Low-Intensity Resistance Training with Moderate Blood Flow Restriction Appears Safe and Increases Skeletal Muscle Strength and Size in Cardiovascular Surgery Patients:A Pilot Study

We examined the safety and the effects of low-intensity resistance training (RT) with moderate blood flow restriction (KAATSU RT) on muscle strength and size in patients early after cardiac surgery. Cardiac patients (age 69.6 +/- 12.6 years, n = 21, M = 18) were randomly assigned to the control (n = 10) and the KAATSU RT group (n = 11). All patients had received a standard aerobic cardiac rehabilitation program. The KAATSU RT group additionally executed low-intensity leg extension and leg press exercises with moderate blood flow restriction twice a week for 3 months. RT-intensity and volume were increased gradually. We evaluated the anterior mid-thigh thickness (MTH), skeletal muscle mass index (SMI), handgrip strength, knee extensor strength, and walking speed at baseline, 5-7 days after cardiac surgery, and after 3 months. A physician monitored the electrocardiogram, rate of perceived exertion, and the color of the lower limbs during KAATSU RT. Creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and D-dimer were measured at baseline and after 3 months. There were no side effects during KAATSU RT. CPK and D-dimer were normal after 3 months. MTH, SMI, walking speed, and knee extensor strength increased after 3 months with KAATSU RT compared with baseline. Relatively low vs. high physical functioning patients tended to increase physical function more after 3 months with KAATSU RT. Low-intensity KAATSU RT as an adjuvant to standard cardiac rehabilitation can safely increase skeletal muscle strength and size in cardiovascular surgery patients.</p

Blood Flow Restriction Increases the Neural Activation of the Knee Extensors During Very Low-Intensity Leg Extension Exercise in Cardiovascular Patients:A Pilot Study

Blood flow restriction (BFR) has the potential to augment muscle activation, which underlies strengthening and hypertrophic effects of exercise on skeletal muscle. We quantified the effects of BFR on muscle activation in the rectus femoris (RF), the vastus lateralis (VL), and the vastus medialis (VM) in concentric and eccentric contraction phases of low-intensity (10% and 20% of one repetition maximum) leg extension in seven cardiovascular patients who performed leg extension in four conditions: at 10% and 20% intensities with and without BFR. Each condition consisted of three sets of 30 trials with 30 s of rest between sets and 5 min of rest between conditions. Electromyographic activity (EMG) from RF, VL, and VM for 30 repetitions was divided into blocks of 10 trials and averaged for each block in each muscle. At 10% intensity, BFR increased EMG of all muscles across the three blocks in both concentric and eccentric contraction phases. At 20% intensity, EMG activity in response to BFR tended to not to increase further than what it was at 10% intensity. We concluded that very low 10% intensity exercise with BFR may maximize the benefits of BFR on muscle activation and minimize exercise burden on cardiovascular patients

Short Physical Performance Battery for cardiovascular disease inpatients : implications for critical factors and sarcopenia

We examined the relationship between Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and clinical and laboratory factors and the effect of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity (SO) on clinical and laboratory factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) inpatients. CVD male (n=318) and female (n=172) inpatients were recruited. A stepwise multiple-regression analysis was performed to predict total SPPB scores and assess clinical and laboratory factors (physical characteristics, functional and morphological assessments, etc.). Each test outcome were compared among sarcopenia, SO and non-sarcopenic groups. To predict total SPPB scores, the predicted handgrip, Controlling Nutritional Status score, % body fat, anterior mid-thigh muscle thickness, standing height and systolic blood pressure were calculated for males and anterior mid-thigh MTH, BMI, knee extension and fat mass were calculated for females. There were no differences in blood pressure, total SPPB scores and functional assessments between sarcopenia and SO groups for CVD male and female inpatients. In conclusion, the physical performance of CVD inpatients can be predicted by nutritional, functional, clinical and anthropometric variables, regardless the gender and the presence of sarcopenia. Furthermore, the presence of sarcopenia has a negative effect on the clinical and laboratory factors, but there is a difference in impact between sarcopenia and SO regardless the gender

Intrinsic Promoter Activities of Primary DNA Sequences in the Human Genome

In order to understand an overview of promoter activities intrinsic to primary DNA sequences in the human genome within a particular cell type, we carried out systematic quantitative luciferase assays of DNA fragments corresponding to putative promoters for 472 human genes which are expressed in HEK (human embryonic kidney epithelial) 293 cells. We observed the promoter activities of them were distributed in a bimodal manner; putative promoters belonging to the first group (with strong promoter activities) were designated as P1 and the latter (with weak promoter activities) as P2. The frequencies of the TATA-boxes, the CpG islands, and the overall G + C-contents were significantly different between these two populations, indicating there are two separate groups of promoters. Interestingly, similar analysis using 251 randomly isolated genomic DNA fragments showed that P2-type promoter occasionally occurs within the human genome. Furthermore, 35 DNA fragments corresponding to putative promoters of non-protein-coding transcripts (ncRNAs) shared similar features with the P2 in both promoter activities and sequence compositions. At least, a part of ncRNAs, which have been massively identified by full-length cDNA projects with no functional relevance inferred, may have originated from those sporadic promoter activities of primary DNA sequences inherent to the human genome

Removing Gas from a Closed-End Small Hole by Irradiating Acoustic Waves with Two Frequencies

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Removing Gas from a Closed-End Small Hole by Irradiating Acoustic Waves with Two Frequencies

Filling microstructures in the air with liquid or removing trapped gases from a surface in a liquid are required in processes such as cleaning, bonding, and painting. However, it is difficult to deform the gas–liquid interface to fill a small hole with liquid when surface tension has closed one end. Therefore, it is necessary to have an efficient method of removing gas from closed-end holes in liquids. Here, we demonstrate the gas-removing method using acoustic waves from small holes. We observed gas column oscillation by changing the hole size, wettability, and liquid surface tension to clarify the mechanism. First, we found that combining two different frequencies enabled complete gas removal in water within 2 s. From high-speed observation, about half of the removal was dominated by droplet or film formation caused by oscillating the gas column. The other half was dominated by approaching and coalescing the divided gas column. We conclude that the natural frequency of both the air column and the bubbles inside the tube are important

Sequence Comparison of Human and Mouse Genes Reveals a Homologous Block Structure in the Promoter Regions

Comparative sequence analysis was carried out for the regions adjacent to experimentally validated transcriptional start sites (TSSs), using 3324 pairs of human and mouse genes. We aligned the upstream putative promoter sequences over the 1-kb proximal regions and found that the sequence conservation could not be further extended at, on average, 510 bp upstream positions of the TSSs. This discontinuous manner of the sequence conservation revealed a “block” structure in about one-third of the putative promoter regions. Consistently, we also observed that G+C content and CpG frequency were significantly different inside and outside the blocks. Within the blocks, the sequence identity was uniformly 65% regardless of their length. About 90% of the previously characterized transcription factor binding sites were located within those blocks. In 46% of the blocks, the 5′ ends were bounded by interspersed repetitive elements, some of which may have nucleated the genomic rearrangements. The length of the blocks was shortest in the promoters of genes encoding transcription factors and of genes whose expression patterns are brain specific, which suggests that the evolutional diversifications in the transcriptional modulations should be the most marked in these populations of genes