results of the mSUGRA scenario.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, references added, version to appear at JCA