Acute Effects of Different Stretching Protocols Combined with Potentiating Exercise on Flexibility, Power, and Muscle Performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of different stretching protocols combined with potentiating exercise on flexibility, power, and muscle performance. This study was conducted in repeated and cross-over designed. Thirteen collegiate males aged 25.4±3.46 years voluntarily participated in this study. Prior to conduct stretching session, participants performed jogging on the treadmill for 5 min. Then, four different stretching protocols (non stretching; NS, static stretching; SS, dynamic stretching; DS, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching; PNFS) specially targeted for lower limb muscles combined with potentiating exercise (PE, 3 sets x 5 times tuck jumps) were randomly applied at the same time of the day with 7-days interval. Straight leg raise, and vertical jump tests were measured at baseline, post jogging, stretching, and potentiating exercise. Isokinetic muscle strength, anaerobic power, and agility T-test were measured after each stretching combined with potentiating exercise. Repeated measure ANOVAs were used with significant level set at p\u3c.05. Our results indicate that greater improvement in straight leg raise was observed in SS (9.6%) and PNFS (12.1%) compared to NS (0.6%) and DS (5.0%) at post stretching (p\u3c.001). However, vertical jump performance was significantly improved only in DS (1.8%) (p\u3c.001). After potentiating exercise, greater improvement of vertical jump performance was observed in NS (2.2%), SS (3.2%), and PNFS (6.5%) than DS (-0.4%) (p\u3c.01). Isometric leg flexion was significantly higher in DS and PNFS than NS and SS after completion of PE (p\u3c.05). However, no significant differences in leg extension, anaerobic power, and agility were observed among trials. Our study demonstrated that dynamic and PNF stretching protocols combined with potentiating exercise are efficient for generating muscle strength as well as improving flexibility. It is also noted that potentiating exercise plays a major role for preventing the acute loss of power induced by static and PNF stretching

A proteomic atlas of senescence-associated secretomes for aging biomarker development.

The senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) has recently emerged as a driver of and promising therapeutic target for multiple age-related conditions, ranging from neurodegeneration to cancer. The complexity of the SASP, typically assessed by a few dozen secreted proteins, has been greatly underestimated, and a small set of factors cannot explain the diverse phenotypes it produces in vivo. Here, we present the "SASP Atlas," a comprehensive proteomic database of soluble proteins and exosomal cargo SASP factors originating from multiple senescence inducers and cell types. Each profile consists of hundreds of largely distinct proteins but also includes a subset of proteins elevated in all SASPs. Our analyses identify several candidate biomarkers of cellular senescence that overlap with aging markers in human plasma, including Growth/differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), stanniocalcin 1 (STC1), and serine protease inhibitors (SERPINs), which significantly correlated with age in plasma from a human cohort, the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). Our findings will facilitate the identification of proteins characteristic of senescence-associated phenotypes and catalog potential senescence biomarkers to assess the burden, originating stimulus, and tissue of origin of senescent cells in vivo

Pancreatic Endocrine Tumors: A Report on a Patient Treated with Sorafenib

A 31-yr-old man with abdominal pain was diagnosed with a pancreatic endocrine tumor and multiple hepatic metastases. Despite optimal treatment with interferon alpha, a somatostatin analog, local therapy with high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation for multiple hepatic metastases, and multiple lines of chemotherapy with etoposide/cisplatin combination chemotherapy and gemcitabine monotherapy, the tumor progressed. As few chemotherapeutic options were available for him, sorafenib (800 mg/day, daily) was administered as a salvage regimen. Sorafenib was continued despite two episodes of grade 3 skin toxicity; it delayed tumor progression compared to the previous immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Serial computed tomography scans showed that the primary and metastatic tumors were stable. Thirteen months after beginning targeted therapy, and up to the time of this report, the patient is well without disease progression. We suggest that sorafenib is effective against pancreatic endocrine tumors

The Evolutionarily Conserved LIM Homeodomain Protein LIM-4/LHX6 Specifies the Terminal Identity of a Cholinergic and Peptidergic C. elegans Sensory/Inter/Motor Neuron-Type

The expression of specific transcription factors determines the differentiated features of postmitotic neurons. However, the mechanism by which specific molecules determine neuronal cell fate and the extent to which the functions of transcription factors are conserved in evolution are not fully understood. In C. elegans, the cholinergic and peptidergic SMB sensory/inter/motor neurons innervate muscle quadrants in the head and control the amplitude of sinusoidal movement. Here we show that the LIM homeobox protein LIM-4 determines neuronal characteristics of the SMB neurons. In lim-4 mutant animals, expression of terminal differentiation genes, such as the cholinergic gene battery and the flp-12 neuropeptide gene, is completely abolished and thus the function of the SMB neurons is compromised. LIM-4 activity promotes SMB identity by directly regulating the expression of the SMB marker genes via a distinct cis-regulatory motif. Two human LIM-4 orthologs, LHX6 and LHX8, functionally substitute for LIM-4 in C. elegans. Furthermore, C. elegans LIM-4 or human LHX6 can induce cholinergic and peptidergic characteristics in the human neuronal cell lines. Our results indicate that the evolutionarily conserved LIM-4/LHX6 homeodomain proteins function in generation of precise neuronal subtypes

