Proteolytic release of the carboxy-terminal fragment of proHB-EGF causes nuclear export of PLZF

Cleavage of membrane-anchored heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (proHB-EGF) via metalloprotease activation yields amino- and carboxy-terminal regions (HB-EGF and HB-EGF-C, respectively), with HB-EGF widely recognized as a key element of epidermal growth factor receptor transactivation in G protein–coupled receptor signaling. Here, we show a biological role of HB-EGF-C in cells. Subsequent to proteolytic cleavage of proHB-EGF, HB-EGF-C translocated from the plasma membrane into the nucleus. This translocation triggered nuclear export of the transcriptional repressor, promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF), which we identify as an HB-EGF-C binding protein. Suppression of cyclin A and delayed entry of S-phase in cells expressing PLZF were reversed by the production of HB-EGF-C. These results indicate that released HB-EGF-C functions as an intracellular signal and coordinates cell cycle progression with HB-EGF

Millimeter-wave Evolution for 5G Cellular Networks

Triggered by the explosion of mobile traffic, 5G (5th Generation) cellular network requires evolution to increase the system rate 1000 times higher than the current systems in 10 years. Motivated by this common problem, there are several studies to integrate mm-wave access into current cellular networks as multi-band heterogeneous networks to exploit the ultra-wideband aspect of the mm-wave band. The authors of this paper have proposed comprehensive architecture of cellular networks with mm-wave access, where mm-wave small cell basestations and a conventional macro basestation are connected to Centralized-RAN (C-RAN) to effectively operate the system by enabling power efficient seamless handover as well as centralized resource control including dynamic cell structuring to match the limited coverage of mm-wave access with high traffic user locations via user-plane/control-plane splitting. In this paper, to prove the effectiveness of the proposed 5G cellular networks with mm-wave access, system level simulation is conducted by introducing an expected future traffic model, a measurement based mm-wave propagation model, and a centralized cell association algorithm by exploiting the C-RAN architecture. The numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed network to realize 1000 times higher system rate than the current network in 10 years which is not achieved by the small cells using commonly considered 3.5 GHz band. Furthermore, the paper also gives latest status of mm-wave devices and regulations to show the feasibility of using mm-wave in the 5G systems.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted to be published in IEICE Transactions on Communications. (Mar. 2015

Unusual progression of herpes simplex encephalitis with basal ganglia and extensive white matter involvement

We report a 51-year old male with herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) showing unusual progression and magnetic resonance (MR) findings. The initial neurological manifestation of intractable focal seizure with low-grade fever persisted for three days, and rapidly coma, myoclonic status, and respiratory failure with high-grade fever emerged thereafter. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) result of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was positive for HSV-1 DNA. In the early stage, MR images (MRI) were normal. On subsequent MR diffusion-weighted (DW) and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images, high-intensity areas first appeared in the left frontal cortex, which was purely extra-temporal involvement, and extended into the basal ganglia, then the white matter, which are relatively spared in HSE. Antiviral therapy and immunosuppressive therapy did not suppress the progression of HSE, and finally severe cerebral edema developed into cerebral herniation, which required emergency decompressive craniectomy. Histological examination of a biopsy specimen of the white matter detected perivascular infiltration and destruction of basic structure, which confirmed non specific inflammatory change without obvious edema or demyelination. The present case shows both MR and pathological findings in the white matter in the acute stage of HSE

Cell motion predicts human epidermal stemness

Image-based identification of cultured stem cells and noninvasive evaluation of their proliferative capacity advance cell therapy and stem cell research. Here we demonstrate that human keratinocyte stem cells can be identified in situ by analyzing cell motion during their cultivation. Modeling experiments suggested that the clonal type of cultured human clonogenic keratinocytes can be efficiently determined by analysis of early cell movement. Image analysis experiments demonstrated that keratinocyte stem cells indeed display a unique rotational movement that can be identified as early as the two-cell stage colony. We also demonstrate that α6 integrin is required for both rotational and collective cell motion. Our experiments provide, for the first time, strong evidence that cell motion and epidermal stemness are linked. We conclude that early identification of human keratinocyte stem cells by image analysis of cell movement is a valid parameter for quality control of cultured keratinocytes for transplantation