Effects of mild calorie restriction and high-intensity interval walking in middle-aged and older overweight Japanese

We investigated whether a combination of mild calorie restriction (MCR) and high-intensity interval walking (HIW) improved physical fitness more than HIW alone in middle-aged and older overweight Japanese (40-69 years old, BMI >= 23.6 kg/m(2)). Forty-seven women and 16 men were divided into MCR + HIW and HIW groups. All subjects performed HIW: >= 5 sets of 3-min low-intensity walking (40% peak aerobic capacity for walking, VO2peak) and 3-min high-intensity walking (>= 70% VO2peak) per day, >= 4 days per week, for 16 weeks while energy expenditure was monitored with a tri-axial accelerometer. The MCR + HIW group consumed meal replacement formula (240 kcal): a mixture of low-carbohydrates and -fat and high-protein, for either lunch or dinner everyday and therefore, had similar to 87% of the energy intake of the HIW group during the intervention period. Although the HIW group showed improvements in BMI, blood pressure, and several blood chemicals, the MCR + HIW group had greater improvement. Moreover, the medical expenditure for the 6 months including the intervention period was 59% lower in the MCR + HIW group than in the HIW group. Our strategy of a short-term combination of MCR and HIW may thus prevent lifestyle-associated diseases and improve health in middle-aged and older overweight Japanese.ArticleEXPERIMENTAL GERONTOLOGY. 44(10):666-675 (2009)journal articl

Acidophilic green alga Pseudochlorella sp. YKT1 accumulates high amount of lipid droplets under a nitrogen-depleted condition at a low-pH.

Microalgal storage lipids are considered to be a promising source for next-generation biofuel feedstock. However, microalgal biodiesel is not yet economically feasible due to the high cost of production. One of the reasons for this is that the use of a low-cost open pond system is currently limited because of the unavoidable contamination with undesirable organisms. Extremophiles have an advantage in culturing in an open pond system because they grow in extreme environments toxic to other organisms. In this study, we isolated the acidophilic green alga Pseudochlorella sp. YKT1 from sulfuric acid mine drainage in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The vegetative cells of YKT1 display the morphological characteristics of Trebouxiophyceae and molecular phylogenetic analyses indicated it to be most closely related to Pseudochlorella pringsheimii. The optimal pH and temperature for the growth of YKT1 are pH 3.0-5.0 and a temperature 20-25°C, respectively. Further, YKT1 is able to grow at pH 2.0 and at 32°C, which corresponds to the usual water temperature in the outdoors in summer in many countries. YKT1 accumulates a large amount of storage lipids (∼30% of dry weigh) under a nitrogen-depleted condition at low-pH (pH 3.0). These results show that acidophilic green algae will be useful for industrial applications by acidic open culture systems

Successful Colistin Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection Using a Rapid Method for Determination of Colistin in Plasma: Usefulness of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring

A 56-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus had bacteremia due to multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP). She was initially treated with imipenem cilastatin, tobramycin, and aztreonam; however, MDRP was still detected intermittently in her plasma. Multidrug-susceptibility tests demonstrated that MDRP was susceptible only to colistin. Therefore, in addition to these antibiotics, the administration of intravenous colistin methanesulfonate, a prodrug formula of colistin, was started at a daily dose of 2.5 mg/kg (as colistin base activity). The initial dose setting was based on the patient's renal function (baseline creatinine clearance=32.7mL/min). After initiating colistin, the patient's C-reactive protein levels gradually decreased. Blood cultures showed no evidence of MDRP on days 8, 14, and 22 after colistin initiation. However, the patient's renal function went from bad to worse owing to septic shock induced by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. A few days later, the trough plasma levels of colistin were 7.88 mg/L, which appeared to be higher than expected. After decreasing the colistin dose, the patient's renal function gradually improved. On the final day of colistin treatment, the plasma levels decreased to 0.60 mg/L. MDRP could not be detected in blood culture after colistin treatment. Therefore, we successfully treated a case of bloodstream infection due to MDRP by therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of colistin. It is suggested that the monitoring of blood colistin levels by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry can contribute to safer, more effective antimicrobial therapy of MDRP because TDM facilitates quick decisions on dose adjustments

Physiolohical features of strain YKT1.

<p>Optimal growth pH (pH_opt), limit of growth pH (pH_limit), optimal growth temperature (T_opt in °C), limit of growth temperature (T_limit in °C) maximum growth rate in exponential phase (GR_max in d⁻¹) and maximum dry weight biomass (Max DW Biomass in g/l).</p><p>Physiolohical features of strain YKT1.</p

Growth of YKT1 under various pH and temperature conditions.

<p>(A) Photograph of the culture (1 day after the onset of culture at the indicated pH) and the growth rate based on increase in the cell number (open bars) and OD₇₅₀ (solid bars) at the indicated pH and 25°C. (B) Micrographs showing the cells cultured at the indicated pH (from pH 1.0 to pH 7.0). The arrowheads indicate dividing cells. (C) Photograph of the culture (1 day after the onset of culture at the indicated temperature) and the growth rate based on the increase in the cell number (open bars) and OD₇₅₀ (solid bars) at the indicated temperature and pH 3.0. (D) Micrographs showing cells cultured at the indicated temperature (from 10 to 35°C). The arrowheads indicate dividing cells. Scale bars: 5 µm (B, D).</p

Phylogenetic position of YKT1.

<p>Phylogenetic trees based on the 18S rDNA (A) and plastid 16S rDNA sequence (B) are shown. The trees were constructed by a maximum-likelihood method (RaxML 7.2.8) <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107702#pone.0107702-Stamatakis1" target="_blank">[24]</a>. Maximum likelihood bootstrap values (ML) >50% by RaxML and bayesian posterior probabilities (BI) >0.7 by the Bayesian analysis (MrBayes 3.1.2) <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107702#pone.0107702-Ronquist1" target="_blank">[25]</a> are shown above the branches. The accession numbers of the sequences are shown along with the names of the species. The lineage designation follows <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107702#pone.0107702-Darienko1" target="_blank">[31]</a>. The branch length reflects the evolutionary distances indicated by the scale bar.</p