Direct Anti-Globulin Test and Clinical Diagnosis

This chapter focuses on anti-red blood cells antibody and anti-globulin test. The relationship between warm or cold antibody and hemolysis is explained. Direct anti-globulin test (DAT) is a useful clinical examination tool on the diagnosis of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA); however, false positive or negative results are sometimes detected. This chapter shows the disposition about the surroundings of the IgG antibody in DAT examination. In addition, this chapter contains pointing issue on the diagnosis of AIHA. Some pitfalls about diagnostic AIHA are presented from our experienced cases. To diagnose the background diseases such as lymphoproliferative disorders or autoimmune diseases under the analysis of secondary AIHA is important

Pathophysiological features in the brains of female Spontaneously Diabetic Torii (SDT) fatty rats

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and obesity are associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and psychiatric disorders such as major depression. In this study, we investigated pathophysiological changes in the brains of female Spontaneously Diabetic Torii (SDT) fatty rats with diabetes and obesity. Brains of Sprague-Dawley (SD), SDT and SDT fatty rats were collected at 58 weeks of age. The parietal cortical thickness was measured and the number of pyramidal cells in the hippocampal cornu ammonis 1 and 3 (CA1 and CA3) and the number of granule cells in the dentate gyrus (DG) regions were counted. The area of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positivity in CA1, CA3 and DG regions were measured. The parietal cortical thickness and the number of cells in CA3 and DG regions of SDT and SDT fatty rats did not show obvious changes. On the other hand, in the CA1 region, the number of cells in SDT rats and SDT fatty rats was significantly lower than that in SD rats, and that in SDT fatty rats was significantly lower than that in SDT rats. The GFAP-positive area in SDT fatty rats was significantly reduced compared to that in SD rats only in the DG region. Preliminarily result showed that the expression of S100a9, an inflammation-related gene, was increased in the brains of SDT fatty rats. These results suggest that female SDT fatty rat may exhibit central nervous system diseases due to obesity and DM

The Effects of Molecular Crowding on the Structure and Stability of G-Quadruplexes with an Abasic Site

Both cellular environmental factors and chemical modifications critically affect the properties of nucleic acids. However, the structure and stability of DNA containing abasic sites under cell-mimicking molecular crowding conditions remain unclear. Here, we investigated the molecular crowding effects on the structure and stability of the G-quadruplexes including a single abasic site. Structural analysis by circular dichroism showed that molecular crowding by PEG200 did not affect the topology of the G-quadruplex structure with or without an abasic site. Thermodynamic analysis further demonstrated that the degree of stabilization of the G-quadruplex by molecular crowding decreased with substitution of an abasic site for a single guanine. Notably, we found that the molecular crowding effects on the enthalpy change for G-quadruplex formation had a linear relationship with the abasic site effects depending on its position. These results are useful for predicting the structure and stability of G-quadruplexes with abasic sites in the cell-mimicking conditions

Characterization of hydrothermal alteration along geothermal wells using unsupervised machine-learning analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data

Zonal distribution of hydrothermal alteration in and around geothermal fields is important for understanding the hydrothermal environment. In this study, we assessed the performance of three unsupervised classification algorithms—K-mean clustering, the Gaussian mixture model, and agglomerative clustering—in automated categorization of alteration minerals along wells. As quantitative data for classification, we focused on the quartz indices of alteration minerals obtained from rock cuttings, which were calculated from X-ray powder diffraction measurements. The classification algorithms were first examined by applying synthetic data and then applied to data on rock cuttings obtained from two wells in the Hachimantai geothermal field in Japan. Of the three algorithms, our results showed that the Gaussian mixture model provides classes that are reliable and relatively easy to interpret. Furthermore, an integrated interpretation of different classification results provided more detailed features buried within the quartz indices. Application to the Hachimantai geothermal field data showed that lithological boundaries underpin the data and revealed the lateral connection between wells. The method’s performance is underscored by its ability to interpret multi-component data related to quartz indices

HybGFS: a hybrid method for genome-fingerprint scanning

BACKGROUND: Protein identification based on mass spectrometry (MS) has previously been performed using peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) or tandem MS (MS/MS) database searching. However, these methods cannot identify proteins that are not already listed in existing databases. Moreover, the alternative approach of de novo sequencing requires costly equipment and the interpretation of complex MS/MS spectra. Thus, there is a need for novel high-throughput protein-identification methods that are independent of existing predefined protein databases. RESULTS: Here, we present a hybrid method for genome-fingerprint scanning, known as HybGFS. This technique combines genome sequence-based peptide MS/MS ion searching with liquid-chromatography elution-time (LC-ET) prediction, to improve the reliability of identification. The hybrid method allows the simultaneous identification and mapping of proteins without a priori information about their coding sequences. The current study used standard LC-MS/MS data to query an in silico-generated six-reading-frame translation and the enzymatic digest of an entire genome. Used in conjunction with precursor/product ion-mass searching, the LC-ETs increased confidence in the peptide-identification process and reduced the number of false-positive matches. The power of this method was demonstrated using recombinant proteins from the Escherichia coli K12 strain. CONCLUSION: The novel hybrid method described in this study will be useful for the large-scale experimental confirmation of genome coding sequences, without the need for transcriptome-level expression analysis or costly MS database searching

Production of unnatural glucosides of curcumin with drastically enhanced water solubility by cell suspension cultures of Catharanthus roseus

AbstractCatharanthus roseus cell suspension cultures converted exogenously supplied curcumin to a series of glucosides, none of which has been found in nature so far. The efficiency of glucosylation was dependent on culture stage of the cells and medium sucrose concentration. Methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid enhanced the glucoside formation only when they were added to the cultures prior to the addition of curcumin. The glucoside yield was 2.5 μmol/g fresh weight of the cells at an optimal culture condition. The water solubility of curcumin-4′,4″-O-β-D-digentiobioside was 0.65 mmol/ml, which was 20 million-fold higher than that of curcumin