Fluorescence imaging in vivo visualizes delayed gastric emptying of liquid enteral nutrition containing pectin

BACKGROUND: Semi-solidification by gelation or increased viscosity could slow the influx of liquid enteral nutrition (EN) into the small intestine. A liquid EN formula containing pectin that gels under acidic conditions such as those found in the stomach has been developed. A new near-infrared fluorescent imaging reagent was used to non-invasively acquire real time images of gastric emptying in a murine model in vivo. We postulated that the EN formula delays gastric emptying and tested this hypothesis using imaging in vivo. METHODS: Male BALB/c mice were given an oral bolus injection of a liquid EN containing the fluorescence reagent GastroSense750 with or without pectin. The EN in the stomach was visualized in vivo at various intervals using a non-invasive live imaging system and fluorescent signals were monitored from the stomach, which was removed at 60 min after EN ingestion. RESULTS: The fluorescence intensity of signals in stomachs in vivo and in resected stomachs was lower and attenuated over time in mice given EN without, than with pectin. CONCLUSIONS: Adding a gelling agent such as pectin delayed the transit of liquid EN from the stomach. Fluorescence imaging can visualize the delayed gastric emptying of EN containing pectin

ホームアドバンテージ (Home Advantage) と観衆要因に関する研究

Home advantage is the term used to describe the phenomenon in which home teams win over 50% of the games played under a balanced home and away schedule. The phenomenon of home advantage was well documented in the late 1970s in a variety of sports at college and professional levels. The main purpose of this research was to determine whether home advantage exists in professional baseball and soccer in Japan. The percentages of games won at home were compared between the two sports. The second purpose was to examine the relative influence of a number of factors associated with crowd presence (absolute size of the crowd and crowd size relative to stadium capacity) on game outcome. Archival data were obtained for three seasons (1993/94/95 in both sports ; N=2, 037 games in baseball, N=611 games in soccer). The results of this study indicate that home advantage exists in professional baseball and soccer in Japan. Statistical evidence suggests that crowd factors do not present significant contributions to home advantage in Japanese professional baseball and soccer

Inhibitory effect of Makomotake components on inflammation

Zizania latifolia (wild rice) is native to Eastern and Southeastern Asia. The fungus Ustilago esculenta penetrates this aquatic perennial grass. Makomotake refers to penetration of the Zizania latifolia shoot by Ustilago esculenta. Recent studies demonstrated that Zizania latifolia extracts exhibit diverse biological activities, such as anti–oxidant effects. The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti–inflammatory effect of Makomotake on endotoxin–induced uveitis (EIU) in mice. After the daily oral administration of Makomotake for 5 days, EIU was induced by the injection of a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into the footpad of mice. At 24 hours–after injection, the eyes were enucleated and cells infiltrating the anterior chamber and vitreous cavity were counted histologically. Makomotake administration significantly reduced the total number of infiltrating cells. In addition, Makomotake suppressed the production of interleukin (IL)–1 β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–α in murine macrophages induced by LPS. Our findings show that Makomotake can be used as an anti–inflammatory agent against EIU, and that it may be useful for the treatment of acute uveitis

Association between shift work and the risk of death from biliary tract cancer in Japanese men

Background: There is increasing evidence suggesting that shift work involving night work may increase cancer risk. Methods: We examined the association between working rotating shifts and the risk of death from biliary tract cancer among Japanese men who participated in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study. Of the 46, 395 men recruited, 22, 224 men aged 40-65 at baseline (1988-1990) who reported working full-time or were self-employed were included in the present analysis. The study subjects were followed through December 31, 2009. Information regarding occupation and lifestyle factors was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) for the risk of death from biliary tract cancer in relation to shift work. Results: During a mean 17-year follow-up, we observed 94 biliary tract cancer deaths, including 23 deaths from gallbladder cancer and 71 deaths from extrahepatic bile duct cancer. Overall, shift work was associated with a statistically non-significant increase in the risk of biliary tract cancer, with an HR of 1.50 (95 % CI: 0.81-2.77), among rotating shift workers. When the analysis was limited to extrahepatic bile duct cancer, a significant association appeared, with a multivariable-adjusted HR of 1.93 (95 % CI: 1.00-3.72) for rotating shift workers. Conclusion: Our data indicate that shift work may be associated with increased risk of death from extrahepatic bile duct cancer in this cohort of Japanese men. The association with gallbladder cancer remains unclear because of the small number of deaths

Curated genome annotation of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica and comparative genome analysis with Arabidopsis thaliana

We present here the annotation of the complete genome of rice Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare. All functional annotations for proteins and non-protein-coding RNA (npRNA) candidates were manually curated. Functions were identified or inferred in 19,969 (70%) of the proteins, and 131 possible npRNAs (including 58 antisense transcripts) were found. Almost 5000 annotated protein-coding genes were found to be disrupted in insertional mutant lines, which will accelerate future experimental validation of the annotations. The rice loci were determined by using cDNA sequences obtained from rice and other representative cereals. Our conservative estimate based on these loci and an extrapolation suggested that the gene number of rice is ~32,000, which is smaller than previous estimates. We conducted comparative analyses between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana and found that both genomes possessed several lineage-specific genes, which might account for the observed differences between these species, while they had similar sets of predicted functional domains among the protein sequences. A system to control translational efficiency seems to be conserved across large evolutionary distances. Moreover, the evolutionary process of protein-coding genes was examined. Our results suggest that natural selection may have played a role for duplicated genes in both species, so that duplication was suppressed or favored in a manner that depended on the function of a gene