Studies on the "Umayado Disease" Particularly, serological studies on the inhabitants in its's prevailing area

The Weil-Felix reaction test performed on the blood sera of healthy persons in Aioi village which had been affected with “Umayado-Disease” and 51 other cities, towns and villages in Kagawa Prefecture revealed as follows: 1) The aggultination titer against the OXK strain on the blood sera of healthy persons in Aioi village is remarkably higher as compared with that in other areas in Kagawa prefecture. This fact shows that the inhabitants of Aioi village are constantly exposed to a danger of the infection of this disease. 2) The strength of the OXK reaction observed in Aioi village seems to be varied according to lacalities; i.e., it is higher at the localities nearer the mountaineous area. In other words, the possible extent of this disease's infection is inversely propotional to the geological elevation of land. 3) My observation on the amount of the antigen produced against the OXK strain shows that the possible extent of the infection of this disease is expecially remarkable at Umayado and Sakamoto. 4) The antigen titer against the OXK strain in healthy persons in Aioi village always changes according to the seasons of the year. For instance, it is constantly higher in autumn, and in spring it drops lower. In view of this fact, it is possibly understood that this disease prevails chiefly in summer-time. 5) With the people in Kagawa prefecture as a whole, the strength of the OX19 reaction becomes higher among the people westward, and lower eastward. This is in coincidence with the conditions of the prevalence of fleck fever in this prefecture. 6) The strength of the OXK reaction, with the people of Kagawa prefecture as a whole, is higher in the easten part of the prefecture, including Aioi village, and in the western part the antigen against the OXK strain has hardly been discovered so far

Transcriptome Modifications in Porcine Adipocytes via Toll-Like Receptors Activation

Adipocytes are the most important cell type in adipose tissue playing key roles in immunometabolism. We previously reported that nine members of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family are expressed in an originally established porcine intramuscular pre-adipocyte (PPI) cell line. However, the ability of TLR ligands to modulate immunometabolic transcriptome modifications in porcine adipocytes has not been elucidated. Herein, we characterized the global transcriptome modifications in porcine intramuscular mature adipocytes (pMA), differentiated from PPI, following stimulation with Pam3csk4, Poly(I:C) or LPS which are ligands for TLR2, TLR3, and TLR4, respectively. Analysis of microarray data identified 530 (218 up, 312 down), 520 (245 up, 275 down), and 525 (239 up, 286 down) differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in pMA following the stimulation with Pam3csk4, Poly(I:C), and LPS, respectively. Gene ontology classification revealed that DEGs are involved in several biological processes including those belonging to immune response and lipid metabolism pathways. Functionally annotated genes were organized into two groups for downstream analysis: immune response related genes (cytokines, chemokines, complement factors, adhesion molecules, and signal transduction), and genes involved with metabolic and endocrine functions (hormones and receptors, growth factors, and lipid biosynthesis). Differential expression analysis revealed that EGR1, NOTCH1, NOS2, TNFAIP3, TRAF3IP1, INSR, CXCR4, PPARA, MAPK10, and C3 are the top 10 commonly altered genes of TLRs induced transcriptional modification of pMA. However, the protein-protein interaction network of DEGs identified EPOR, C3, STAR, CCL2, and SAA2 as the major hub genes, which were also exhibited higher centrality estimates in the Gene-Transcription factor interaction network. Our results provide new insights of transcriptome modifications associated with TLRs activation in porcine adipocytes and identified key regulatory genes that could be used as biomarkers for the evaluation of treatments having immunomodularoty and/or metabolic functional beneficial effects in porcine adipocytes.Fil: Igata, Manami. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Islam, M. Aminul. Tohoku University; Japón. Bangladesh Agricultural University; BangladeshFil: Tada, Asuka. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Takagi, Michihiro. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Humayun Kober, AKM. Tohoku University; Japón. Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University; BangladeshFil: Albarracín, Leonardo Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Tohoku University; Japón. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Aso, Hisashi. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Ikeda-Ohtsubo, Wakako. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Miyazawa, Kenji. Takanashi Milk Products Co.; JapónFil: Yoda, Kazutoyo. Takanashi Milk Products Co.; JapónFil: He, Fang. Takanashi Milk Products Co.; JapónFil: Takahashi, Hideki. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Villena, Julio Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Kitazawa, Haruki. Tohoku University; Japó

Percutaneous transgastric pancreatic duct drainage for pancreaticojejunal leak after pancreaticoduodenectomy

Pancreaticojejunal anastomotic leakage is one of the severe complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy and is often difficult to manage. A 64-year-old man status post pancreaticoduodenectomy had the gastroduodenal artery stump bleeding caused by the pancreaticojejunal anastomotic leakage, successfully treated by placing a covered stent. To control the leakage, subsequent percutaneous transgastric pancreatic duct puncture was performed under fluoroscopic guidance, targeting a surgically placed pancreaticojejunal internal drainage catheter. A 5 F catheter with side holes was inserted into the main pancreatic duct, the tip of which was placed in the anastomosed jejunum. The leak was successfully treated using this catheter. Percutaneous transgastric pancreatic duct drainage might be a useful and feasible option to resolve the condition

