Resolvins as Regulators of the Immune System

Inflammation is the first response of the immune system to infection or injury, but excessive or inappropriate inflammatory responses contribute to a range of acute and chronic human diseases. Clinical assessment of dietary supplementation of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (i.e., eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) indicate that they have beneficial impact on these diseases, although the mechanisms are poorly understood at the molecular level. In this decade, it has been revealed that EPA and DHA are enzymatically converted to bioactive metabolites in the course of acute inflammation and resolution. These metabolites were shown to regulate immune cell functions and to display potent anti-inflammatory actions both in vitro and in vivo. Because of their ability to resolve an acute inflammatory response, they are referred to as proresolving mediators, or resolvins. In this review, we provide an overview of the formation and actions of these lipid mediators

The relationship between attention and avoidance coping in anorexia nervosa: functional magnetic resonance imaging study

[Background] Numerous studies have demonstrated attentional control difficulties and high avoidance coping in patients with anorexia nervosa. Attention is a critical coping resource because it enables individuals to demonstrate self-control and complete goal-directed behaviours. [Aims] We aimed to examine whether attentional control difficulty is related to high avoidance coping, and investigate the neural underpinnings of attentional control difficulties in individuals with anorexia nervosa. [Method] Twenty-three patients with anorexia nervosa and 17 healthy controls completed questionnaires that assessed attention and coping, and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a go/no-go task. [Results] Patients with anorexia nervosa showed weaker attentional control, higher omission error rates and higher avoidance coping compared with healthy controls. Attentional control difficulty was associated with higher avoidance coping in both groups. Functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis showed less deactivation in regions representing internal mental processing, such as the praecuneus, cuneus and left lingual gyrus, during the no-go condition. Moreover, weakened deactivation of the left lingual gyrus was associated with higher commission error rate in the anorexia nervosa group. [Conclusions] Our results suggest that patients with anorexia nervosa may have difficulty in maintaining attention to external ongoing events because of disturbance from internal self-related thought, and support the notion that attentional control difficulties underlie the frequent use of avoidance coping in anorexia nervosa

絶食ならびに運動負荷がマウスの血糖値,筋肉と肝臓のグリコーゲン量におよぼす影響

This is a basic study for producing of animal model of glycogen-loading using mice. We investigated about effects of fasting and exercise on blood-sugar level, glycogen levels of the muscle and liver. One and two-days fasting significantly increased in hematocrit and decreased in blood-sugar level. A swimming in 20℃ to make a study of variation of muscle-glycogen in mice was better than 35℃. The gluteus maximus muscle and biceps femoris muscle for mass and the gastrocnemius muscle for separation were good for a sample muscle of exercise-loading

Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004

We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90% confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was correcte

Importance of pre pump arterial pres sure monitoring in hemodialysis patients

Pre-pump arterial pressure (PreAP) is monitored to avoid generating excessive negative pressure. National Kidney Foundation K/DOQI clinical practice guidelines for vascular access recommend that PreAP should not fall below-250 mmHg because excessive negative PreAP can lead to a decrease in the delivery of blood flow, inadequate dialysis, and hemolysis. Nonetheless, these recommendations are consistently disregarded in clinical practice and pressure sensors are often removed from the dialysis circuit.Thus far,delivered blood flow has been reported to decrease at values more negative than -150 mmHg of PreAP. These values have been analyzed by an ultrasonic flowmeter and not directly measured. Furthermore, no known group has evaluated whether PreAP-induced hemolysis occurs at a particular threshold. Therefore, the aim of this study was to clarify the importance of PreAP in the prediction of inadequate dialysis and hemolysis. By using different diameter needles, human blood samples from healthy volunteers were circulated in a closed dialysis circuit. The relationship between PreAP and delivered blood flow or PreAP and hemolysis was investigated. We also investigated the optimal value for PreAP using several empirical monitoring methods, such as a pressure pillow. Our investigation indicated that PreAP is a critical factor in the determination of delivered blood flow and hemolysis,both of which occured at pressure values more negative than -150 mmHg. With the exception of direct pressure monitoring, commonly used monitoring methods for PreAP were determined to be ineffective. We propose that the use of a vacuum monitor would permit regular measurement of PreAP