Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus -- the "D-shuttle" project --

Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter "D-shuttle" for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the background radiation level of other regions/countries

Repeated immobilization stress increases uncoupling protein 1 expression and activity in Wistar rats

The Physiological Society of Japan , Gao, Bihu ; Kikuchi-Utsumi, Kazue ; Ohinata, Hiroshi ; Hashimoto, Masaaki ; Kuroshima, Akihiro, Japanese Journal of Physiology, 53(3), 2003, 205-213. publisherRepeat immobilization-stressed rats are leaner and have improved cold tolerance due to enhancement of brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis. This process likely involves stress-induced sympathetic nervous system activation and adrenocortical hormone release, which dynamically enhances and suppresses uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) function, respectively. To investigate whether repeated immobilization influences UCP1 thermogenic properties, we assessed UCP1 mRNA, protein expression, and activity (GDP binding) in BAT from immobilization-naïve or repeatedly immobilized rats (3 h daily for 4 weeks) and sham operated or adrenalectomized (ADX) rats. UCP1 properties were assessed before (basal) and after exposure to 3 h of acute immobilization. Basal levels of GDP binding and UCP1 expression was significantly increased (140 and 140%) in the repeated immobilized group. Acute immobilization increased GDP binding in both naïve (180%) and repeated immobilized groups (220%) without changing UCP1 expression. In ADX rats, basal GDP binding and UCP1 gene expression significantly increased (140 and 110%), and acute immobilization induced further increase. These data demonstrate that repeated immobilization resulted in enhanced UCP1 function, suggesting that enhanced BAT thermogenesis contributes to lower body weight gain through excess energy loss and an improved ability to maintain body temperature during cold exposure

Evaluation of macrophage plasticity in brown and white adipose tissue

There are still questions about whether macrophage differentiation is predetermined or is induced in response to tissue microenvironments. C2D macrophage cells reside early in the macrophage lineage in vitro, but differentiate to a more mature phenotype after adoptive transfer to the peritoneal cavity (PEC-C2D). Since C2D macrophage cells also traffic to adipose tissue after adoptive transfer, we explored the impact of white adipose tissue (WAT), brown adipose tissue (BAT) and in vitro cultured adipocytes on C2D macrophage cells. When PEC-C2D macrophage cells were cultured with preadipocytes the cells stretched out and CD11b and Mac-2 expression was lower compared to PEC-C2D macrophage cells placed in vitro alone. In contrast, PEC-C2D cells co-cultured with adipocytes maintained smaller, round morphology and more cells expressed Mac-2 compared to PEC-C2D co-cultured with preadipocytes. After intraperitoneal injection, C2D macrophage cells migrated into both WAT and BAT. A higher percentage of C2D macrophage cells isolated from WAT (WAT-C2D) expressed Ly-6C (33%), CD11b (11%), Mac-2 (11%) and F4/80 (29%) compared to C2D macrophage cells isolated from BAT (BAT-C2D). Overall, BAT-C2D macrophage cells had reduced expression of many cytokine, chemokine and receptor gene transcripts when compared to in vitro grown C2D macrophages, while WAT-C2D macrophage cells and PEC-C2D up-regulated many of these gene transcripts. These data suggest that the C2D macrophage phenotype can change rapidly and distinct phenotypes are induced by different microenvironments