The Traditional Japanese Medicine (Kampo) Boiogito has a Dual Benefit in Cardiorenal Syndrome: A Pilot Observational Study

Article信州医学雑誌 62(2):89-97(2014)journal articl

Myeloid-leukaemogenicity study in C3H mouse irradiated with 10MeV fast neutrons-Interim report

To evaluate RBE of carcinogenic effect of neutrons, infromations on carcinogenicity of various neutron energies must be needed. However, such an energy dependent effect of neutorns have not yet fully been understood. We started a series of murine carcinogenicity, especially focused on leukaemogenesis, among low energy range (0.5MeV- 10MeV) of neutrons. At the start, to evaluate the carcinogenicity of 10MeV neutron, male C3H/nrs mice, susceptible strain to radiation-induced leukemia, had exposed to neutrons (dose rage: 0.05 - 2Gy ), and to Cs-137-deribed gamma-rays (dose range: 0.2 - 4Gy). Neutron was generated from cyclotron, using d (25 MeV)-Be reaction and the exposures to the animals were conducted using vertical beam line. The estimated forward neutron spectra found 10 MeV as the peak energy. The estimation of neutron and gamma dose distribution in the air found that the irradiated area were covered within 95 -100% relative dose range and that the contamination of gamma-rays was about 5% of neutron dose. The animals are under observation for their life span. The study protocol includes autopsy and systemic histopathology of moribund or died mice, analyses on hematology, chromosomal aberration and molecular pathology of the animals with leukemia. Mice were irradiated with neutrons or gamma-rays from July of 2001 to May of 2002 and the mortarity of each types of radiation has reached up to five percent by the end of this February. The incidence of leukemia in neutron- and gamma-rays-irradiated mice seemed to be given maximum at 2Gy and 3Gy, respectively. The temporal results of gross pathology and histopathology revealed that leukemia, liver tumor, hardarian tumor, lung tumor were the common tumors in the irradiated groups. Since the study is in progress, the updated results will be shown at the conferrence.12th International Congress of Radiation Researc

Dynamics of ecosystem carbon balance recovering from a clear-cutting in a cool-temperate forest

A mixed forest in northern Japan, which had been a weak carbon sink (net ecosystem CO2 exchange [NEE] = -0.44 +/- 0.5 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1)), was disturbed by clear-cutting in 2003 and was replaced with a hybrid larch (Larix gmelinii x L. kaempferi) plantation in the same year. To evaluate the impact of the clear-cutting on the ecosystem's carbon budget, we used 10.5 years (2001-2011) of eddy covariance measurements of CO2 fluxes and the biomass observation for each ecosystem component. BIOME-BGC model was applied to simulate the changes in the carbon fluxes and stocks caused by the clear-cutting. After clear-cutting in 2003, the ecosystem abruptly became a large carbon source. The total CO2 emission during the first 3 years after the disturbance (2003-2005) was 12.2 +/- (0.9-1.5; possible min-max range of the error) Mg C ha(-1), yet gradually decreased to 2.5 +/- (1-2) Mg C ha(-1) during the next 4 years. By 2010, the ecosystem had regained its status as a carbon sink (NEE = -0.49 +/- 0.5 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1)). Total gross primary production, ecosystem respiration, and NEE during the 7 years after the clear-cutting (2003-2009) were 64.5 +/- (2.6-7), 79.2 +/- (2.6-7), and 14.7 +/- (1.3-3.5) Mg C ha(-1), respectively. From 2003 to 2009, the understory Sasa biomass increased by 16.3 +/- 4.8 Mg C ha(-1), whereas the newly planted larch only gained 1.00 +/- 0.02 Mg C ha(-1). The BIOME-BGC simulated observed carbon fluxes and stocks, although further modification on the parameter set may be needed according with the tree growth and corresponding suppression of Sasa growth. Ecosystem carbon budget evaluation and the model simulation suggested that the litter including harvest residues became a large carbon emitter (similar to 31.9 Mg C ha(-1)) during the same period. Based on the cumulative NEE during the period when the forest was a net carbon source, we estimate that the ecosystem will require another 8-34 years to fully recover all of the CO2 that was emitted after the clear-cutting, if off-site carbon storage in forest products is not considered. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Comparison of Kit-Based Metabolomics with Other Methodologies in a Large Cohort, towards Establishing Reference Values

Metabolic profiling is an omics approach that can be used to observe phenotypic changes, making it particularly attractive for biomarker discovery. Although several candidate metabolites biomarkers for disease expression have been identified in recent clinical studies, the reference values of healthy subjects have not been established. In particular, the accuracy of concentrations measured by mass spectrometry (MS) is unclear. Therefore, comprehensive metabolic profiling in large-scale cohorts by MS to create a database with reference ranges is essential for evaluating the quality of the discovered biomarkers. In this study, we tested 8700 plasma samples by commercial kit-based metabolomics and separated them into two groups of 6159 and 2541 analyses based on the different ultra-high-performance tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) systems. We evaluated the quality of the quantified values of the detected metabolites from the reference materials in the group of 2541 compared with the quantified values from other platforms, such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), supercritical fluid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS) and UHPLC-Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS). The values of the amino acids were highly correlated with the NMR results, and lipid species such as phosphatidylcholines and ceramides showed good correlation, while the values of triglycerides and cholesterol esters correlated less to the lipidomics analyses performed using SFC-MS/MS and UHPLC-FTMS. The evaluation of the quantified values by MS-based techniques is essential for metabolic profiling in a large-scale cohort