Physiological characterization of a glacier living cyanobacterium, Phormidesmis priestleyi culture strain

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions : [OB] Polar Biology, Wed. 4 Dec. / Entrance Hall (1st floor) , National Institute of Polar Researc

The 70-kD heat shock cognate protein (hsc70) facilitates the nuclear export of the import receptors

Transport receptors of the importin β family continuously shuttle between the nucleus and cytoplasm. We previously reported that the nuclear export of importin β involves energy-requiring step(s) in living cells. Here, we show that the in vitro nuclear export of importin β also requires energy input. Cytosol, depleted of ATP-binding proteins, did not support the sufficient nuclear export of importin β. Further purification revealed that the active component in the absorbed fraction was a 70-kD heat shock cognate protein (hsc70). The addition of recombinant hsc70, but not an ATPase-deficient hsc70 mutant, to the depleted cytosol restored the export activity. In living cells, depletion of hsc70 caused the significant nuclear accumulation of importin β. These effects of hsc70 were observed in the nuclear export of importin β, but also for other import receptors, transportin and importin α. These results suggest that hsc70 broadly modulates nucleocytoplasmic transport systems by regulating the nuclear export of receptor proteins

Rapid production of engineered human primary hepatocyte/fibroblast sheets

This data article contains data related to the research article entitled "Vascularized subcutaneous human liver tissue from engineered hepatocyte/fibroblast sheets in mice," published in Biomaterials [1]. Engineered hepatocyte/fibroblast sheets (EHFSs) are used for construction of vascularized subcutaneous liver tissue without a pre-transplant vascularization procedures. Here, we described a rapid production technique of EHFSs by controlling fibroblast density and coating fetal bovine serum (FBS) onto temperature-responsive culture dishes (TRCDs). The human fibroblast monolayer formed on FBS-coated TRCDs within 1h when seeded at a high density (at least 1.56×105cells/cm2). The most rapid EHFS production was achieved soon after the adhesion of human primary hepatocytes onto the fibroblast layer

Study of childcare anxieties and way coping in O city

本研究の目的は,母親たちが育児に関して直面している不安を把握し,その不安に対する保健師の対処の実態を明らかにすることである｡そこでO市にあるN保健センターの家庭訪問と月1回の育児相談会において,保健師が受けた育児に関する相談を分析した｡対象はN保健センター管内の4つの地区で,1歳2ヶ月未満の児を持つ母親からの216件の相談内容である｡その結果,母親たちの育児不安で最も多かったのは児の身体や栄養についてであった｡さらに不安は出産順位によっても差があり,また児の月齢により変化し,その内容は児の成長発達と深く関係していた｡そして,育児に関する情報は増えているものの,個別性に欠けていることや,母親たちの知識に偏りがあることも明らかになった｡これらの結果をもとに,現在の母親が抱える不安の傾向を考察し,N保健センターで実施している育児支援活動を踏まえ,母親の不安の対処について検討した｡The purpose of this study is to identify childcare anxieties of mothers and how public health nurses cope with them. The data was collected from the contents of 216 consultations of mothers with children under 14th months of age carried by public health nurses of N public health center, O city. It was revealed that most of the consultations were about child's physical and nutritious concerns. The childcare anxieties associated with growth and birth order and the child's age in months. Moreover, we found that even though there is a large volume of information available about childcare, it is too general. Based on the research findings, we made clear tendency of childcare anxiety of mothers and how the public health nurses coped with them

Removal of accidentally ingested large foreign object via the anus after watchful waiting

One of the commonest complaints, for which a patient arrives in hospitals, is the presence of foreign body. It could be due to accidental ingestion or any other cause which leads to presences of a foreign body in the gastrointestinal tract. It is believed that foreign objects larger than 5–6 cm in size are unlikely to pass through the duodenum. Here, we describe a case wherein the patient accidentally swallowed a 7-cm-sized mouthguard that could not be removed by emergency upper gastrointestinal endoscopy but was subsequently removed via the anus after a period of watchful waiting

