Histological Analysis of Repaired Tissue after Pullout Repair of a Medial Meniscus Posterior Root Tear

A 65-year-old man presented with a left medial meniscus (MM) posterior root tear (PRT). Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty was performed 12 months after transtibial pullout repair of the MMPRT. Repaired MM posterior root tissue was subjected to histological analysis. Immunostaining and picrosirius red staining showed sufficient deposition of type I collagen, and hematoxylin-eosin staining using a polarized microscope showed well-aligned fiber orientation in the repaired tissue. The repaired posterior root (post-transtibial pullout repair) showed mature and well-aligned ligament-like tissue. Preserving the MM posterior root remnant to mimic the original posterior root tissue might be useful when performing pullout repair

TNF-α is essential in the induction of fatal autoimmune hepatitis in mice through upregulation of hepatic CCL20 expression.

It is unclear what roles TNF-α has in the development of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and whether AIH is responsive to anti-TNF-α. We recently developed a mouse model of fatal AIH that develops in PD-1-deficient mice thymectomized three days after birth, finding that CCR6-CCL20 axis-dependent migration of dysregulated splenic T cells is crucial to induce AIH. In this study, we show the indispensable role of TNF-α in the development of AIH. Administering anti-TNF-α prevented the induction, but treatment by anti-TNF-α after the induction did not suppress progression. Administering anti-TNF-α did not prevent splenic T-cell activation, but did suppress hepatic CCL20 expression. In contrast, administering anti-CCL20 suppressed AIH but not elevated serum TNF-α levels. TNF-α stimulation enhanced CCL20 expression in hepatocytes. These findings suggest that TNF-α is essential in the induction of AIH through upregulation of hepatic CCL20 expression, which allows migration of dysregulated splenic T cells

Six-body Light-Front Tamm-Dancoff approximation and wave functions for the massive Schwinger model

The spectrum of the massive Schwinger model in the strong coupling region is obtained by using the light-front Tamm-Dancoff (LFTD) approximation up to including six-body states. We numerically confirm that the two-meson bound state has a negligibly small six-body component. Emphasis is on the usefulness of the information about states (wave functions). It is used for identifying the three-meson bound state among the states below the three-meson threshold. We also show that the two-meson bound state is well described by the wave function of the relative motion.Comment: 19 pages, RevTeX, 7 figures are available upon request; Minor errors have been corrected; Final version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Dose-dependent decrease in anti-oxidant capacity of whole blood after irradiation: A novel potential marker for biodosimetry

Many reports have demonstrated that radiation stimulates reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by mitochondria for a few hours to a few days after irradiation. However, these studies were performed using cell lines, and there is a lack of information about redox homeostasis in irradiated animals and humans. Blood redox homeostasis reflects the body condition well and can be used as a diagnostic marker. However, most redox homeostasis studies have focused on plasma or serum, and the anti-oxidant capacity of whole blood has scarcely been investigated. Here, we report changes in the anti-oxidant capacity of whole blood after X-ray irradiation using C57BL/6 J mice. Whole-blood anti-oxidant capacity was measured by electron spin resonance (ESR) spin trapping using a novel spin-trapping agent, 2-diphenylphosphinoyl-2-methyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrrole N-oxide (DPhPMPO). We found that whole-blood anti-oxidant capacity decreased in a dose-dependent manner (correlation factor, r > 0.9; P < 0.05) from 2 to 24 days after irradiation with 0.5–3 Gy. We further found that the red blood cell (RBC) glutathione level decreased and lipid peroxidation level increased in a dose-dependent manner from 2 to 6 days after irradiation. These findings suggest that blood redox state may be a useful biomarker for estimating exposure doses during nuclear and/or radiation accidents

Mesons in the massive Schwinger model on the light-cone

We investigate mesons in the bosonized massive Schwinger model in the light-front Tamm-Dancoff approximation in the strong coupling region. We confirm that the three-meson bound state has a few percent fermion six-body component in the strong coupling region when expressed in terms of fermion variables, consistent with our previous calculations. We also discuss some qualitative features of the three-meson bound state based on the information about the wave function.Comment: 19 pages, RevTex, included 6 figures which are compressed and uuencode

