Activity concentration of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in the western subarctic area of the North Pacific Ocean in summer 2017

Vertical profiles of radiocesium (134Cs and 137Cs) were measured in the western subarctic area of the North Pacific in 2017. The highest concentration of 134Cs, which was derived from the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, was 0.14 Bq m−3 (or 1.19 Bq m−3 after the decay correction to the accident date). Although the vertical inventory of 134Cs decreased between 2014 and 2017, the inventory in 2017 was larger than that expected. That was probably arose from the return of some portion of the high-concentration water mass along with the anticlockwise subarctic gyre current

Global nutrients data synthesis based on Reference Material of Nutrients of Seawater

Realistic distributions of nitrate, phosphate and silicate and inventories of them in the world’s ocean are basic issues of geochemical study of nitrogen, phosphorous and silicon cycles as well as tracer use of nutrients for deep ocean circulation. WOA09 and WGHC were global hydrographic datasets created by objective analysis and offset correction/objective analysis, respectively. However synthesis using mathematics methods and experience could get apparent global comparability but does not have a firm foundation, therefore accuracy is unknown for nutrients data inWOA05/09 and WGHC. Recently hydrographic dataset such as CARINA and PACIFICA were also created by synthesis. We did global synthesis work based on Reference Material of Nutrients in Seawater (RMNS) for WOCE/CLIVAR cruises datasets, WGHC datasets and some new hydrographic cruises which cover the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. Among 69982 profiles in 5174 cruises, we could put correction factors of nutrients concentration for 14491 profiles in 268 cruises for nitrate, 18378 profiles in 412 cruises for phosphate and 15825 profiles in 268 cruises for silicate. Global Nutrients Dataset 2010, GND10, is newly created as 0.5 deg. [U+F0B4] 0.5 deg. and 50 m interval of 138 levels gridded dataset based on corrected nutrients profiles described above. One feature of GND10 is that nitrate vs. phosphate ratio in deep waters in WOA dataset showed a peak at 14.6 while nitrate vs. phosphate ratio in GND10 showed a peak at 14.3 and kurtosis of frequency distribution of nitrate vs. phosphate ratio is larger in GND10 dataset rather than that in WOA dataset. A reason of larger kurtosis of distribution of nitrate vs. phosphate ratio might be that comparability of nitrate and phosphate concentration data was improved. Newly created GND10 can provide more realistic distribution of nutrients in the world ocean because comparability of nutrients concentration in GND10 is improved based on RMNS. The GND10 would be useful to study changes in the distribution of concentrations of nutrients in the world ocean and also useful as new initial conditions for modelers who studies global changes. Carbonate system data and oxygen data will be merged with factor corrected nutrients data to study coupling of carbonate system and nutrients cycles, too.Poster abstract EGU2013-3742-1, European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2013 (7?12 April, 2013, Vienna, Austria

Severe Hypomyelination and Developmental Defects Are Caused in Mice Lacking Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) in the Central Nervous System

Protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) is involved in cell proliferation, DNA damage response, and transcriptional regulation. While PRMT1 is extensively expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) at embryonic and perinatal stages, the physiological role of PRMT1 was poorly understood. Here, to investigate the primary function of PRMT1 in the CNS, we generated CNS-specific PRMT1 knockout mice by Cre-loxP system. These mice exhibited post-natal growth retardation with tremors and most of them died in two weeks after birth. Brain histological analyses revealed the prominent cell reduction in the white matter tracts of the mutant mice. Furthermore, ultrastructural analysis demonstrated that myelin sheath was almost completely ablated in the CNS of these animals. In agreement with hypomyelination, we also observed that most major myelin proteins including MBP, CNPase, and MAG were dramatically decreased, although neuronal and astrocytic markers were preserved in the brain of CNS-specific PRMT1 knockout mice. These animals had reduced number of OLIG2+ oligodendrocyte lineage cells in the white matter. We found that expressions of transcription factors essential for oligodendrocyte specification and further maturation were significantly suppressed in the brain of the mutant mice. Our findings provide evidence that PRMT1 is required for CNS development, especially for oligodendrocyte maturation processes

A Systematic Approach to Timeseries Metabolite Profiling and RNA-seq Analysis of Chinese Hamster Ovary Cell Culture

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the primary host used for biopharmaceutical protein production. The engineering of CHO cells to produce higher amounts of biopharmaceuticals has been highly dependent on empirical approaches, but recent high-throughput "omics" methods are changing the situation in a rational manner. Omics data analyses using gene expression or metabolite profiling make it possible to identify key genes and metabolites in antibody production. Systematic omics approaches using different types of time-series data are expected to further enhance understanding of cellular behaviours and molecular networks for rational design of CHO cells. This study developed a systematic method for obtaining and analysing time-dependent intracellular and extracellular metabolite profiles, RNA-seq data (enzymatic mRNA levels) and cell counts from CHO cell cultures to capture an overall view of the CHO central metabolic pathway (CMP). We then calculated correlation coefficients among all the profiles and visualised the whole CMP by heatmap analysis and metabolic pathway mapping, to classify genes and metabolites together. This approach provides an efficient platform to identify key genes and metabolites in CHO cell culture

Activation of the pentose phosphate pathway in macrophages is crucial for granuloma formation in sarcoidosis

肉芽腫形成に特異的な代謝経路の発見 --ペントースリン酸回路の制御による新規治療--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-12-01.More than skin-deep: Kyoto researchers discover metabolic pathway specific to granuloma formation in patients. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-12-07.Sarcoidosis is a disease of unknown etiology in which granulomas form throughout the body and is typically treated with glucocorticoids, but there are no approved steroid-sparing alternatives. Here, we investigated the mechanism of granuloma formation using single-cell RNA-Seq in sarcoidosis patients. We observed that the percentages of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2–positive (TREM2-positive) macrophages expressing angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and lysozyme, diagnostic makers of sarcoidosis, were increased in cutaneous sarcoidosis granulomas. Macrophages in the sarcoidosis lesion were hypermetabolic, especially in the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). Expression of the PPP enzymes, such as fructose-1, 6-bisphosphatase 1 (FBP1), was elevated in both systemic granuloma lesions and serum of sarcoidosis patients. Granuloma formation was attenuated by the PPP inhibitors in in vitro giant cell and in vivo murine granuloma models. These results suggest that the PPP may be a promising target for developing therapeutics for sarcoidosis

Synergistic Formation of Radicals by Irradiation with Both Vacuum Ultraviolet and Atomic Hydrogen: A Real-Time In Situ Electron Spin Resonance Study

We report on the surface modification of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as an example of soft- and bio-materials that occur under plasma discharge by kinetics analysis of radical formation using in situ real-time electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements. During irradiation with hydrogen plasma, simultaneous measurements of the gas-phase ESR signals of atomic hydrogen and the carbon dangling bond (C-DB) on PTFE were performed. Dynamic changes of the C-DB density were observed in real time, where the rate of density change was accelerated during initial irradiation and then became constant over time. It is noteworthy that C-DBs were formed synergistically by irradiation with both vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and atomic hydrogen. The in situ real-time ESR technique is useful to elucidate synergistic roles during plasma surface modification.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure