The effect of diabetes mellitus on portal blood hepatotrophic factors in dogs

Ten nondiabetic dogs were submitted to a procedure called splanchnic division which directed the nutrient rich venous return from the intestines into the left lobes of the liver and the hormone rich pancreatico gastroduodeno splenic venous return into the right lobes. Two mth later, the right lobes had undergone the expected gross and microscopic hypertrophy. Compared with the abnormal shrunken and glycogen depleted hepatocytes of the left lobes, the large and otherwise normal hepatocytes of the right lobes had a higher rate of cell division as judged by microscopic examination, measurements of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis and the results of autoradiography. Both sides had greater cell replication than in the livers of normal unaltered dogs. The dominance of the right lobes following splanchnic division was almost completely eliminated by the prior creation of alloxan induced diabetes in 4 dogs and by the performance of total pancreatectomy at the same time as splanchnic division in 6 dogs. In these 10 diabetic dogs, which were treated with Sc administered insulin for the 2 mth period of the postoperative study, hepatic lobar and cell size were nearly equal on both sides. By light and electron microscopy, the hepatocytes on both sides had abnormalities, somewhat less pronounced on the right. However, the most active cell division was now transferred to the left lobes. The results with alloxan induced diabetes were similar to those after total pancreatectomy, except that lipid deposits were less on both liver sides in the alloxan experiments, and the glycogen was selectively reduced in the right lobes. The latter finding presumably was due to the continued action of glucagon in dogs made diabetic with alloxan. 12 nondiabetic dogs had a procedure called partial portacaval transposition which directed systemic venous blood from the hindquarters, kidneys and adrenal glands into the left lobes of the liver and the total splanchnic venous return into the right lobes. Two mth later, the degree of relative hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the glycogen rich right lobes was even greater than after splanchnic division, as was the morphologic damage to the left lobar hepatocytes. The degree of right lobar hypertrophy following partial portacaval transposition was reduced but not eliminated by pre existing alloxan induced diabetes in 4 dogs and by concomitant total pancreatectomy in 6 more dogs. The dogs were Sc treated with insulin. Structurally, the hepatocytes on the right side after 2 mth were in better condition than were those on the left, although both were abnormal. The dominance of cell division on the right side was reduced, as judged by standard microscopy and by autoradiography, but there was not a shifting of sides. The biochemical analyses reflected the presence or absence of glucagon. These findings are consistent with the earlier multifactorial hypothesis which holds that portal hepatotrophic factors are mainly interreacting hormones generated by splanchnic organs and delivered straight to the liver and that the hormone interrelationships might have augmented significance because of the high concentration of nutritional substrate in the same venous blood. The observations also substantiate by direct testing the suggestion that insulin is the most important hepatotrophic factor and that it profoundly affects many aspects of liver cell structure, division and function

Prevalence of Anderson-Fabry disease in male patients with late onset hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background-Although studies have suggested that "late-onset" hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) may be caused by sarcomeric protein gene mutations, the cause of HCM in the majority of patients is unknown. This study determined the prevalence of a potentially treatable cause of hypertrophy, Anderson-Fabry disease, in a HCM referral population.Methods and Results-Plasma alpha-galactosidase A (alpha-Gal) was measured in 79 men with HCM who were diagnosed at greater than or equal to40 years of age (52.9 +/- 7.7 years; range, 40-71 years) and in 74 men who were diagnosed at <40 years (25.9 +/- 9.2 years; range, 8-39 years). Five patients (6.3%) with late-onset disease and 1 patient (1.4%) diagnosed at <40 years had low alpha-Gal activity. Of these 6 patients, 3 had angina, 4 were in New York Heart Association class 2, 5 had palpitations, and 2 had a history of syncope. Hypertrophy was concentric in 5 patients and asymmetric in 1 patient. One patient had left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. All patients with low alpha-Gal activity had alpha-Gal gene mutations.Conclusion-Anderson-Fabry disease should be considered in all cases of unexplained hypertrophy. Its recognition is important given the advent of specific replacement enzyme therapy

Plasmonic colloidal nanoparticles with open eccentric cavities via acid-induced chemical transformation

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been considered a promising technique for the detection of trace molecules in biomedicine and environmental monitoring. The ideal metal nanoparticles for SERS must not only fulfill important requirements such as high near-field enhancement and a tunable far-field response but also overcome the diffusion limitation at extremely lower concentrations of a target material. Here, we introduce a novel method to produce gold nanoparticles with open eccentric cavities by selectively adapting the structure of non-plasmonic nanoparticles via acid-mediated surface replacement. Copper oxide nanoparticles with open eccentric cavities are first prepared using a microwave-irradiation-assisted surfactant-free hydrothermal reaction and are then transformed into gold nanoparticles by an acidic gold precursor while maintaining their original structure. Because of the strong near-field enhancement occurring at the mouth of the open cavities and the very rough surfaces resulting from the uniformly covered hyperbranched sharp multi-tips and the free access of SERS molecules inside of the nanoparticles without diffusion limitation, adenine, one of the four bases in DNA, in an extremely diluted aqueous solution (1.0 pM) was successfully detected with excellent reproducibility upon laser excitation with a 785-nm wavelength. The gold nanoparticles with open eccentric cavities provide a powerful platform for the detection of ultra-trace analytes in an aqueous solution within near-infrared wavelengths, which is essential for highly sensitive, reliable and direct in vivo analysis.None1132sciescopu

Carbon nanotube-reduced graphene oxide fiber with high torsional strength from rheological hierarchy control

