ATP: a vasoactive signal in the pericyte-containing microvasculature of the rat retina

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66245/1/j.1469-7793.2003.00787.x.pd

Evaluation of the extent of damage to the esophageal wall caused by press-through package ingestion

Press-through package (PTP) is the most common accidentally ingested foreign body in Japan. Accidental ingestion of PTP can result in esophageal damage. An approach for evaluating the risk of esophageal injury has not been established. Therefore, we used porcine esophageal tissue and silicone sheets to establish a method for assessing the risk of esophageal damage on accidental PTP ingestion. We pathologically evaluated porcine lower esophageal tissue using a scratch tester. Using porcine esophageal tissue, scratch tests were performed with 4 test objects and pathological damage was compared. It was assumed that each object was accidentally ingested. The objects were polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC)-coated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) PTP, soft PThPa, round PTP, and a disposable scalpel. The porcine esophagus was replaced with a silicon sheet, and an automatic friction machine was used for quantitative evaluation. The silicon sheet was scratched using HHS 2000 with 750-g load at 50 mm/min. We investigated the frictional force exerted on the surface for each of the objects. The degree of damage (depth) was the highest for the disposable scalpel, followed by PVDC-coated PVC PTP, while the degree of damage (depth) was the lowest for soft PThPa and round PTP. The mean frictional forces on the silicon sheet were 524.0 gf with PVDC-coated PTP, 323.5 gf with soft PThPa, 288.7 gf with round PTP, and 922.7 gf with the disposable scalpel. We developed approaches to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the risk of esophageal damage after accidental PTP ingestion. Our findings indicate that the risk of gastrointestinal damage after accidental PTP ingestion is low with soft PTP and round PTP

Canopy Achitecture, Biomass and Fruit Production of Solanum nigrum L. as Determined by Nitrogen Application

ABSTRACT Demand on fruits of Leunca (Solanum nigrum L.) is increasing in Indonesia due to a rapid expansion of ethnic restaurants, especially Sundanese restaurants. Most fruits come from semi-intensive cultivation in intercropping system, leading to low productivity. In order to improve productivity, nitrogen experiment was carried out at field of Leuwikopo Farm of Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor-Indonesia, during rainy season from December 2013 to April 2014. Four levels of nitrogen, i.e., 0, 60, 120, and 180 kg N ha-1, were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. The results revealed that canopy architecture, dry matter and fruit production, and fruit quality were highly affected by nitrogen application. Increasing nitrogen levels increased biomass and fruit production. Plants treated with nitrogen at level of 60 kg ha-1 produced ideal height for local labor and stable weekly fruit production than other levels. Hence, N fertilizer is essential for achieving high productivity of S. nigrum.Keywords: canopy shape, fruit load, indigenous vegetable, leunca, ranti kebo ABSTRAK Permintaan buah Leunca (Solanum nigrum L.) terus meningkat di Indonesia sejalan dengan perkembangan restoran etnis khususnya restoran Sunda. Sebagian besar buah leunca berasal dari tanaman sampingan secara tumpangsari, sehingga produktivitas rendah. Dalam rangka meningkatkan produktivitas, percobaan pemberian nitrogen dilakukan di Kebun Percobaan Leuwikopo IPB, Bogor pada musim hujan Desember 2013 sampai April 2014. Nitrogen diberikan empat taraf yaitu 0, 60, 120, dan 180 kg N ha-1, yang disusun dalam rancangan acak kelompok dengan empat ulangan. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa bentuk kanopi, produksi bahan kering dan produksi buah serta kualitas buah dipengaruhi oleh pemberian nitrogen. Peningkatan dosis nitrogen meningkatkan bahan kering dan produksi buah. Tanaman dengan perlakuan 60 kg N ha-1 menghasilkan tinggi yang ideal bagi pemanen, dan hasil mingguan yang stabil dibandingkan dengan taraf yang lebih besar. Oleh karena itu, pemupukan nitrogen penting dilakukan untuk meningkatkan produktivitas leunca.Kata kunci: beban buah, bentuk kanopi, leunca, ranti kebo, sayuran tradisiona

A case of cardiac sarcoidosis masquerading as arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy awaiting heart transplant