Dynamics of the Light-Cone Zero Modes: Theta Vacuum of the Massive Schwinger Model

The massive Schwinger model is quantized on the light cone with great care on the bosonic zero modes by putting the system in a finite (light-cone) spatial box. The zero mode of $A_{-}$ survives Dirac's procedure for the constrained system as a dynamical degree of freedom. After regularization and quantization, we show that the physical space condition is consistently imposed and relates the fermion Fock states to the zero mode of the gauge field. The vacuum is obtained by solving a Schr\"odinger equation in a periodic potential, so that the theta is understood as the Bloch momentum. We also construct a one-meson state in the fermion-antifermion sector and obtained the Schr\"odinger equation for it.Comment: 23 pages, RevTex, no figure

Significant effect of polymorphisms in CYP2D6 and ABCC2 on clinical outcomes of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer patients

Purpose The clinical efficacy of tamoxifen is suspected to be influenced by the activity of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters involved in the formation, metabolism, and elimination of its active forms. We investigated relationships of polymorphisms in transporter genes and CYP2D6 to clinical outcome of patients receiving tamoxifen. Patients and Methods We studied 282 patients with hormone receptor–positive, invasive breast cancer receiving tamoxifen monotherapy, including 67 patients who have been previously reported. We investigated the effects of allelic variants of CYP2D6 and haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tag-SNPs) of ABCB1, ABCC2, and ABCG2 on recurrence-free survival using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis. Plasma concentrations of tamoxifen metabolites were measured in 98 patients receiving tamoxifen 20 mg/d. Results CYP2D6 variants were significantly associated with shorter recurrence-free survival (P = .000036; hazard ratio [HR] = 9.52; 95% CI, 2.79 to 32.45 in patients with two variant alleles v patients without variant alleles). Among 51 tag-SNPs in transporter genes, a significant association was found at rs3740065 in ABCC2 (P = .00017; HR = 10.64; 95% CI, 1.44 to 78.88 in patients with AA v GG genotypes). The number of risk alleles of CYP2D6 and ABCC2 showed cumulative effects on recurrence-free survival (P = .000000055). Patients carrying four risk alleles had 45.25-fold higher risk compared with patients with ≤ one risk allele. CYP2D6 variants were associated with lower plasma levels of endoxifen and 4-hydroxytamoxifen (P = .0000043 and .00052), whereas no significant difference was found among ABCC2 genotype groups. Conclusion Our results suggest that polymorphisms in CYP2D6 and ABCC2 are important predictors for the prognosis of patients with breast cancer treated with tamoxifen

The complete genome, comparative and functional analysis of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia reveals an organism heavily shielded by drug resistance determinants

The complete Stenotrophomonas maltophilia genome sequence suggests that it can act as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance determinants

Functional annotation of human long noncoding RNAs via molecular phenotyping

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) constitute the majority of transcripts in the mammalian genomes, and yet, their functions remain largely unknown. As part of the FANTOM6 project, we systematically knocked down the expression of 285 lncRNAs in human dermal fibroblasts and quantified cellular growth, morphological changes, and transcriptomic responses using Capped Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE). Antisense oligonucleotides targeting the same lncRNAs exhibited global concordance, and the molecular phenotype, measured by CAGE, recapitulated the observed cellular phenotypes while providing additional insights on the affected genes and pathways. Here, we disseminate the largest-todate lncRNA knockdown data set with molecular phenotyping (over 1000 CAGE deep-sequencing libraries) for further exploration and highlight functional roles for ZNF213-AS1 and lnc-KHDC3L-2.Peer reviewe

A Novel Testis-specific GTPase Serves as a Link to Proteasome Biogenesis: Functional Characterization of RhoS/RSA-14-44 in Spermatogenesis

We functionally characterized RhoS/RSA-14-44 as a new member of Rho GTPase subfamily in spermatogenesis, which provides a direct link between Rho family GTPase and the proteasome biogenesis