Salivary Melatonin at Night: Responding to the Night Lighting and Cow’s Milk Consumption at Breakfast in Japanese Junior High and University Students

(1) In junior high school students aged 14–15 years old, the salivary melatonin level increased rapidly from 3.00 pg/ml at 21:45 to 9.18 pg/ml at 23:40 under orange light from light bulb, whereas it remained at less than 1.3 pg/ml under white light from fluorescent lamp. (2) In 3 weeks of intervention on university athlete students, the salivary melatonin concentration at 23:00 of G3 (protein-rich breakfast and following sunlight exposure and orange light from the light bulb at night) after intervention was significantly higher than that of G1 (protein-poor breakfast and not following exposure to sunlight and white light from the fluorescent lamp at night) and G2 (protein-rich breakfast and following exposure to sunlight and white lights from the fluorescent lamp at night). (3) This study evaluates the effects of cow’s milk intake (Group 1: G1) for 20 days at breakfast on saliva melatonin concentration at 22:00 and 23:00 on 0, 10, and 21 days of the intervention period in Japanese university male athletes attending a university soccer club. In the intervention group (G1), salivary melatonin concentration increased at 22:00 in comparison with that before intervention, but there was no significant change in the control group (Group 2: G2). On the other hand, there were no significant differences in the melatonin at 23:00 between the both groups just after 21 days of intervention. Intake of cow’s milk at breakfast might make the circadian phase in advance in the soccer athletes

Surface mass balance in Suntar Khayata Range of North-Eastern Siberia

第6回極域科学シンポジウム分野横断セッション：[IA] 急変する北極気候システム及びその全球的な影響の総合的解明―GRENE北極気候変動研究事業研究成果報告2015―11月19日（木）　国立極地研究所１階交流アトリウ

Management of Lacerated and Swollen Tongue after Convulsive Seizure with a Mouth Protector: Interprofessional Collaboration Including Dentists in Intensive Care

We encountered a 74-year-old male patient with tongue laceration after convulsive seizures under intensive care. The tongue showed severe swelling, and the right ventral surface had been lacerated by his isolated and pointed right lower canine. Our university hospital has established a perioperative management center, and is promoting interprofessional collaboration, including dentists, in perioperative management. Dentists collaborating in the perioperative management center took dental impressions, with the support of anesthesiologists who opened the patientʼs jaw under propofol sedation, to produce a mouth protector. By raising the patientʼs bite, the completed mouth protector prevented the isolated tooth from contacting the tongue and protected the lacerated wound. Use of the mouth protector prevented the lacerated tongue from coming into contact with the pointed tooth, and the tongue healed gradually. These findings underscore that interprofessional collaboration including dentists can improve the quality of medical care

Gastric Endocrine Cell Carcinoma Coexistent with Adenocarcinoma

A 69-year-old female presented to our institution with epigastralgia and abdominal distension. Upper gastrointestinal series revealed a 5 cm ulcerative lesion with irregular margins and elevated distinct borders from the angle to the pyloric ring. Gastroendoscopy revealed a Borrmann type 2 tumor. Several biopsied specimens revealed proliferation of small and heterogeneous cancer cells with rich chromatin and fibrous septum with rich vessels at connective tissues, which was confirmed as gastric endocrine cell carcinoma (ECC) on immunostaining with chromogranin and synaptophysin. Furthermore, other specimens revealed atypical cells forming glandular structures, which were confirmed as well-differentiated tubular adenocarcinomas. Distal gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection and Billroth I reconstruction was performed. Pathological examination of the gross specimen revealed that adenocarcinoma comprised <10% of all cancer cells. Close analysis of ECC revealed a mixture of small and large cells. According to the WHO 2010 classification of gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors, this gastric tumor was diagnosed as neuroendocrine carcinoma. The patient was administered adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin and etoposide. One year following surgery, follow-up abdominal CT revealed multiple liver metastases. The patient received the best supportive care but eventually died 18 months after surgery. Here we present this case of gastric ECC coexistent with adenocarcinoma

H dibaryon in the QCD sum rule

The QCD sum rule is applied to the H dibaryon and is compared to the flavor non-singlet di-nucleon. We find that the H dibaryon is almost degenerate to the di-nucleon in the $SU(3)_{flavor}$ limit and therefore is not deeply bound as far as th\ e threshold parameter is adjusted not to have a di-nucleon bound state. After introducing the $SU(3)_{f}$ breaking effects, the H dibaryon is found to be bound by $40 MeV$ below the $\Lambda \Lambda$ threshold.Comment: 10 pages 4 uuencoded figures containe