SummaryWe report a case of 45-year-old man, who was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and presented with right ventricular (RV) enlargement with a global decrease in RV contractility accompanied by impairment of left ventricular function. He was placed on the heart transplant waiting list. Endomyocardial biopsy from RV septal wall did not show any evidence of sarcoidosis or inflammatory change. Four years after he was put on the heart transplant waiting list, a computed tomography chest scan for the purpose of anatomical evaluation for coronary sinus prior to biventricular pacing lead implantation incidentally showed bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy, which suggested the possibility of sarcoidosis. Biopsy of the inguinal lymph node pathologically was consistent with sarcoidosis. The 2[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography scanning (FDG-PET) demonstrated intense uptake in the myocardium, and the patient was finally diagnosed as having cardiac sarcoidosis. After steroid treatment, the abnormal FDG-PET uptake disappeared. The patient therefore represented a case of cardiac sarcoidosis masquerading as ARVC. It should be recognized that RV involvement is one of the manifestations in cardiac sarcoidosis

Degradation of Mutant Protein Aggregates within the Endoplasmic Reticulum of Vasopressin Neurons

Misfolded or unfolded proteins in the ER are said to be degraded only after translocation or isolation from the ER. Here, we describe a mechanism by which mutant proteins are degraded within the ER. Aggregates of mutant arginine vasopressin (AVP) precursor were confined to ER-associated compartments (ERACs) connected to the ER in AVP neurons of a mouse model of familial neurohypophysial diabetes insipidus. The ERACs were enclosed by membranes, an ER chaperone and marker protein of phagophores and autophagosomes were expressed around the aggregates, and lysosomes fused with the ERACs. Moreover, lysosome-related molecules were present within the ERACs, and aggregate degradation within the ERACs was dependent on autophagic-lysosomal activity. Thus, we demonstrate that protein aggregates can be degraded by autophagic-lysosomal machinery within specialized compartments of the ER

J-CKD-DB: a nationwide multicentre electronic health record-based chronic kidney disease database in Japan

The Japan Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Database (J-CKD-DB) is a large-scale, nation-wide registry based on electronic health record (EHR) data from participating university hospitals. Using a standardized exchangeable information storage, the J-CKD-DB succeeded to efficiently collect clinical data of CKD patients across hospitals despite their different EHR systems. CKD was defined as dipstick proteinuria ≥1+ and/or estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m² base on both out- and inpatient laboratory data. As an initial analysis, we analyzed 39, 121 CKD outpatients (median age was 71 years, 54.7% were men, median eGFR was 51.3 mL/min/1.73 m²) and observed that the number of patients with a CKD stage G1, G2, G3a, G3b, G4 and G5 were 1, 001 (2.6%), 2, 612 (6.7%), 23, 333 (59.6%), 8, 357 (21.4%), 2, 710 (6.9%) and 1, 108 (2.8%), respectively. According to the KDIGO risk classification, there were 30.1% and 25.5% of male and female patients with CKD at very high-risk, respectively. As the information from every clinical encounter from those participating hospitals will be continuously updated with an anonymized patient ID, the J-CKD-DB will be a dynamic registry of Japanese CKD patients by expanding and linking with other existing databases and a platform for a number of cross-sectional and prospective analyses to answer important clinical questions in CKD care

Prevalence of anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease in Japan: A nationwide, cross-sectional cohort study using data from the Japan Chronic Kidney Disease Database (J-CKD-DB)

