Comparison of Two Mice Strains, A/J and C57BL/6, in Caspase-1 Activity and IL-1β Secretion of Macrophage to Mycobacterium leprae Infection

A/J mice were found to have amino acid differences in Naip5, one of the NOD-like receptors (NLRs) involved in the cytosolic recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns and one of the adaptor proteins for caspase-1 activation. This defect was associated with a susceptibility to Legionella infection, suggesting an important role for Naip5 in the immune response also to other intracellular pathogens, such as Mycobacterium leprae. In this study, the immune responses of macrophages from A/J mice against M. leprae were compared to those of macrophages from C57BL/6 mice. Infection with M. leprae induced high levels of TNF-α production and NF-κB activation in A/J and C57BL/6 macrophages. Caspase-1 activation and IL-1β secretion were also induced in both macrophages. However, macrophages from A/J mice exhibited reduced caspase-1 activation and IL-1β secretion compared to C57BL/6 macrophages. These results suggest that NLR family proteins may have a role in the innate immune response to M. leprae

Tissue-specific down-regulation of RIPK 2 in Mycobacterium leprae-infected nu/nu mice.

RIPK 2 is adapter molecule in the signal pathway involved in Toll-like receptors. However, there has been no reported association between receptor-interacting serine/threonine kinase 2 (RIPK 2) expression and the infectious diseases involving mycobacterial infection. This study found that its expression was down-regulated in the footpads and skin but was up-regulated in the liver of Mycobacterium leprae-infected nu/nu mice compared with those of the M. leprae non-infected nu/nu mice. It was observed that the interlukin-12p40 and interferon-gamma genes involved in the susceptibility of M. leprae were down-regulated in the skin but were up-regulated in the liver. Overall, this suggests that regulation of RIPK 2 expression is tissue-specifically associated with M. leprae infection

Elastic p-12C scattering by using a cluster effective field theory

The elastic p-12C scattering at low energies is studied by using a cluster effective field theory (EFT), where the low-lying resonance states (s1/2, p3/2, d5/2) of 13N are treated as pertinent degrees of freedom. The low-energy constants of the Lagrangian are expressed in terms of the Coulomb-modified effective range parameters, which are determined to reproduce the experimental data for the differential cross-sections. The resulting theoretical predictions agree very well with the experimental data. The resulting theory is shown to give us almost identical phase shifts as obtained from the R-matrix approach. The role of the ground state of 13N below the threshold and the next-to-leading order in the EFT power counting are also discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Effect of far-red light on the production and diversity of ginsenosides in leaves of Panax ginseng Meyer

Abstract Ginsenosides are the most valuable and pharmacologically active triterpenoid saponins found in Panax ginseng. Although light quality affects ginsenoside content, little is known about the underlying genetic and regulatory mechanisms. Additionally, the correlation between the adaptability of ginseng to shade and ginsenoside biosynthesis remains poorly understood. In the present study, transcriptome analysis of ginseng seedlings using RNA sequencing revealed that the expression of ginsenoside biosynthesis genes, including PgHMGR, PgFPS, PgSS, and PgUGT, was enhanced in shade conditions but downregulated by red light, indicating that far-red light might play an essential role in ginsenoside production. Further, gene expression analysis in adventitious roots and 2-year-old plants using qRT-PCR showed that the light quality-mediated expression patterns of ginsenoside genes varied with tissue and age. However, unlike the transcriptome, there was no difference in the total ginsenoside content in seedlings among various light conditions. Nevertheless, the amount of major protopanaxadiol-type ginsenosides increased under shade and red light conditions. Unlike seedlings and adventitious roots, there was a decrease in the expression of PgHMGR, PgFPS, PgSS, and PgDDS in 2-year-old plants, along with an increase in the ginsenoside content, under far-red light. Taken together, our findings suggest that far-red light is an important environmental factor for ginsenoside biosynthesis and diversification and provide information that can improve the quality of ginseng produced for medicinal purposes