High torsional strength fibers are of practical interest for applications such as artificial muscles, electric generators, and actuators. Herein, we maximize torsional strength by understanding, measuring, and overcoming rheological thresholds of nanocarbon (nanotube/graphene oxide) dopes. The formed fibers show enhanced structure across multiple length scales, modified hierarchy, and improved mechanical properties. In particular, the torsional properties were examined, with high shear strength (914 MPa) attributed to nanotubes but magnified by their structure, intercalating graphene sheets. This design approach has the potential to realize the hierarchical dimensional hybrids, and may also be useful to build the effective network structure of heterogeneous materials

Sphingosine mediates FTY720-induced apoptosis in LLC-PK1 cells

FTY720, a synthetic sphingoid base analog, was examined as a new sphingosine kinase inhibitor, which converts endogenous sphingosine into its phosphate form. With 20 ??M of FTY720, sphingosine accumulated in the LLC-PK1 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. The FTY720 treated cells showed a high concentration of fragmented DNA, a high caspase-3 like activity and TUNEL staining cells. It was also found that the sphingosine and sphinganine level increased in a time- and dose-dependent manner within 12 h after the FTY720 treatment. The sphingosine kinase activity was reduced by FTY720 as much as other sphingosine kinase inhibitors, N, N-dimethylsphingosine (DMS), dl-threo-dihydrosphingosine (DHS). The fragmented DNA content as a result of the 20 ??M of FTY720 treatment and by 5 ??M of the exogenously added BSA-sphingosine complex indicated typical apoptosis. Under similar conditions, the accumulated sphingosine concentration in all the cells was almost identical even though the sphingosine distribution inside the cells was somewhat different. These results indicate that the FTY720 induced apoptosis is associated with the inhibition of the sphingosine kinase activity and is strongly associated with the successive accumulation of sphingosine.open172

The archaeological contribution of forensic craniofacial reconstruction to a portrait drawing of a Korean historical figure

Craniofacial reconstruction (CFR) is a technique used to rebuild the living facial appearance onto a skull in order to recognise or identify an individual. This technique is primarily employed in forensic investigation, but also utilised in archaeological research to recreate the faces of paleontological and archaeological humans. In this study, the face of a 17th century historical figure from Korea was reconstructed utilising computerized tomography from the mummified remains. A geographic surface comparison programme was employed to evaluate the accuracy of the CFR produced using a three-dimensional computerized modelling system. Analysis of the facial tissue depth discrepancies demonstrated that the CFR may have acceptable resemblance to the living face of the historical individual. Using computerised graphic technology, the CFR outcome, along with the archaeological information about the hair style, ornaments, and dress discovered in the tomb, a portrait-styled in the typical drawing trend from the era was created. The research suggests that current CFR techniques can provide an accurate portrait drawing of historical figures in Korea

Processes and boreal summer impacts of the 2004 El Nino Modoki: An AGCM study

The sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) of tropical Pacific in the boreal summer of 2004 show a distinct tripolar pattern with warm SSTA in the central tropical Pacific, flanked on both sides by cold SSTA. The distinct conditions during the boreal summer of 2004 and the following winter were catalogued as a new coupled phenomenon named El Niño Modoki in a recent generalized study. The 2004 event is unique in the sense that it occurred without any co-occurring IOD, thereby without any possibility of external modulation of its processes and impacts in the tropics. Using observed data since 1979, we show that the 2004 event indeed involves the distinct equatorial coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics different from the conventional El Niño. Further, using an AGCM, we confirm that during boreal summer anomalous twin Walker circulation cells associated with the El Niño Modoki SSTA give rise to observed rainfall anomalies in the tropic

Polymeric biomaterials for the delivery of platinum-based anticancer drugs

Since cisplatin, cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II), received FDA approval for use in cancer treatment in 1978, platinum-based drugs have been one of the most widely used drugs for the treatment of tumors in testicles, ovaries, head and neck. However, there are concerns associated with the use of platinum-based anticancer drugs, owing to severe side effects and drug resistance. In order to overcome these limitations, various drug-delivery systems have been developed based on diverse organic and inorganic materials. In particular, the versatility of polymeric materials facilitates the tuning of drug-delivery systems to meet their primary goals. This review focuses on the progress made over the last five years in the application of polymeric nanoparticles for the delivery of platinum-based anticancer drugs. The present article not only describes the fundamental principles underlying the implementation of polymeric nanomaterials in platinum-based drug delivery, but also summarizes concepts and strategies employed in the development of drug-delivery systems.open112519Ysciescopu

Sorting live stem cells based on Sox2 mRNA expression.

PMCID: PMC3507951This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.While cell sorting usually relies on cell-surface protein markers, molecular beacons (MBs) offer the potential to sort cells based on the presence of any expressed mRNA and in principle could be extremely useful to sort rare cell populations from primary isolates. We show here how stem cells can be purified from mixed cell populations by sorting based on MBs. Specifically, we designed molecular beacons targeting Sox2, a well-known stem cell marker for murine embryonic (mES) and neural stem cells (NSC). One of our designed molecular beacons displayed an increase in fluorescence compared to a nonspecific molecular beacon both in vitro and in vivo when tested in mES and NSCs. We sorted Sox2-MB(+)SSEA1(+) cells from a mixed population of 4-day retinoic acid-treated mES cells and effectively isolated live undifferentiated stem cells. Additionally, Sox2-MB(+) cells isolated from primary mouse brains were sorted and generated neurospheres with higher efficiency than Sox2-MB(-) cells. These results demonstrate the utility of MBs for stem cell sorting in an mRNA-specific manner