A Single Recurrent Mutation in the 5′-UTR of IFITM5 Causes Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type V

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heterogenous group of genetic disorders of bone fragility. OI type V is an autosomal-dominant disease characterized by calcification of the forearm interosseous membrane, radial head dislocation, a subphyseal metaphyseal radiodense line, and hyperplastic callus formation; the causative mutation involved in this disease has not been discovered yet. Using linkage analysis in a four-generation family and whole-exome sequencing, we identified a heterozygous mutation of c.−14C>T in the 5′-untranslated region of a gene encoding interferon-induced transmembrane protein 5 (IFITM5). It completely cosegregated with the disease in three families and occurred de novo in five simplex individuals. Transfection of wild-type and mutant IFITM5 constructs revealed that the mutation added five amino acids (Met-Ala-Leu-Glu-Pro) to the N terminus of IFITM5. Given that IFITM5 expression and protein localization is restricted to the skeletal tissue and IFITM5 involvement in bone formation, we conclude that this recurrent mutation would have a specific effect on IFITM5 function and thus cause OI type V

Evaluation of fatty acids in groomed fingerprint by gas chromatographic analysis using various extraction solvents and treatment methods

Extremely small amounts of fatty acids detected in latent fingerprints are important for studying fingerprint visualization and age determination through changes in composition over time. However, methods for efficiently extracting or recovering fatty acids from fingerprints have not been extensively studied. If accurate and stable quantitative estimations are established, age estimates will be possible through a better understanding of the fatty acid composition. The extraction solvent and treatment method are essential factors for achieving a reliable analysis of fatty acids. There have been few previous studies that efficiently compared fatty acids. In this study, fatty acids from sebaceous fingerprint residues were quantified with various extraction solvents and treatment methods and were evaluated with gas chromatography flame ionization detection (GC-FID). All data were analyzed using a statistical method.Center for Research and Development of Police science and Technology and Korean National Police Agency (PA-H000001) The Korea government (Ministry of Education) (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03030163) The Korea government (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning) (MSIP) (No. NRF-2018M3C1B7020722) The Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (Grant Number:) (HI14C1277) Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2017M3A9E9072939) Seoul National University Hospital Research Fund (Grant 26-2015-0030

Evaluation of a competitive ELISA for antibody detection against avian influenza virus

Active serologic surveillance is necessary to control the spread of the avian influenza virus (AIV). In this study, we evaluated a commercially-available cELISA in terms of its ability to detect AIV antibodies in the sera of 3,358 animals from twelve species. cELISA detected antibodies against reference H1- through H15-subtype AIV strains without cross reactivity. Furthermore, the cELISA was able to detect antibodies produced following a challenge of the AIV H9N2 subtype in chickens, or following vaccination of the AIV H9 or H5 subtypes in chickens, ducks and geese. Next, we tested the sensitivity and specificity of the cELISA with sera from twelve different animal species, and compared these results with those obtained by the hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test, the "gold standard" in AIV sera surveillance, a second commercially-available cELISA (IZS ELISA), or the agar gel precipitation (AGP) test. Compared with the HI test, the sensitivities and specificities of cELISA were 95% and 96% in chicken, 86% and 88% in duck, 97% and 100% in turkey, 100% and 87% in goose, and 91% and 97% in swine, respectively. The sensitivities and specificities of the cELISA in this study were higher than those of IZS ELISA for the duck, turkey, goose, and grey partridge sera samples. The results of AGP test against duck and turkey sera also showed significant correlation with the results of cELISA (R-value >0.9). In terms of flock sensitivity, the cELISA correlated better with the HI test than with commercially-available indirect ELISAs, with 100% flock sensitivity

A database of 5305 healthy Korean individuals reveals genetic and clinical implications for an East Asian population

Despite substantial advances in disease genetics, studies to date have largely focused on individuals of European descent. This limits further discoveries of novel functional genetic variants in other ethnic groups. To alleviate the paucity of East Asian population genome resources, we established the Korean Variant Archive 2 (KOVA 2), which is composed of 1896 whole-genome sequences and 3409 whole-exome sequences from healthy individuals of Korean ethnicity. This is the largest genome database from the ethnic Korean population to date, surpassing the 1909 Korean individuals deposited in gnomAD. The variants in KOVA 2 displayed all the known genetic features of those from previous genome databases, and we compiled data from Korean-specific runs of homozygosity, positively selected intervals, and structural variants. In doing so, we found loci, such as the loci of ADH1A/1B and UHRF1BP1, that are strongly selected in the Korean population relative to other East Asian populations. Our analysis of allele ages revealed a correlation between variant functionality and evolutionary age. The data can be browsed and downloaded from a public website (https://www.kobic.re.kr/kova/). We anticipate that KOVA 2 will serve as a valuable resource for genetic studies involving East Asian populations