歩き遍路を主体とした鳴門教育大学「阿波学」における教科横断型授業の展開

Naruto University of Education offers an undergraduate class called "Awa (Tokushima) Studies", which is taught by twelve instructors whose specialties span history, geography, psychology, art, physical education, and linguistics. In this class, after studying the background and history of Ohenro, a pilgrimage route in Shikoku, in classroom lectures, the students and the instructors walk a part of the pilgrimage route on a one-night-two-day trip, in which interdisciplinary studies are practiced. This class is an ideal opportunity for teacher training and therefore can serve to strategically promote Naruto University of Education as a unique university in offering such a class

Regulation of expression of human intestinal bile acid-binding protein in Caco-2 cells

International audienceMolecular mechanisms of the bile acid active transport system in the ileal enterocytes remain unknown. We examined whether bile acids affect human enterocyte gene expression of intestinal bile acid-binding protein (I-BABP), a component of this transport system. Differentiated Caco-2 cells were incubated in the presence of human bile, bile acids or other lipids. The level of I-BABP expression was evaluated by Northern and Western blot analyses. A 24 h incubation of Caco-2 cells in a medium containing either bile or bile acids resulted in a remarkable 7.5-fold increase in the I-BABP mRNA level over the control level. Neither cholesterol, palmitic acid, phosphatidylcholine nor cholestyramine treated bile showed any difference in I-BABP mRNA expression from the control. Bile acid treatment increased the level of I-BABP mRNA in Caco-2 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Western blot analysis showed that this induction led to increase in cytosolic I-BABP. Chenodeoxycholic acid and deoxycholic acid showed greater induction effects than other hydrophilic bile acids, including their own glycine conjugates. Pretreatment by actinomycin D or cycloheximide completely inhibited the up-regulation of I-BABP expression by bile acid. Bile acids, especially lipophilic bile acids, increase the I-BABP expression in Caco-2-cells, suggesting that luminal bile acids play an important role in regulating the I-BABP gene expression

Temporal and quantitative analysis of expression of metalloproteinases MMPs and their endogenous inhibitors in atherosclerotic lesions

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an important role in the pathogenesis of vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, plaque rupture and aneurysms. Although several MMPs have been demonstrated in the lesions of atherosclerosis, their expression profiles during the initiation and progression of lesions have not been fully determined. We hypothesized that the expression of various MMPs, along with their endogenous inhibitors, may be differentially regulated dependent upon the lesion progression. Therefore, we made a temporal and quantitative analysis of the mRNA and protein expression of MMPs and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases expressed in the different stages of atherosclerotic lesions of rabbits and humans. We found that MMP-1, MMP-12 and MMP-13 expression was nearly absent in the normal arterial wall, but was remarkably increased with lesion progression. Furthermore, the expression of these MMPs in the lesions was closely associated with intimal macrophages and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 expression, suggesting that the intimal macrophages are the major source of production of these MMPs. MMP-3 and MT1- MMP were also significantly upregulated in the earlystage lesions and fatty streaks compared to the normal aortas of rabbits. Our results indicate that MMP-1, -12, and -13 derived from intimal macrophages may play a pivotal role in both lesion initiation and progression, and therefore are potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of plaque rupture and aneurysm formation

Thermoresponsive Cationic Copolymer Brushes for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Separation

Thermoresponsive, cationic, copolymer brushes poly­(<i>N</i>-isopropylacrylamide­(IPAAm)-<i>co</i>-<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>-dimethylaminopropylacrylamide-<i>co</i>-<i>N</i>-<i>tert</i>-butylacrylamide­(tBAAm)) and poly­(IPAAm-<i>co</i>-3-acrylamidopropyl trimethylammonium chloride-<i>co</i>-tBAAm) were prepared on glass substrates through surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. Prepared copolymer brushes were investigated as thermally modulated cell separation materials. Densely packed cationic copolymer brushes were formed on the glass substrates, and the positive charge density was modulated by controlling the composition of cationic moieties and species. During observation of cell adhesion and detachment properties on copolymer brushes, human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hbmMSC) exhibited thermally modulated cell adhesion and detachment, while other bone-marrow-derived cells did not adhere. Using these properties, hbmMSC could be purified from mixtures of human bone-marrow-derived cells simply by changing the external temperature. Therefore, the prepared cationic copolymer brush is useful for separation of hbmMSC

Hydrophobized Thermoresponsive Copolymer Brushes for Cell Separation by Multistep Temperature Change

For preparing a thermally modulated biointerface that separates cells without the modification of cell surfaces for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, poly­(<i>N</i>-isopropylacrylamide-<i>co</i>-butyl methacrylate) (P­(IPAAm-<i>co</i>-BMA), thermo-responsive hydrophobic copolymer brushes with various BMA composition were formed on glass substrate through a surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Characterization of the prepared surface was performed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR/FT-IR), and gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) measurement. Prepared copolymer brush surfaces were characterized by observing the adhesion (37 °C) and detachment (20 or 10 °C) of four types of human cells: human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs), human aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and human skeletal muscle myoblast cells (HSMMs). HUVECs and NHDFs exhibited their effective detachment temperature at 20 and 10 °C, respectively. Using cells’ intrinsic temperature sensitivity for detachment from the copolymer brush, a mixture of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing HUVECs (GFP-HUVECs) and NHDFs was separated