40 research outputs found
Enhanced expression of interferon-inducible protein 10 associated with Th1 profiles of chemokine receptor in autoimmune pulmonary inflammation of MRL/lpr mice
MRL/Mp-lpr/lpr (MRL/lpr) mice spontaneously develop systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-like disease. The natural history of the pulmonary involvement and the underlying mechanism of leukocyte infiltration into the lungs of MRL/lpr mice and SLE patients remains elusive. We aimed to investigate the expression profiles of chemokines and chemokine receptors in the lung of the SLE-prone mouse. We examined the correlation between lung inflammation and expression of IP-10 (interferon-γ-inducible protein 10), a CXC chemokine, and TARC (thymus- and activation-regulated chemokine), a CC chemokine, in MRL/lpr mice, MRL/Mp-+/+ (MRL/+) mice, and C57BL/6 (B6) control mice. The extent of cell infiltration in the lung was assessed histopathologically. Reverse transcriptase PCR showed up-regulation of IP-10 mRNA expression in the lungs (P < 0.05) of MRL/lpr mice, in comparison with MRL/+ or B6 mice. The increase paralleled increased expression of a specific IP-10 receptor, CXCR3, and correlated with the degree of infiltration of mononuclear lymphocytes. In contrast, lung expression of TARC and its specific receptor, CCR4, were suppressed in MRL/lpr mice. Immunohistology showed that macrophage-like cells were the likely source of IP-10. Flow cytometric analyses revealed that the CXCR3-expressing cells were mainly infiltrating CD4 T cells and macrophages, which correlated with the degree of mononuclear lymphocyte infiltration. Recent data suggest that Th1 cells and Th1-derived cytokines play an important role in the development of SLE-like disease in MRL/lpr mice. Our results suggest that IP-10 expression in the lung is involved, through CXCR3, in the pathogenesis of pulmonary inflammation associated with migration of Th1 cells
RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK and PI3K/PTEN/AKT Signaling in Malignant Melanoma Progression and Therapy
Cutaneous malignant melanoma is one of the most serious skin cancers and is highly invasive and markedly resistant to conventional therapy. Melanomagenesis is initially triggered by environmental agents including ultraviolet (UV), which induces genetic/epigenetic alterations in the chromosomes of melanocytes. In human melanomas, the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK (MAPK) and the PI3K/PTEN/AKT (AKT) signaling pathways are two major signaling pathways and are constitutively activated through genetic alterations. Mutations of RAF, RAS, and PTEN contribute to antiapoptosis, abnormal proliferation, angiogenesis, and invasion for melanoma development and progression. To find better approaches to therapies for patients, understanding these MAPK and AKT signaling mechanisms of melanoma development and progression is important. Here, we review MAPK and AKT signaling networks associated with melanoma development and progression
CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). IX. CO(=2-1)/CO(=1-0) line ratio on kiloparsec scales
While molecular gas mass is usually derived from CO(=1-0) - the
most fundamental line to explore molecular gas - it is often derived from
CO(=2-1) assuming a constant CO(=2-1)/CO(=1-0)
line ratio (). We present variations of and effects of the
assumption that is a constant in 24 nearby galaxies using CO
data obtained with the Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope and IRAM 30-m telescope.
The median of for all galaxies is 0.61, and the weighted mean of
by CO(=1-0) integrated-intensity is 0.66 with a standard
deviation of 0.19. The radial variation of shows that it is high
(~0.8) in the inner ~1 kpc while its median in disks is nearly constant at 0.60
when all galaxies are compiled. In the case that the constant of 0.7
is adopted, we found that the total molecular gas mass derived from
CO(=2-1) is underestimated/overestimated by ~20%, and at most by 35%.
