Preferential localization of a vesicular monoamine transporter to dense core vesicles in PC12 cells.

Neurons and endocrine cells have two types of secretory vesicle that undergo regulated exocytosis. Large dense core vesicles (LDCVs) store neural peptides whereas small clear synaptic vesicles store classical neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glycine, and glutamate. However, monoamines differ from other classical transmitters and have been reported to appear in both LDCVs and smaller vesicles. To localize the transporter that packages monoamines into secretory vesicles, we have raised antibodies to a COOH-terminal sequence from the vesicular amine transporter expressed in the adrenal gland (VMAT1). Like synaptic vesicle proteins, the transporter occurs in endosomes of transfected CHO cells, accounting for the observed vesicular transport activity. In rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells, the transporter occurs principally in LDCVs by both immunofluorescence and density gradient centrifugation. Synaptic-like microvesicles in PC12 cells contain relatively little VMAT1. The results appear to account for the storage of monoamines by LDCVs in the adrenal medulla and indicate that VMAT1 provides a novel membrane protein marker unique to LDCVs

Melatonin reduced volume of cerebral infarct induced by photothrombosis in wild-type mice, not in Cyclooxygenase-1 gene knockout mice

Cyclooxygenase (COX) is crucial in inflammation and plays important role in cerebral ischemia. Anti-inflammatory effects of melatonin have been verified in previous studies. In this study, cerebral blood flow (CBF) was monitored during operation, infarct volume (IFV) was determined with 5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and MR image, and neurological functions were evaluated with turn in an alley and fall pole test in both COX-1-gene knockout and wide-type mice with or without melatonin administration 3 days after photothrombosis. CBF reduction, IFV and neurological deficits were not significantly different in COX-1 wild-type and COX-1 knockout mice. Melatonin (15 mg/kg) intraperitoneal injection decreased the CBF reduction, IFV and the latency to turn in an alley in COX-1 wide-type mice, whereas the neuroprotective effect of melatonin was attenuated in COX-1 knockout mice. We concluded that melatonin reduced susceptibility to photothrombotic stroke. COX-1 gene knockout does not alter the susceptibility to cerebral ischemia caused by photothrombosis. COX-1 plays an important role in the pathway of the protection of melatonin.published_or_final_versio

Effective action in a higher-spin background

We consider a free massless scalar field coupled to an infinite tower of background higher-spin gauge fields via minimal coupling to the traceless conserved currents. The set of Abelian gauge transformations is deformed to the non-Abelian group of unitary operators acting on the scalar field. The gauge invariant effective action is computed perturbatively in the external fields. The structure of the various (divergent or finite) terms is determined. In particular, the quadratic part of the logarithmically divergent (or of the finite) term is expressed in terms of curvatures and related to conformal higher-spin gravity. The generalized higher-spin Weyl anomalies are also determined. The relation with the theory of interacting higher-spin gauge fields on anti de Sitter spacetime via the holographic correspondence is discussed.Comment: 40 pages, Some errors and typos corrected, Version published in JHE

Charmonium Absorption in the Meson-exchange Model

We review the meson-exchange model for charmonium absorption by hadrons. This includes the construction of the interaction Lagrangians, the determination of the coupling constants, the introduction of form factors, and the predicted cross sections for $J/\psi$ absorption by both mesons and nucleons. We further discuss the effects due to anomalous parity interactions, uncertainties in form factors, constraints from chiral symmetry, and the change of charmed meson mass in medium on the cross sections for charmonium absorption in hadronic matter.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Talk given at Quark Matter 2002 (QM 2002), Nantes, France, 18-24 July 2002. To appear in the proceedings (Nucl. Phys. A

Multi-valued, singular stochastic evolution inclusions

We provide an abstract variational existence and uniqueness result for multi-valued, monotone, non-coercive stochastic evolution inclusions in Hilbert spaces with general additive and Wiener multiplicative noise. As examples we discuss certain singular diffusion equations such as the stochastic 1-Laplacian evolution (total variation flow) in all space dimensions and the stochastic singular fast diffusion equation. In case of additive Wiener noise we prove the existence of a unique weak-* mean ergodic invariant measure.Comment: 39 pages, in press: J. Math. Pures Appl. (2013

Ordinary-derivative formulation of conformal totally symmetric arbitrary spin bosonic fields

Conformal totally symmetric arbitrary spin bosonic fields in flat space-time of even dimension greater than or equal to four are studied. Second-derivative (ordinary-derivative) formulation for such fields is developed. We obtain gauge invariant Lagrangian and the corresponding gauge transformations. Gauge symmetries are realized by involving the Stueckelberg and auxiliary fields. Realization of global conformal boost symmetries on conformal gauge fields is obtained. Modified de Donder gauge condition and de Donder-Stueckelberg gauge condition are introduced. Using the de Donder-Stueckelberg gauge frame, equivalence of the ordinary-derivative and higher-derivative approaches is demonstrated. On-shell degrees of freedom of the arbitrary spin conformal field are analyzed. Ordinary-derivative light-cone gauge Lagrangian of conformal fields is also presented. Interrelations between the ordinary-derivative gauge invariant formulation of conformal fields and the gauge invariant formulation of massive fields are discussed.Comment: 51 pages, v2: Results and conclusions of v1 unchanged. In Sec.3, brief review of higher-derivative approaches added. In Sec.4, new representations for Lagrangian, modified de Donder gauge, and de Donder-Stueckelberg gauge added. In Sec.5, discussion of interrelations between the ordinary-derivative and higher-derivative approaches added. Appendices A,B,C,D and references adde

Use of functional MRI to evaluate correlation between acupoints and the somatic sensory cortex activities

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Chronic psychosocial and financial burden accelerates 5-year telomere shortening: findings from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study.

Leukocyte telomere length, a marker of immune system function, is sensitive to exposures such as psychosocial stressors and health-maintaining behaviors. Past research has determined that stress experienced in adulthood is associated with shorter telomere length, but is limited to mostly cross-sectional reports. We test whether repeated reports of chronic psychosocial and financial burden is associated with telomere length change over a 5-year period (years 15 and 20) from 969 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, a longitudinal, population-based cohort, ages 18-30 at time of recruitment in 1985. We further examine whether multisystem resiliency, comprised of social connections, health-maintaining behaviors, and psychological resources, mitigates the effects of repeated burden on telomere attrition over 5 years. Our results indicate that adults with high chronic burden do not show decreased telomere length over the 5-year period. However, these effects do vary by level of resiliency, as regression results revealed a significant interaction between chronic burden and multisystem resiliency. For individuals with high repeated chronic burden and low multisystem resiliency (1 SD below the mean), there was a significant 5-year shortening in telomere length, whereas no significant relationships between chronic burden and attrition were evident for those at moderate and higher levels of resiliency. These effects apply similarly across the three components of resiliency. Results imply that interventions should focus on establishing strong social connections, psychological resources, and health-maintaining behaviors when attempting to ameliorate stress-related decline in telomere length among at-risk individuals

A fMRI Study of Correlation Between Acupoints and Brain Cortical Sites Involved in Language Functions

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