Development of an intravital imaging system for the synovial tissue reveals the dynamics of CTLA-4 Ig in vivo

There have been many attempts to visualize the inflamed joints using multiphoton microscopy. However, due to the hypervascular and multilayered structure of the inflamed synovium, intravital imaging of the deep synovial tissue has been difficult. Here, we established original intravital imaging systems to visualize synovial tissue and pathological osteoclasts at the pannus–bone interface using multiphoton microscopy. Combined with fluorescence-labeling of CTLA-4 Ig, a biological agent used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, we identified that CTLA-4 Ig was distributed predominantly within the inflamed synovium and bound to CX3CR1+ macrophages and CD140a+ fibroblasts 6 h after injection, but not to mature osteoclasts. Intravital imaging of blood and lymphatic vessels in the inflamed synovium further showed that extravasated CTLA-4 Ig was immediately drained through lymphatic vessels under acute arthritic conditions, but the drainage activity was retarded under chronic conditions. These results indicate that this intravital synovial imaging system can serve as a platform for exploring the dynamics of immune cells, osteoclasts, and biological agents within the synovial microenvironment in vivo.Hasegawa T., Kikuta J., Sudo T., et al. Development of an intravital imaging system for the synovial tissue reveals the dynamics of CTLA-4 Ig in vivo. Scientific Reports 10, 13480 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70488-y

ヒロシマ ダイガク シガクブ リンショウ ジッシュウ シサツ ホウコク

We made a field trip to Hiroshima University Hospital to observe its clinical training practices on February 22, 2013. Distinctive features of the clinical training system were as follows. 1) Training schedule. Learning objectives and clinical cases required are established in each specialty clinics. Students can make training schedules in each specialty clinic for themselves in accordance with the progress of required cases of their own. They can move from a clinic to other clinic in a day in order to follow their cases. 2) The small group system and the tutor system for the group. Students are assigned to a group consisting of 3 to 4 persons. They get a clinical training together and share clinical experiences with each other. They hold the group meeting every other Wednesday. The tutor checks the progress on their cases and discusses about next training objectives with each person. 3) The stepwise training and evaluation system. The clinical training are given in 3 terms. Learning objectives in each term are established in stepwise setting. Students are evaluated for their levels of attainment at the end of each term. 4) Morning meeting and mini-lecture. Students attend morning meeting and a mini-lecture before the clinical training everyday. 5) Clinical clerkship. Clinical clerkship has been performed with support of patients. Patients in the hospital are informed for the clinical clerkship. Participants provide written informed consent prior to entry into the system. However, the number of patients for clinical clerkship were not enough. These features are informative and helpful for us to improve our clinical training system. And recruitment of patients who kindly support the clinical clerkship may be the biggest problem to solve in both universities

Identification of CDC42BPG as a novel susceptibility locus for hyperuricemia in a Japanese population

Chronic kidney disease and hyperuricemia are serious global health problems. Recent genome-wide association studies have identified various genetic variants related to these disorders. However, most studies have been conducted in a cross-sectional manner. To identify novel susceptibility loci for chronic kidney disease or hyperuricemia, we performed longitudinal exome-wide association studies (EWASs), using ~ 244,000 genetic variants and clinical data of Japanese individuals who had undergone annual health checkups for several years. After establishing quality controls, the association of renal function-related traits in 5648 subjects (excluding patients with dialysis and population outliers) with 24,579 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) for three genetic models (P < 3.39 × 10− 7) was tested using generalized estimating equation models. The longitudinal EWASs revealed novel relations of five SNVs to renal function-related traits. Cross-sectional data for renal function-related traits in 7699 Japanese subjects were examined in a replication study. Among the five SNVs, rs55975541 in CDC42BPG was significantly (P < 4.90 × 10− 4) related to the serum concentration of uric acid in the replication cohort. We also examined the SNVs detected in our longitudinal EWASs with the information on P values in GKDGEN meta-analysis data. Four SNVs in SLC15A2 were significantly associated with the estimated glomerular filtration rate in European ancestry populations, although these SNVs were related to the serum concentration of uric acid with borderline significance in our longitudinal EWASs. Our findings indicate that CDC42BPG may be a novel susceptibility locus for hyperuricemia