Pollock oil supplementation modulates hyperlipidemia and ameliorates hepatic steatosis in mice fed a high-fat diet

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hyperlipidemia associated with obesity is closely related to the development of atherosclerosis. Both n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and long-chain monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs; i.e., C20:1 and C22:1 isomers) supplementation modulate risk factors for metabolic syndrome via multiple mechanisms, including the restoration of impaired lipid metabolism. We therefore examined the effects of pollock oil, which contains a considerable amount of n-3 PUFAs as well as long-chain MUFAs, on plasma hyperlipidemia and hepatic steatosis in diet-induced obese mice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male C57BL/6J mice (24-26 g) were divided into two groups (n = 10/group) and were fed a high-fat diet containing 32% lard (control group) or 17% lard plus 15% pollock oil (experimental group) for 6 weeks. For both groups, fat comprised 60% of the total caloric intake.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although body and liver masses for the two groups did not differ significantly, hepatic lipids concentrations (triglycerides and total cholesterols) were lower (<it>P </it>< 0.05) after pollock oil ingestion. After 2 weeks on the specified diets, plasma lipid levels (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides) significantly decreased (<it>P </it>< 0.05) in the experimental group compared with the control group, although plasma HDL cholesterol levels did not differ. At the end of 6 weeks, plasma adiponectin levels increased (<it>P </it>< 0.05), whereas plasma resistin and leptin levels decreased (<it>P </it>< 0.05) in the experimental mice. Increased levels of long-chain MUFAs and n-3 PUFAs in plasma, liver and adipose tissue by ingesting pollock oil were possibly correlated to these favorable changes. Expression of hepatic genes involved in cholesterol metabolism (<it>SREBP2</it>, <it>HMGCR</it>, and <it>ApoB</it>) and lipogenesis (<it>SREPB1c</it>, <it>SCD-1</it>, <it>FAS</it>, and <it>Acac</it>α) was suppressed in the experimental group, and may have favorably affected hyperlipidemia and hepatic steatosis induced by the high-fat diet.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We demonstrated that pollock oil supplementation effectively improved hyperlipidemia, attenuated hepatic steatosis, and downregulated the express of hepatic genes involved in cholesterol and lipid metabolism in mice with diet-induced obesity.</p

Analysis of Communication between Inpatient Children and Their Mothers - I -

We observed the communication between inpatient children and their mothers mainly at the scenes of "play", "drug administration", and "meal" and classified their communication state into 6 types to evaluate the mother-child relationship. The 6 types were such as, good response type (Type I), repair type (Type II) , good response discontinuation type (Type III), response setback type (Type IV), rejective ending type (Type V), rejectin type (Type VI). 1. Sixty-two communication scenes were evaluated in 10 mother-child pairs. 2. Concerning child\u27s words and behavior, attachment for their mothers was observed at 82.5% of the "play" scenes. However, both attachment and rejection were observed at similar percentages of "drug administration" or "meal" scenes . 3. Concerning mother\u27s responses, good responses were most frequently observed at play scenes (88.0%). At "meal" scenes, good responses, good response discontinuation, and rejection were observed. In "drug administration" scenes, no rejection was observed. 4. The mother-child communication was classified into 6 types according to mother\u27s responses. 5. Type I and II indicating good responses were most frequently observed (77.4% of the scenes) . Type V and VI indicating rejective responses were observed in 9.7% of the scenes. 6. In "play" and "drug administration" scenes, good com- munication types were frequently observed. In "meal" scenes, various types were present. 7. The frequency of the communication types indicating rejection was significantly lower in relatively aged mothers group than in young mothers. It is clinically important to clarify the association between mother-child communication types and the situation in which the mother and child are placed based on the results of this study. The participation-observation method used in this study is an effective method of evaluating the relationship between inpatient children and their mothers for appro- priate nursing support

乳房切断術患者の術後遠隔期におけるQOLに関する研究

根治的乳房切断術を受けた乳癌患者137例について，術後遠隔時のQOLをアンケート調査票を送付して行った．QOLの構成因子を患側上肢の機能障害，Activity　of　Daily　Life（以下ADL），State of　Daily　Life（以下SDL），就労状況，身体的活動意欲，精神的活動意欲，手術満足度，癌再発不安度，ボディ・イメージの変容とした．患側上肢の自覚症状として，腫脹32％，筋力低下25％，疼痛14％，可動域制限14％，知覚異常7％が認められた．ADLを各項目別に検討すると，過半数の例に何らかの支障を認めた．これら機能障害の高度な例では，身体的・精神的活動意欲などの他のQOL因子も有意に不良であった．SDLが術前と不変と回答した例は108例中79％であった．手術不満例は16％であり，上肢の高度機能障害例に多かった．癌再発不安は，65歳以上の高齢者群に比し，65歳未満の若年者群に有意に高く，長期経過例であっても不安は解消されていなかった．乳房喪失というボディ・イメージの変容に対して，大多数の症例がブラジャー，衣服の工夫を行っていた．　以上により種々の程度の上肢の機能障害に対し，各人に適合した補整具の開発やアフタケアを含めた指導や，癌再発不安などに対する継続的な看護が重要であると考えられた．We conducted a questionnaire survey to evaluate the long-term quality of life (QOL) in 137 patients with breast cancer who underwent radical mastectomy. QOL factors consist functional impairment in the upper limb on the affected side, activity of daily life (ADL), state of daily life (SDL), the status of postoperative rehabilitation, mental activities, physical activities, satisfaction of the surgery, anxiety for recurrence of cancer, cosmetic factor (changes in the body image). In the upper limb on the affected side, swelling was observed in 32％, decreased muscle strength in 25％, pain in 14％, limitation in the range of motion in 14％, and sensory impairment in 7％. However, evaluation of the items of the ADL questionnaire revealed specific disturbance in daily life in more than 50％ of respondents. Patients who showed marked functional impairment in this limb had other QOL factors, such as the desire to do mental and physical activiies which were also significantly poor. Of these patients, 108 (79％) replied that state of daily living (SDL) did not change after the survey. Sixteen percent of the patients were not satisfied with the results of their surgery, and they often noted marked functional impairment in the upper limb. Anxiety about recurrence of cancer was more in the middle aged group (65 years or more) than in the aged group (less than 65 old). Anxiety persisted even in patients showing a long survival without regard to aging. Against changes in the body image, ie., loss of the breast, most patients used prosthetic devices in a brassiere and clothes. These results suggested the need to develop prosthetic consultation for each patient, and instruction in post operative care to help prevent functional impairment in the upper limb, continuous nursing intervention to the anxiety about recurrence of cancer might be needed. to various level of the functional impairment in the upper limb