Background: The Japan Chronic Kidney Disease Database (J-CKD-DB) is a nationwide clinical database of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) based on electronic health records. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of anemia and the utilization rate of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) in Japanese patients with CKD. Methods: In total, 31, 082 adult outpatients with estimated glomerular filtration rates of 5–60 ml/min/1.73 m2 in seven university hospitals were included this analysis. The proportions of patients with CKD stages G3b, G4, and G5 were 23.5%, 7.6%, and 3.1%, respectively. Results: The mean (standard deviation) hemoglobin level of male patients was 13.6 (1.9) g/dl, which was significantly higher than the mean hemoglobin level of female patients (12.4 (1.6) g/dl). The mean (standard deviation) hemoglobin levels were 11.4 (2.1) g/dl in patients with CKD stage G4 and 11.2 (1.8) g/dl in patients with CKD stage G5. The prevalences of anemia were 40.1% in patients with CKD stage G4 and 60.3% in patients with CKD stage G5. Logistic regression analysis showed that diagnoses of CKD stage G3b (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 2.32 [2.09–2.58]), G4 (5.50 [4.80–6.31]), and G5 (9.75 [8.13–11.7]) were associated with increased prevalence of anemia. The utilization rates of ESAs were 7.9% in patients with CKD stage G4 and 22.4% in patients with CKD stage G5. Conclusions: We determined the prevalence of anemia and utilization rate of ESAs in Japanese patients with CKD using data from a nationwide cohort study

Inhibition of dendritic cell migration by transforming growth factor-β1 increases tumor-draining lymph node metastasis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is known to be produced by progressor tumors and to immobilize dendritic cells (DCs) within those tumors. Moreover, although TGF-β1 has been shown to promote tumor progression, there is still no direct, in vivo evidence as to whether TGF-β1 is able to directly induce distant metastasis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To address that issue and investigate the mechanism by which TGF-β1 suppresses DC activity, we subdermally inoculated mouse ears with squamous cell carcinoma cells stably expressing TGF-β1 or empty vector (mock).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The numbers of DCs within lymph nodes draining the resultant TGF-β1-expressing tumors was significantly lower than within nodes draining tumors not expressing TGF-β1. We then injected fluorescently labeled bone marrow-derived dendritic cells into the tumors, and subsequent analysis confirmed that the tumors were the source of the DCs within the tumor-draining lymph nodes, and that there were significantly fewer immature DCs within the nodes draining TGF-β1-expressing tumors than within nodes draining tumors not expressing TGF-β1. In addition, 14 days after tumor cell inoculation, lymph node metastasis occurred more frequently in mice inoculated with TGF-β1 transfectants than in those inoculated with the mock transfectants.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings provide new evidence that tumor-derived TGF-β1 inhibits migration of DCs from tumors to their draining lymph nodes, and this immunosuppressive effect of TGF-β1 increases the likelihood of metastasis in the affected nodes.</p

Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Disease Evaluation Questionnaire (JHEQ): a patient-based evaluation tool for hip-joint disease. The Subcommittee on Hip Disease Evaluation of the Clinical Outcome Committee of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association

AbstractBackgroundThe Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Score is widely used in Japan, but this tool is designed to reflect the viewpoint of health-care providers rather than that of patients. In gauging the effect of medical therapies in addition to clinical results, it is necessary to assess quality of life (QOL) from the viewpoint of patients. However, there is no tool evaluating QOL for Japanese patients with hip-joint disease.MethodsWith the aim of more accurately classifying QOL for Japanese patients with hip-joint disease, we prepared a questionnaire with 58 items for the survey derived from 464 opinions obtained from approximately 100 Japanese patients with hip-joint disease and previously devised evaluation criteria. In the survey, we collected information on 501 cases, and 402 were subjected to factor analysis. From this, we formulated three categories—movement, mental, and pain—each comprising 7 items, for a total of 21 items to be used as evaluation criteria for hip-joint function.ResultsThe Cronbach’s α coefficients for the three categories were 0.93, 0.93, and 0.95, respectively, indicating the high reliability of the evaluation criteria. The 21 items included some related to the Asian lifestyle, such as use of a Japanese-style toilet and rising from the floor, which are not included in other evaluation tools.ConclusionsThis self-administered questionnaire may become a useful tool in the evaluation of not only Japanese patients, but also of members of other ethnic groups who engage in deep flexion of the hip joint during daily activities

The Japanese space gravitational wave antenna; DECIGO

DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to open a new window of observation for gravitational wave astronomy especially between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz, revealing various mysteries of the universe such as dark energy, formation mechanism of supermassive black holes, and inflation of the universe. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of three drag-free spacecraft, whose relative displacements are measured by a differential Fabry– Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch two missions, DECIGO pathfinder and pre- DECIGO first and finally DECIGO in 2024