The scatter of a molecular gas surface density within each galaxy becomes
larger by ~30%, and at most by 120%. Indices of the spatially resolved
Kennicutt-Schmidt relation by CO(=2-1) are underestimated by 10-20%,
at most 39% in 17 out of 24 galaxies. has good positive correlations
with star-formation rate and infrared color, and a negative correlation with
molecular gas depletion time. There is a clear tendency of increasing
with increasing kinetic temperature (). Further, we found that not
only but also pressure of molecular gas is important to
understand variations of . Special considerations should be made when
discussing molecular gas mass and molecular gas properties inferred from
CO(=2-1) instead of CO(=1-0).Comment: 29 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in PASJ. The
original resolution version is available here
(https://astro3.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/~radio/coming/publications/COMING_IX_org_res.pdf
Molecular Network Associated with MITF in Skin Melanoma Development and Progression
Various environmental and genetic factors affect the development and progression of skin cancers including melanoma. Melanoma development is initially triggered by environmental factors including ultraviolet (UV) light, and then genetic/epigenetic alterations occur in skin melanocytes. These first triggers alter the conditions of numerous genes and proteins, and they induce and/or reduce gene expression and activate and/or repress protein stability and activity, resulting in melanoma progression. Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is a master regulator gene of melanocyte development and differentiation and is also associated with melanoma development and progression. To find better approaches to molecular-based therapies for patients, understanding MITF function in skin melanoma development and progression is important. Here, we review the molecular networks associated with MITF in skin melanoma development and progression
CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). III. Dynamical effect on molecular gas density and star formation in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4303
We present the results of CO(=1-0) and CO(=1-0)
simultaneous mappings toward the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 4303 as a part
of the CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) project. Barred spiral
galaxies often show lower star-formation efficiency (SFE) in their bar region
compared to the spiral arms. In this paper, we examine the relation between the
SFEs and the volume densities of molecular gas in the eight
different regions within the galactic disk with CO data combined with archival
far-ultraviolet and 24 m data. We confirmed that SFE in the bar region is
lower by 39% than that in the spiral arms. Moreover, velocity-alignment
stacking analysis was performed for the spectra in the individual regions. The
integrated intensity ratios of CO to CO () range from
10 to 17 as the results of stacking. Fixing a kinetic temperature of molecular
gas, was derived from via non-local thermodynamic
equilibrium (non-LTE) analysis. The density in the bar is lower
by 31-37% than that in the arms and there is a rather tight positive
correlation between SFEs and , with a correlation coefficient of
. Furthermore, we found a dependence of on the velocity
dispersion of inter-molecular clouds (). Specifically,
increases as increases when km s. On the other hand, decreases as increases when km s. These relations
indicate that the variations of SFE could be caused by the volume densities of
molecular gas, and the volume densities could be governed by the dynamical
influence such as cloud-cloud collisions, shear and enhanced inner-cloud
turbulence.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PAS
CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) IV. Overview of the Project
Observations of the molecular gas in galaxies are vital to understanding the
evolution and star-forming histories of galaxies. However, galaxies with
molecular gas maps of their whole discs having sufficient resolution to
distinguish galactic structures are severely lacking. Millimeter wavelength
studies at a high angular resolution across multiple lines and transitions are
particularly needed, severely limiting our ability to infer the universal
properties of molecular gas in galaxies. Hence, we conducted a legacy project
with the 45 m telescope of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, called the CO
Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING), which simultaneously observed
147 galaxies with high far-infrared flux in CO, CO, and CO
lines. The total molecular gas mass was derived using the standard
CO-to-H conversion factor and found to be positively correlated with the
total stellar mass derived from the WISE m band data. The fraction of
the total molecular gas mass to the total stellar mass in galaxies does not
depend on their Hubble types nor the existence of a galactic bar, although when
galaxies in individual morphological types are investigated separately, the
fraction seems to decrease with the total stellar mass in early-type galaxies
and vice versa in late-type galaxies. No differences in the distribution of the
total molecular gas mass, stellar mass, and the total molecular gas to stellar
mass ratio was observed between barred and non-barred galaxies, which is likely
the result of our sample selection criteria, in that we prioritized observing
FIR bright (and thus molecular gas-rich) galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASJ; 47 pages, 5 tables, 29 figures.
On-line supplementary images are available at this URL
(https://astro3.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/~radio/coming/publications/). CO data is
available at the Japanese Virtual Observatory (JVO) website
(https://jvo.nao.ac.jp/portal/nobeyama/coming.do) and the project website
(https://astro3.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/~radio/coming/data/
Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial
Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials.
Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure.
Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen.
Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049