Compound auroral micromorphology: ground-based high-speed imaging

Auroral microphysics still remains partly unexplored. Cutting-edge ground-based optical observations using scientific complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (sCMOS) cameras recently enabled us to observe the fine-scale morphology of bright aurora at magnetic zenith for a variety of rapidly varying features for long uninterrupted periods. We report two interesting examples of combinations of fine-scale rapidly varying auroral features as observed by the sCMOS cameras installed at Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR), Alaska, in February 2014. The first example shows that flickering rays and pulsating modulation simultaneously appeared at the middle of a surge in the pre-midnight sector. The second example shows localized flickering aurora associated with growing eddies at the poleward edge of an arc in the midnight secto

看護基礎教育における心肺蘇生法の習得状況-一次救命処置を中心として-

長崎大学医療技術短期大学部看護学科学生70名を対象に，救急蘇生訓練用人形を用いて，一次救命処置を中心とした心肺蘇生法の学内演習を行った．実技テスト，演習前後の客観テスト，学生の自己評価などをもとに学習効果および今後の課題を検討した．　実技テストでは，チェックリストにそって，各項目ごとに教官が評価した結果，ほとんどの項目で9割以上の学生が合格できた．客観テストでは演習後の平均点は高かったが，知識と技術の統合がされていない項目もあり，指導上の課題と考えられた．また，学生の自己評価では，人工呼吸法が「できなかった」とする学生が多く，気道の確保および維持，また吹き込みもかなり難しい技術であった．一次救命処置は緊急の現場で実践できなければ意昧のない技術であり，反復訓練による習得が必要であると考えられた．Nursing skill training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation as part of the basic life support was conducted in the school using dummies for training emergency resuscitation. This training was participated by 70 students of the Department of Nursing, the School of Allied Medical Sciences, Nagasaki University. The effectiveness of learning and practicing by the students and the problems were analyzed on the basis of their nursing practical test and objective tests before and after the skill exercise. In nursing practical skill test, the instructors evaluated each item on the check list, and more than 90% of the students passed the test for most of the items. In objective test, the average marks after the nursing skill exercise was high. However, knowledge and skill were not integrated in some items, leaving problems for the teaching procedure. In self-evaluation, many students "could not" perform artificial respiration, indicating that keeping airway and mouth-to-mouth ventilation were quite difficult. Basic life support is meaningless if one is unable to perform at an emergency circumstance. Acquisition of the skill by repeated training is considered essential

Long-chain monounsaturated fatty acids improve endothelial function with altering microbial flora

Fish oil-derived long-chain monounsaturated fatty acids (LCMUFAs) with a carbon chain length longer than 18 units ameliorate cardiovascular risk in mice. In this study, we investigated whether LCMUFAs could improve endothelial functions in mice and humans. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multi-center study, healthy subjects were randomly assigned to either an LCMUFA oil (saury oil) or a control oil (olive and tuna oils) group. Sixty subjects were enrolled and administrated each oil for 4 weeks. For the animal study, ApoE−/− mice were fed a Western diet supplemented with 3% of either gadoleic acid (C20:1) or cetoleic acid (C22:1) for 12 weeks. Participants from the LCMUFA group showed improvements in endothelial function and a lower trimethylamine-N-oxide level, which is a predictor of coronary artery disease. C20:1 and C22:1 oils significantly improved atherosclerotic lesions and plasma levels of several inflammatory cytokines, including IL-6 and TNF-α. These beneficial effects were consistent with an improvement in the gut microbiota environment, as evident from the decreased ratio of Firmicutes and/ or Bacteroidetes, increase in the abundance of Akkermansia, and upregulation of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-induced glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) expression and serum GLP-1 level. These data suggest that LCMUFAs alter the microbiota environment that stimulate the production of SCFAs, resulting in the induction of GLP-1 secretion. Fish oil-derived long-chain monounsaturated fatty acids might thus help to protect against cardiovascular disease