Novel and recurrent COMP gene variants in five Japanese patients with pseudoachondroplasia: skeletal changes from the neonatal to infantile periods

Pseudoachondroplasia (PSACH) is an autosomal dominant skeletal dysplasia caused by pathogenic variants of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP). Clinical symptoms of PSACH are characterized by growth disturbances after the first year of life. These disturbances lead to severe short stature with short limbs, brachydactyly, scoliosis, joint laxity, joint pain since childhood, and a normal face. Epimetaphyseal dysplasia, shortened long bones, and short metacarpals and phalanges are common findings on radiological examination. Additionally, anterior tonguing of the vertebral bodies in the lateral view is an important finding in childhood because it is specific to PSACH and normalizes with age. Here, we report five Japanese patients with PSACH, with one recurrent (p.Cys351Tyr) and four novel heterozygous pathogenic COMP variants (p.Asp437Tyr, p.Asp446Gly, p.Asp507Tyr, and p.Asp518Val). These five pathogenic variants were located in the calcium-binding type 3 (T3) repeats. In four of the novel variants, the affected amino acid was aspartic acid, which is abundant in each of the eight T3 repeats. We describe the radiological findings of these five patients. We also retrospectively analyzed the sequential changes in the vertebral body and epimetaphysis of the long bones from the neonatal to infantile periods in a patient with PSACH and congenital heart disease

Photon correlation in GaAs self-assembled quantum dots

We report on photon coincidence measurement in a single GaAs self-assembled quantum dot (QD) using a pulsed excitation light source. At low excitation, when a neutral exciton line was present in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, we observed nearly perfect single photon emission from an isolated QD at 670 nm wavelength. For higher excitation, multiple PL lines appeared on the spectra, reflecting the formation of exciton complexes. Cross-correlation functions between these lines showed either bunching or antibunching behavior, depending on whether the relevant emission was from a biexciton cascade or a charged exciton recombination.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Evaluation of fat accumulation and adipokine production during the long-term adipogenic differentiation of porcine intramuscular preadipocytes and study of the influence of immunobiotics

The degree of fat accumulation and adipokine production are two major indicators of obesity that are correlated with increased adipose tissue mass and chronic inflammatory responses. Adipocytes have been considered effector cells for the inflammatory responses due to their capacity to express Toll-like receptors (TLRs). In this study, we evaluated the degree of fat accumulation and adipokine production in porcine intramuscular preadipocyte (PIP) cells maintained for in vitro differentiation over a long period without or with stimulation of either TNF-α or TLR2-, TLR3-, or TLR4-ligands. The cytosolic fat accumulation was measured by liquid chromatography and the expression of adipokines (CCL2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10) were quantified by RT-qPCR and ELISA at several time points (0 to 20 days) of PIP cells differentiation. Long-term adipogenic differentiation (LTAD) induced a progressive fat accumulation in the adipocytes over time. Activation of TLR3 and TLR4 resulted in an increased rate of fat accumulation into the adipocytes over the LTAD. The production of CCL2, IL-8 and IL-6 were significantly increased in unstimulated adipocytes during the LTAD, while IL-10 expression remained stable over the studied period. An increasing trend of adiponectin and leptin production was also observed during the LTAD. On the other hand, the stimulation of adipocytes with TLRs agonists or TNF-α resulted in an increasing trend of CCL2, IL-6 and IL-8 production while IL-10 remained stable in all four treatments during the LTAD. We also examined the influences of several immunoregulatory probiotic strains (immunobiotics) on the modulation of the fat accumulation and adipokine production using supernatants of immunobiotic-treated intestinal immune cells and the LTAD of PIP cells. Immunobiotics have shown a strain-specific ability to modulate the fat accumulation and adipokine production, and differentiation of adipocytes. Here, we expanded the utility and potential application of our in vitro PIP cells model by evaluating an LTAD period (20 days) in order to elucidate further insights of chronic inflammatory pathobiology of adipocytes associated with obesity as well as to explore the prospects of immunomodulatory intervention for obesity such as immunobiotics.Fil: Tada, Asuka. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Kober, Akm Humayun. Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University; Bangladesh. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Islam, Md Aminul. Bangladesh Agricultural University; Bangladesh. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Igata, Manami. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Takagi, Michihiro. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Suzuki, Masahiko. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Aso, Hisashi. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Ikeda Ohtsubo, Wakako. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Yoda, Kazutoyo. Takanashi Milk Products Co., Ltd.; JapónFil: Miyazawa, Kenji. Takanashi Milk Products Co., Ltd.; JapónFil: He, Fang. Takanashi Milk Products Co., Ltd.; JapónFil: Takahashi, Hideki. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Villena, Julio Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Kitazawa, Haruki. Tohoku University; Japó