SNPInterForest: A new method for detecting epistatic interactions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multiple genetic factors and their interactive effects are speculated to contribute to complex diseases. Detecting such genetic interactive effects, i.e., epistatic interactions, however, remains a significant challenge in large-scale association studies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed a new method, named SNPInterForest, for identifying epistatic interactions by extending an ensemble learning technique called random forest. Random forest is a predictive method that has been proposed for use in discovering single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are most predictive of the disease status in association studies. However, it is less sensitive to SNPs with little marginal effect. Furthermore, it does not natively exhibit information on interaction patterns of susceptibility SNPs. We extended the random forest framework to overcome the above limitations by means of (i) modifying the construction of the random forest and (ii) implementing a procedure for extracting interaction patterns from the constructed random forest. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated by simulated data under a wide spectrum of disease models. SNPInterForest performed very well in successfully identifying pure epistatic interactions with high precision and was still more than capable of concurrently identifying multiple interactions under the existence of genetic heterogeneity. It was also performed on real GWAS data of rheumatoid arthritis from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC), and novel potential interactions were reported.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>SNPInterForest, offering an efficient means to detect epistatic interactions without statistical analyses, is promising for practical use as a way to reveal the epistatic interactions involved in common complex diseases.</p

Vascularized subcutaneous human liver tissue from engineered hepatocyte/fibroblast sheets in mice

Subcutaneous liver tissue engineering is an attractive and minimally invasive approach used to curative treat hepatic failure and inherited liver diseases. However, graft failure occurs frequently due to insufficient infiltration of blood vessels (neoangiogenesis), while the maintenance of hepatocyte phenotype and function requires invivo development of the complex cellular organization of the hepatic lobule. Here we describe a subcutaneous human liver construction allowing for rapidly vascularized grafts by transplanting engineered cellular sheets consisting of human primary hepatocytes adhered onto a fibroblast layer. The engineered hepatocyte/fibroblast sheets (EHFSs) showed superior expression levels of vascularization-associated growth factors (vascular endothelial growth factor, transforming growth factor beta 1, and hepatocyte growth factor) invitro. EHFSs developed into vascularized subcutaneous human liver tissues contained glycogen stores, synthesized coagulation factor IX, and showed significantly higher synthesis rates of liver-specific proteins (albumin and alpha 1 anti-trypsin) invivo than tissues from hepatocyte-only sheets. The present study describes a new approach for vascularized human liver organogenesis under mouse skin. This approach could prove valuable for establishing novel cell therapies for liver diseases

Indices calculated by serum creatinine and cystatin C as predictors of liver damage, muscle strength and sarcopenia in liver disease

Serum creatinine (Cr)-based glomerular filtration rate (CrGFR) is overestimated in liver disease. The present study evaluated whether the difference in CrGFR and cystatin C (CysC) GFR (dGFR) is significant in liver disease. The Cr-to-CysC ratio and sarcopenia index (SI) have been reported to correlate with muscle volume. An estimated total body muscle mass with Cr, CysC and calculated body muscle mass (CBMM) has also been reported to correlate with muscle mass. The applicability of dGFR, SI and CBMM for liver disease were evaluated. A total of 313 patients with liver damage were evaluated for Child-Pugh score, albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score, model for end-stage liver disease, fibrosis-4, Cr, CysC, Cr-based estimated GFR (CreGFR), CysCGFR and grip strength. Of the 313 patients, 199 were evaluated using cross-sectional computed tomography (CT) of the third lumbar vertebra to determine the skeletal muscle (SM) mass. dGFR, CBMM and SI were compared to liver damage, muscle strength and muscle mass. In the 313 patients, dGFR was correlated with age, ALBI and grip strength; CBMM was correlated with body mass index (BMI) and grip strength; and SI was correlated with BMI and grip strength. In patients evaluated with CT, the correlation coefficients for CBMM and SI with SM were 0.804 and 0.293, respectively. Thus, CBMM and SI were associated with sarcopenia. The relationship between dGFR and ALBI does not differ with different grades of CrGFR-based chronic kidney disease (CKD). dGFR is a marker of liver damage and muscle strength regardless of CKD. CBMM and SI are markers for sarcopenia in liver disease