Design of Structured Surfaces for Directional Mobility of Droplets

This paper deals with the directional mobility of droplets on structured surfaces. Structured surfaces were micro-patterned with rectangular lines and spaces of varying pitch and height in the sub-millimeter range. The material used was polydimethylsiloxane, which is hydrophobic and wettable by oil. First, we studied the effect of the structural design on the sliding angle of pure water or oil through experiments. For pure water droplets, we found that a wider pitch enhanced the directionality. On the other hand, oil droplets spread along the groove because of their low surface tension and strong capillary force. The directionality of the sliding angle of oil droplets was larger than that of pure water, especially when the groove was narrower and deeper. Second, we poured a large amount of liquid on the structure and evaluated the removal rate on the tilted surface. We found that a parallel structure enhanced the liquid mobility for both pure water and oil

In vivo reprogramming drives Kras-induced cancer development

膵臓がんが発生する新たなメカニズムを解明 --遺伝子変異とは異なるがんの原因--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2018-06-01.The faithful shutdown of the somatic program occurs in the early stage of reprogramming. Here, we examined the effect of in vivo reprogramming on Kras-induced cancer development. We show that the transient expression of reprogramming factors (1–3 days) in pancreatic acinar cells results in the transient repression of acinar cell enhancers, which are similarly observed in pancreatitis. We next demonstrate that Kras and p53 mutations are insufficient to induce ERK signaling in the pancreas. Notably, the transient expression of reprogramming factors in Kras mutant mice is sufficient to induce the robust and persistent activation of ERK signaling in acinar cells and rapid formation of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. In contrast, the forced expression of acinar cell-related transcription factors inhibits the pancreatitis-induced activation of ERK signaling and development of precancerous lesions in Kras-mutated acinar cells. These results underscore a crucial role of dedifferentiation-associated epigenetic regulations in the initiation of pancreatic cancers