Transcriptomic Analysis of High Fat Diet Fed Mouse Brain Cortex

High fat diet can lead to metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes known to be chronic inflammatory diseases with high prevalence worldwide. Recent studies have reported cognitive dysfunction in obese patients is caused by a high fat diet. Accordingly, such dysfunction is called “type 3 diabetes” or “diabetic dementia.” Although dysregulation of protein-coding genes has been extensively studied, profiling of non-coding RNAs including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) has not been reported yet. Therefore, the objective of this study was to obtain profiles of diverse RNAs and determine their patterns of alteration in high fat fed brain cortex compared to normal brain cortex. To investigate regulatory roles of both coding and non-coding RNAs in high fat diet brain, we performed RNA sequencing of ribosomal RNA-depleted RNAs and identified genome-wide lncRNAs and circRNAs expression and co-expression patterns of mRNAs in high fat diet mouse brain cortex. Our results showed expression levels of mRNAs related to neurogenesis, synapse, and calcium signaling were highly changed in high fat diet fed cortex. In addition, numerous differentially expressed lncRNAs and circRNAs were identified. Our study provides valuable expression profiles and potential function of both coding and non-coding RNAs in high fat diet fed brain cortex

Psychotic Features as the First Manifestation of 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

The 22q11.2 deletion is a genetic disorder which is characterized by abnormalities in cardiac functioning, facial structure, neurobehavioral development, T cell functioning, and velopharyngeal insufficiencies. In the presented case study, 22q11.2 deletion was found in a patient who has psychotic symptoms only. A 25-year-old woman with a history of hypoparathyroidism and hypothyroidism presented with auditory hallucinations and persecutory delusions. After three months of treatment with antipsychotic medications, the patient was readmitted with generalized tonic-clonic seizures. The following week, the patient went into sepsis. A fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis revealed the presence of a 22q11.2 microdeletion. This case study suggests that psychotic symptoms can develop prior to the typical symptoms of a 22q11.2 deletion. As such, psychiatrists should test for genetic abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia when these patients present with seizures and immunodeficiencies

Nitric oxide-dependent cytoskeletal changes and inhibition of endothelial cell migration contribute to the suppression of angiogenesis by RAD50 gene transfer

AbstractPrevious reports showed that human RAD50 (hRAD50) gene delivery induced regression of an experimental rat tumor and porcine neointimal hyperplasia. In this study, we examined the effects of hRAD50 on the morphological changes and migration of endothelial cells (EC) as possible mechanisms by which hRAD50 might block angiogenesis. Quantitative image analysis revealed significant inhibition of the number and total area of blood vessels in rat tumor tissues following hRAD50 gene delivery. hRAD50 distorted actin and tubulin arrangements, and significantly reduced the F/G-actin ratio and increased the nitric oxide (NO) production in the primary cultured human EC. These effects were blocked by pretreatment with L-NAME (NG-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester), a NO synthase inhibitor. FACScan analysis showed that NO was involved in the necrosis and apoptosis of EC by hRAD50. hRAD50 also inhibited EC migration in an in vitro wound-healing model. These results indicate that NO-dependent cytoskeletal changes and inhibition of EC migration contribute to the suppression of angiogenesis by hRAD50 delivery in vivo

Fabrication and surface plasmon coupling studies on the dielectric/Ag structure for transparent conducting electrode applications

The dielectric/Ag structures were fabricated on glass substrates using various metal oxides as dielectrics and their optical properties were studied through transmittance and ellipsometry measurements. The structures with 10 nm Ag film deposited on various metal oxides (Al2O3, ZrO2, SrTiO3, TiO2, CaCu3Ti4O12, WO3 and HfO2) of 30 nm showed enhancement in transmittance compared to bare Ag film in the visible region. This enhancement in transmittance was explained through suppression of surface plasmon coupling at the dielectric/Ag interface. The surface plasmon wave-vector (k(SP)) was calculated using the measured dielectric constants for the dielectric and Ag through ellipsometry and employed to analyze the transmittance data. The k(SP)/k(0) and delta(SP) values were estimated and used to interpret the enhanced visible transmittance for different dielectric/Ag structures. (C) 2014 Optical Society of Americ

Impact of prior abdominal surgery on postoperative prolonged ileus after ileostomy repair

SummaryBackground and aimsPostoperative ileus (POI) is one of the most common reasons for sustained hospital stays after ileostomy repair. Although many factors have been investigated as POI risk factors, the investigation of the impact of prior abdominal surgery (PAS) before rectal cancer surgery has been limited. This study aimed to identify the impact of PAS as a risk factor for POI after ileostomy repair.Material and methodsA total of 220 consecutive patients with rectal cancer who underwent ileostomy repair were enrolled. The patients were divided into PAS-positive and PAS-negative groups according to the history of PAS before rectal cancer surgery. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the clinicopathological factors associated with POI.ResultsThe PAS-positive group had a longer operation time (111 min vs. 93.4 min, p=0.029) and a greater length of hospital stay (10 days vs. 7.8 days, p=0.003) compared with the PAS-negative group. POI was more frequent in the PAS-positive group (23.1% vs. 6.2%, p=0.011). The POI rate in the entire cohort was 8.1%. The repair method (stapled side-to-side vs. hand-sewn end-to-end, odds ratio OR=3.6, 95% confidence interval CI=1.2–11.1, p=0.022) and PAS (odds ratio=4.0, 95% confidence interval=1.2–12.8, p=0.017) were significant predictors of POI in the multivariate analysis.ConclusionsThis study suggests that PAS before rectal cancer surgery is associated with POI after ileostomy repair

Torus Hyperplasia of the Pyloric Antrum

Primary or idiopathic hypertrophy of the pyloric muscle in adult, so called torus hyperplasia, is an infrequent but an established entity. It is caused by a circular muscle hypertrophy affecting the lesser curvature near the pylorus. Since most of the lesions are difficult to differentiate from tumor, distal gastrectomy is usually preformed to rule out most causes of pyloric lesions including neoplastic ones through a pathological study. A 56-yr-old man with a family history of gastric cancer presented with abdominal discomfort of 1 month duration. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed a 1.0 cm sized irregular submucosal lesion proximal to the pylorus to the distal antrum on the lesser curvature. On colonoscopy examination, a 1.5 cm sized protruding mass was noticed on the appendiceal orifice. Gastrectomy and cecectomy were done, and histological section revealed marked hypertrophy of the distal circular pyloric musculature and an appendiceal mucocele. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of torus hyperplasia with appendiceal mucocele which is found incidentally

Meshfree analysis and design sensitivity analysis for shell structures

A unified design sensitivity analysis method for a meshfree shell structure with respect to size, shape, and configuration design variables is presented in this paper. A shear deformable shell formulation is characterized by a CAD connection, thickness degeneration, meshfree discretization, and nodal integration. Because of a strong connection to the CAD tool, the design variable is selected from the CAD parameters, and a consistent design velocity field is then computed by perturbing the surface geometric matrix. The material derivative concept is utilized in order to obtain a design sensitivity equation in the parametric domain. Numerical examples show the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed design sensitivity analysis method compared to the analytical solution and the finite difference solution