42 research outputs found
Keratan sulfate phenotype in the β-1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-7-null mouse cornea
Purpose: Synthesis of keratan sulfate (KS) relies on coordinated action of multiple enzymes, including the N-acetylglucosamine–transferring enzyme, β-1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-7 (β3GnT7). A mouse model deficient in β3GnT7 was developed to explore structural changes in KS and the extracellular matrix (ECM; i.e., the corneal stroma), elucidate the KS biosynthesis mechanism, and understand its role in corneal organization.
Methods: A knockout vector for the β3GnT7-encoding gene, B3gnt7, was created to develop heterozygous- (htz) and homozygous-null (null) knockouts. Epithelial, stromal, and whole cornea thicknesses were measured from each group. Proteoglycans were stained with cupromeronic blue for visualization by electron microscopy, and Western blot analyses were conducted on the KS core protein, lumican. Corneal sections were labelled fluorescently for KS and chondroitin sulfate/dermatan sulfate (CS/DS) using monoclonal antibodies 1B4 or 2B6, respectively.
Results: Wild-type (WT) and htz corneas were of similar stromal thickness, whereas null specimens measured relatively thin. Electron micrographs revealed that WT and htz samples contained comparable levels of KS- and CS/DS-PGs. Null corneas, however, lacked detectable KS and featured uncharacteristically elongated electron dense PG filaments, which were susceptible to chondroitinase ABC digestion. Western blotting revealed lumican in the null corneas was substituted with low-molecular-weight KS, relative to WT or htz tissue. KS was not immunohistochemically detectable in the null cornea, whereas CS/DS content appeared increased.
Conclusions: Addition of N-acetylglucosamine via β3GnT7 to KS glycosaminoglycans is necessary for their biosynthesis. Without β3GnT7, murine corneal stromas lack KS and appear to compensate for this loss with upregulation of chondroitinase ABC-sensitive PGs
Detailed Examination of Transport Coefficients in Cubic-Plus-Quartic Oscillator Chains
We examine the thermal conductivity and bulk viscosity of a one-dimensional
(1D) chain of particles with cubic-plus-quartic interparticle potentials and no
on-site potentials. This system is equivalent to the FPU-alpha beta system in a
subset of its parameter space. We identify three distinct frequency regimes
which we call the hydrodynamic regime, the perturbative regime and the
collisionless regime. In the lowest frequency regime (the hydrodynamic regime)
heat is transported ballistically by long wavelength sound modes. The model
that we use to describe this behaviour predicts that as the frequency goes to
zero the frequency dependent bulk viscosity and the frequency dependent thermal
conductivity should diverge with the same power law dependence on frequency.
Thus, we can define the bulk Prandtl number as the ratio of the bulk viscosity
to the thermal conductivity (with suitable prefactors to render it
dimensionless). This dimensionless ratio should approach a constant value as
frequency goes to zero. We use mode-coupling theory to predict the zero
frequency limit. Values of the bulk Prandtl number from simulations are in
agreement with these predictions over a wide range of system parameters. In the
middle frequency regime, which we call the perturbative regime, heat is
transported by sound modes which are damped by four-phonon processes. We call
the highest frequency regime the collisionless regime since at these
frequencies the observing times are much shorter than the characteristic
relaxation times of phonons. The perturbative and collisionless regimes are
discussed in detail in the appendices.Comment: Latex with references in .bib file. 36 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to
J. Stat. Phys. on Sept. 2
Study on Λ6H hypernucleus by the (π−, K+) reaction at J-PARC
We carried out an experiment to produce the neutron-rich hypernucleus 6H via the (¼ − , K + ) reaction on 6 Li target at the pion beam momentum of 1.2 GeV/c (J-PARC E10). In order to calibrate the scale of the missing-mass or of thebinding energy of the hypernucleus, we also measured the 12 C(¼ + , K + ) 12 ¤ C, p(¼ − , K + )§ − and p(¼ + , K + )§ + reactions. The experiment was performed at the J-PARC Hadron Hall K1.8 beam line in December 2012 and January 2013. The overall collected data sample corresponds to an integrated beam intensity of 1.65× 10 12 pions
A Plaque Technique for Assay and Characterization of Antibody-Dependent Cytotoxic Effector (K) Cells
Results of the
Ξ− atomic X-ray spectroscopy is one of the most useful methods for investigation of the Ξ-nucleus strong interaction. A serious problem in the measurement is the significant background coming from in-flight Ξ− decay. For the first Ξ− atomic X-ray spectroscopy experiment, a novel method of identifying stopped Ξ− events using nuclear emulsion was developed to reject background photons from in-flight Ξ− decay. We succeeded in reducing the background to 1/170 by this method employing coincidence measurements using the nuclear emulsion and X-ray detectors