Liver-specific γ-glutamyl carboxylase-deficient mice display bleeding diathesis and short life span

Liver-Specific γ-Glutamyl Carboxylase-Deficient Mice Display Bleeding Diathesis and Short Life Span. Azuma K, Tsukui T, Ikeda K, Shiba S, Nakagawa K, et al. PLOS ONE. 2014. 9(2) doi:10.1371/journal.pone.008864

Low-Grade Endometrial Stromal Sarcoma with a Nodule-in-Nodule Appearance in Preoperative Magnetic Resonance Images

Low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma (LG-ESS) is a rare malignant disease and demonstrates various patterns in preoperative imaging. Therefore, accurate diagnosis is important. Given its unique form, we report a case of LG-ESS with a nodule-in-nodule appearance on preoperative imaging. A 41-year-old woman was referred to our department for further examination of a 45 mm diameter uterine corpus mass. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed several small nodules within a larger nodule. T2-weighted images showed moderate-to-high signal intensity with focal bands of low signal intensity in the small nodules. The patient underwent total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. Histopathological findings of the small nodules showed densely concentrated endometrial stromal cells reminiscent of a proliferative phase endometrium with a concentric arrangement of small spiral arteriole-like vessels. The small nodules exhibited an expansile growth pattern and were surrounded by less densely concentrated endometrial stromal cells intermingled with the normal uterine myometrium. LG-ESS with smooth muscle differentiation and sex cord-like elements was partially observed. In summary, LG-ESS demonstrating a unique nodule-in-nodule appearance on preoperative imaging histopathologically comprised tumor cells of varying densities. Our current case suggests that preoperative diagnostic imaging with MRI may be useful

Robust and highly efficient hiPSC generation from patient non-mobilized peripheral blood-derived CD34+ cells using the auto-erasable Sendai virus vector

Background: Disease modeling with patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is a powerful tool forelucidating the mechanisms underlying disease pathogenesis and developing safe and effective treatments. Patientperipheral blood (PB) cells are used for iPSC generation in many cases since they can be collected with minimuminvasiveness. To derive iPSCs that lack immunoreceptor gene rearrangements, hematopoietic stem and progenitorcells (HSPCs) are often targeted as the reprogramming source. However, the current protocols generally requireHSPC mobilization and/or ex vivo expansion owing to their sparsity at the steady state and low reprogrammingefficiencies, making the overall procedure costly, laborious, and time-consuming.Methods: We have established a highly efficient method for generating iPSCs from non-mobilized PB-derivedCD34+ HSPCs. The source PB mononuclear cells were obtained from 1 healthy donor and 15 patients and werekept frozen until the scheduled iPSC generation. CD34+ HSPC enrichment was done using immunomagnetic beads,with no ex vivo expansion culture. To reprogram the CD34+-rich cells to pluripotency, the Sendai virus vectorSeVdp-302L was used to transfer four transcription factors: KLF4, OCT4, SOX2, and c-MYC. In this iPSC generationseries, the reprogramming efficiencies, success rates of iPSC line establishment, and progression time wererecorded. After generating the iPSC frozen stocks, the cell recovery and their residual transgenes, karyotypes, T cellreceptor gene rearrangement, pluripotency markers, and differentiation capability were examined.Results：We succeeded in establishing 223 iPSC lines with high reprogramming efficiencies from 15 patients with 8 different disease types. Our method allowed the rapid appearance of primary colonies (~ 8 days), all of which were expandable under feeder-free conditions, enabling robust establishment steps with less workload. After thawing, the established iPSC lines were verified to be pluripotency marker-positive and of non-T cell origin. A majority of the iPSC lines were confirmed to be transgene-free, with normal karyotypes. Their trilineage differentiation capability was also verified in a defined in vitro assay.Conclusion：This robust and highly efficient method enables the rapid and cost-effective establishment of transgene-free iPSC lines from a small volume of PB, thus facilitating the biobanking of patient-derived iPSCs and their use for the modeling of various diseases

Effects of lined traces and hand motion in underlining sentences on comprehension

Previous studies have shown that underlining sentences while reading is an effective comprehension strategy that many people use spontaneously. We examined which components of this underlining strategy could facilitate comprehension. The effects on comprehension of lined traces and hand movement were examined independently. Eighty-two undergraduates were assigned to one of the four conditions: both traces and movement, movement and no trace, traces and no movement, and neither trace nor movement. After reading the expository text as instructed for ten minutes, participants were instructed to solve a Sudoku puzzle as a distracter task for three minutes. They were then asked to summarize, title, and generate three keywords for the text in ten minutes. The results showed that hand movement facilitated appropriate summarization and that lined traces enhanced appropriate titling. We interpreted the results in terms of cognitive load theory and external memory aid

A Modified Method for Examining the Walking Pattern and Pace of COPD Patients in a 6-min Walk Test Before and After the Inhalation of Procaterol

[Objective] The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a simple test that is used to examine the exercise tolerance and outcomes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although the 6MWT is useful for assessing exercise tolerance, it is difficult to evaluate time-dependent parameters such as the walking pattern. A modified 6MWT has been devised to assess the walking pattern by calculating the number of steps per second (NSPS). This study was performed to investigate walking pattern of COPD patients in the modified 6MWT before and after a single inhalation of the short-acting β2-agonist procaterol. [Methods] Nine male COPD patients participated in this study. The 6MWT was performed before and after the inhalation of procaterol hydrochloride. A digital video recording of the 6MWT was made. After the 6MWT, the number of steps walked by the subject in each 5-s period was counted manually with a hand counter while viewing the walking test on the video monitor. [Results] After the inhalation of procaterol, the 6-min walking distance increased significantly in comparison to baseline (p<0.01). The mean NSPS was also significantly increased after the inhalation of procaterol in comparison to baseline (p<0.01). The walking pattern was displayed on a graph of time versus NSPS, and the walking pace was shown by a graph of time versus cumulative steps. [Conclusion] The analysis of the COPD patients’ walking test performance and their walking pattern and pace in the 6MWT may help to evaluate the effects of drug treatment

Quantitative morphological analysis of populations in a hybrid zone of Epimedium diphyllum and E. sempervirens var. rugosum (Berberidaceae)

Background and aims – The populations of Epimedium in the western part of Chugoku district on the Japanese island of Honshu are morphologically diverse: most consist of individuals showing wide variation in morphological characteristics, and the character composition varies with population. We explored the morphological variations between Epimedium populations in Chugoku district to test the hypothesis that these variations are the result of natural hybridization between E. diphyllum and E. sempervirens var. rugosum, and to elucidate to what extent natural hybridization between these two species has occurred in this region. Methods – We measured the length of three flower parts using a digital caliper and counted the number of teeth per leaflet. The leaf architecture was also categorized. In addition, we quantified flower colour and leaflet apex shape using a spectrophotometer and principal component analyses of elliptic Fourier descriptions, respectively. From these measurements, we calculated Anderson's hybrid index for each individual. Key results – The populations in Chugoku district showed wide variation in the morphological characters examined. In particular, the populations located near the center of the hybrid zone tended to show greater variation than those located at the periphery. The variation observed across the populations showed similar patterns among the morphological characters examined. No correlations were found among the examined characters. Conclusions – The wide variation in morphological characters likely resulted from natural hybridization between E. diphyllum and E. sempervirens var. rugosum. Hybridization between the two species occurred intensively where the distributions of the species overlap, and bi-directional introgressions of these species are advancing throughout the region. To clarify the factors that produced the hybrid zone, it will be necessary to compare fitness between hybrids and their parental species throughout the parental species' distribution areas and the hybrid zone