Associations between the orexin (hypocretin) receptor 2 gene polymorphism Val308Ile and nicotine dependence in genome-wide and subsequent association studies

Impact of the HCRTR2 gene risk variant on schizotypal personality traits (mean ± SD). (DOC 54 kb

Stabilization Mechanism of the Tetragonal Structure in a Hydrothermally Synthesized BaTiO_3 Nanocrystal

Higher OH concentration is identified in tetragonal barium titanate (BaTiO_3) nanorods synthesized by a hydrothermal method with a 10 vol % ethylene glycol solvent (Inada, M.; et al. Ceram. Int.2015, 41, 5581–5587). This is apparently inconsistent with the known fact that higher OH concentration in the conventional hydrothermal synthesis makes pseudocubic BaTiO_3 nanocrystals more stable than the tetragonal one. To understand where and how the introduced OH anions are located and behave in the nanocrystals, we applied ab initio analysis to several possible microscopic geometries of OH locations, confirming the relative stability of the tetragonal distortion over the pseudocubic one because of the preference of trans-type configurations of OH anions. We also performed Fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction analysis, all being consistent with the microscopic picture established by the ab initio geometrical optimizations

Combined Effects of Soy Isoflavones and β-Carotene on Osteoblast Differentiation

Soy isoflavones, genistein, daidzein and its metabolite equol, as well as β-carotene have been reported to be effective for maintaining bone health. However, it remains to be elucidated whether combining soy isoflavones with β-carotene is beneficial to bone formation. This study investigated the combined effect of soy isoflavones and β-carotene on the differentiation of MC3T3-E1 preosteoblastic cells. Daidzein and genistein alone did not affect cell growth but increased alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. Beta-carotene alone inhibited cell growth and markedly enhanced ALP activity. Soy isoflavones combined with β-carotene resulted in higher ALP activity than treatment with isoflavones or β-carotene alone. We observed significant main effects of β-carotene on the enhanced expression of Runx2, ALP, and ostepontin mRNA, whereas there was a significant main effect of soy isoflavones on the expression of osterix mRNA. To investigate how β-carotene affected osteoblast differentiation, MC3T3-E1 cells were treated with retinoic acid receptor (RAR) pan-antagonist combined with β-carotene. Osteopontin and ALP mRNA expression levels, which were increased following treatment with β-carotene, were significantly suppressed by the RAR pan-antagonist. This suggests treatment with β-carotene enhanced early osteoblastic differentiation, at least in part via RAR signaling. These results indicate that a combination of isoflavones and β-carotene may be useful for maintaining a positive balance of bone turnover by inducing osteoblast differentiation