Cloning, expression analysis, and tissue distribution of esp-1/testisin, a membrane-type serine protease from the rat

Esp-1/testisin, a serine protease abundantly expressed in human and mouse testis, is presumed to play an important role in the process of spermatogenesis and fertilization. In this study, we cloned an esp-1/testisin cDNA from rats, and analyzed its expression and tissue distribution. The isolated cDNA consisted of 1099 nucleotides with a single open reading frame encoding 328 amino acids and an expected molecular mass of 36.6 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence of rat Esp-1/Testisin had 89% and 62% identity with its murine and human counterparts, respectively, and appeared to be a trypsin-type serine protease with a hydrophobic region at the C-terminus. By quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis, rat esp-1/testisin mRNA was predominantly expressed in testis, as in human and mouse. However, its immunohistochemical distribution was predominantly in the elongated spermatids at steps 12 to 19, and not in the primary spermatocytes and round spermatids. This different distribution profile suggests that Esp-1/Testisin plays a role in species-specific proteolytic events during spermatogenesis and fertilization

The Effectiveness of Preventive Education against Dating Violence in Japanese Agricultural and Commercial High Schools

This study provided a dating violence prevention education program to 116 students (56 boys, 60 girls) in a vocational high school in Japan who learned mainly agriculture and business and inspected the effect. We performed a program named “A Program for Mutual Respect: Learning about Domestic Violence in Order to Value Our Relationships,” which was composed of nineteen lessons over 100 minutes to do the class. Before the class, 61.0% of the students expressed little knowledge about dating violence, after the taking class, 98.3% of the students reported that it was good to know about the knowledge of dating violence. We conducted a T-test both before and directly after the class session on “Content of Violence” and compared the scores. They included content about physical, mental, sexual, and economic violence. The knowledge about the various types of violence was more meaningful after the class than before class. Our results show that dating violence prevention education was shown to be effective for the vocational high school students

Fallopian tube cancer incidentally diagnosed during laparoscopy for metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown primary lesion

Primary fallopian tube cancer is a rare gynecological malignancy. We report a case of fallopian tube cancer that was incidentally diagnosed during laparoscopy for metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown primary lesion. A 60-year-old woman had two intraperitoneal calcific masses, which a biopsy revealed to be a metastatic malignancy with an unknown primary site. She was asymptomatic, and the primary site was not identified in imaging evaluations such as transvaginal ultrasonography. A diagnostic laparoscopy was performed and revealed papillary tumor-like lesions in the right fallopian tube. The laparoscopy was immediately converted to laparotomy. Total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and an omentectomy were also performed. The histopathologic diagnosis was primary serous adenocarcinoma of the fallopian tube. The patient received adjuvant chemotherapy. At 8 months postoperatively, there were no signs of recurrence. In this patient, the diagnostic laparoscopy was more useful for detecting the primary small-volume fallopian tube cancer, compared with ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT). Laparoscopy may be a tool for revealing an obscure primary lesion in the abdominal cavity

Large-Area Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Imaging of Brain Ischemia by Gold Nanoparticles Grown on Random Nanoarrays of Transparent Boehmite

Although SERS spectroscopy, which is sensitive to molecular vibration states, offers label-free visualization of molecules, identification of molecules and their reliable large-area imaging remains to be developed. Limitation comes from difficulties in fabricating a SERS-active substrate with homogeneity over a large area. Here, we overcome this hurdle by utilizing a self-assembled nanostructure of boehmite that is easily achieved by a hydrothermal preparation of aluminum as a template for subsequent gold (Au) deposition. This approach brought about random arrays of Au-nanostructures with a diameter of ∼125 nm and a spacing of <10 nm, ideal for the <i>hot-spots</i> formation. The substrate, which we named “<i>gold nanocoral</i>” (GNC) after its coral reef-like shape, exhibited a small variability of signal intensities (coefficient value <11.2%) in detecting rhodamine 6G molecule when 121 spots were measured over an area of 10 × 10 mm², confirming high uniformity. The transparent nature of boehmite enabled us to conduct the measurement from the <i>back-side</i> of the substrate as efficiently as that from the <i>front-side</i>. We then conducted tissue imaging using the mouse ischemic brain adhered on the GNC substrate. Through nontargeted construction of two-dimensional-Raman-intensity map using differential bands from two metabolically distinct regions, that is, ischemic core and contralateral-control areas, we found that mapping using the adenine ring vibration band at 736 cm^–1 clearly demarcated ischemic core where high-energy adenine phosphonucleotides were degraded as judged by imaging mass spectrometry. Such a detection capability makes the GNC-based SERS technology especially promising for revealing acute energy derangement of tissues