Utility of rekkotoken （Rhododendron anthopogonoides Maxim), Tibetan herbal medicine, as cosmetics

研究ノート (Note

Cnm of Streptococcus mutans is important for cell surface structure and membrane permeability

Streptococcus mutans, a Gram-positive facultative anaerobic bacterium, is a major pathogen of dental caries. The protein Cnm of S. mutans is involved in collagen binding, but its other biological functions are unknown. In this study, a Cnm-deficient isogenic mutant and a complementation strain were generated from a Cnm-positive S. mutans strain to help determine the properties of Cnm. Initially, comparison of the cell surface structure was performed by electron microscopy, which demonstrated that Cnm appears to be localized on the cell surface and associated with a protruding cell surface structure. Deep RNA sequencing of the strains revealed that the defect in Cnm caused upregulated expression of many genes related to ABC transporters and cell-surface proteins, while a few genes were downregulated. The amount of biofilm formed by the Cnm-defective strain increased compared with the parental and complemented strains, but the biofilm structure was thinner because of elevated expression of genes encoding glucan synthesis enzymes, leading to increased production of extracellular polysaccharides. Particular antibiotics, including bacitracin and chloramphenicol, had a lower minimum inhibitory concentration for the Cnm-defective strain than particular antibiotics, including bacitracin and chloramphenicol, compared with the parental and complemented strains. Our results suggest that S. mutans Cnm is located on the cell surface, gives rise to the observed protruding cell surface, and is associated with several biological properties related to membrane permeability

Application of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system for molecular breeding of orchids

Orchid is an important ornamental plant in Indonesia due to their natural beauty of flowers. In the tropical forest, orchids are being acquired for trading and commercial market. Thus, the effort is required to proliferate orchid in large quantities for conservation and improve the floral variation for plant breeding. The purpose of this study is to develop a firmed methodology of molecular breeding of orchids using CRISPR/Cas9 KO system. The plant material used was Phalaenopsis amabilis protocorms growth on NP medium+pepton (2 g/L). Protocorm were submerged in the culture of Agrobacterium tumefaciens that Ti‐plasmid had been filled with a T‐DNA construct of a pRGEB32 vector harboring sgRNA with PDS3 sequence. Detection for transformants was confirmed by PCR using HPT primers (545 bp), Cas9 primers (402 bp), PDS primers (280 bp) and trnL‐F (1200 bp) as an internal control. The results showed that 0.96% PDS transformants were obtained from PDS3T2 lines. Several transformant showed pale leaf color compared to non‐transformant plants. This study suggests that the target gene has successfully edited by CRISPR/Cas9 system and could be applied for that functional gene editing in orchids

胃部分切除一症例でのイトラコナゾール固形製剤と内用液剤投与後の血中濃度比較

In this paper, we report that in pulmonary aspergillosis patient who had history of resection of the stomach, the blood concentrations of itraconazole（ITCZ）and its active metabolite, hydroxy-ITCZ（OHITCZ） after taking oral solid formulation of ITCZ were remarkably low, whereas their blood concentrations significantly increased after switching from the solid formulation to the solution formulation.During administration of the ITCZ tablets（200 mg/day）, trough blood concentration of ITCZ and OH-ITCZ were 15 ng/mL and 18 ng/mL, respectively. On the other hand, when it was switched from the tablet to the oral solution（200 mg/day as ITCZ）, blood concentrations of ITCZ and OH-ITCZ increased to 1056 ng/mL and 1492 ng/mL, respectively. It was considered that the absorption of ITCZ tablets declined because the gastric acid secretion ability of the patients was decreased by gastrectomy.研究ノー

若年性乳腺線維腺腫

A １２-year-old, premenarchal girl with a rapidly growing breast lump was transferred to our hospital. Ultrasonography revealed a ７．９×７．７×３．３cm large well-circumscribed hypoechoic tumor in the medial region of her right breast. After ２ months of this first visit, the breast lump had enlarged to１０ cm in diameter and was consequently subjected to a wide excision. Size of the tumor was９．５×９．２×３．０cm. Histopathological diagnosis was fibroadenoma without any malignant component. One year after the operation, a new lump with a diameter of４cm was detected in the lateral region of her right breast that had a similar appearance of the previous tumor. The tumor was excised as earlier and diagnosed as fibroadenoma. We present an extremely rare case of a rapidly growing breast fibroadenoma in a premenarchal girl. To the best of our knowledge, there were only ２１ cases reported in Japan. Since the patient is concerned that another asynchronous fibroadenoma might occur, she needs a long-term and careful follow-up

カルパペネム系抗菌薬・メロペネムの血液試料中での安定性に関する研究

Meropenem is a relatively unstable compound when dissolved; therefore, in studying pharmacokinetics (PK), accurate PK analysis may be interrupted depending on the handling of collected blood samples because it also rapidly degrades during processing and preserving of the blood samples. Thus, prior to PK studies, we determined the stability of meropenem in plasma with and without the same volume of 1 M 3-(N-morpholino)-propane-sulfonic acid (MOPS) buffer as a stabilizer were preserved under the conditions of -80℃, -20℃, 4℃ and 25℃, and the remaining meropenem level upon high-performance liquid chromatography at 1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60, 120 and 180 days following preservation was measured to calculate the meropenem residual rate. The residual rate of plasma samples preserved at -80℃ was 95% or higher for 180 days. On the other hand, under the preservation condition over -20℃, the residual rate at 1 day following preservation was less than 95%. The stability of plasma sample was improved by adding MOPS buffer, and the residual rate was 95% or higher for 7 days at -20℃. Therefore, plasma samples for PK study of meropenem should be added MOPS buffer and preserved in a frozen state.研究ノー

CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). III. Dynamical effect on molecular gas density and star formation in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4303

We present the results of $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) and $^{13}$CO($J$=1-0) simultaneous mappings toward the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 4303 as a part of the CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) project. Barred spiral galaxies often show lower star-formation efficiency (SFE) in their bar region compared to the spiral arms. In this paper, we examine the relation between the SFEs and the volume densities of molecular gas $n(\rm{H}_2)$ in the eight different regions within the galactic disk with CO data combined with archival far-ultraviolet and 24 $\mu$m data. We confirmed that SFE in the bar region is lower by 39% than that in the spiral arms. Moreover, velocity-alignment stacking analysis was performed for the spectra in the individual regions. The integrated intensity ratios of $^{12}$CO to $^{13}$CO ($R_{12/13}$) range from 10 to 17 as the results of stacking. Fixing a kinetic temperature of molecular gas, $n(\rm{H}_2)$ was derived from $R_{12/13}$ via non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) analysis. The density $n(\rm{H}_2)$ in the bar is lower by 31-37% than that in the arms and there is a rather tight positive correlation between SFEs and $n(\rm{H}_2)$, with a correlation coefficient of $\sim 0.8$. Furthermore, we found a dependence of $n(\rm{H}_2)$ on the velocity dispersion of inter-molecular clouds ($\Delta V/ \sin i$). Specifically, $n(\rm{H}_2)$ increases as $\Delta V/ \sin i$ increases when $\Delta V/ \sin i < 100$ km s$^{-1}$. On the other hand, $n(\rm{H}_2)$ decreases as $\Delta V/ \sin i$ increases when $\Delta V/ \sin i > 100$ km s$^{-1}$. These relations indicate that the variations of SFE could be caused by the volume densities of molecular gas, and the volume densities could be governed by the dynamical influence such as cloud-cloud collisions, shear and enhanced inner-cloud turbulence.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PAS