Development of Intravital Needle-typed Videomicroscope with High Definition CCD

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Magnetic Fields toward Ophiuchus-B Derived from SCUBA-2 Polarization Measurements

We present the results of dust emission polarization measurements of Ophiuchus-B (Oph-B) carried out using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2) camera with its associated polarimeter (POL-2) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. This work is part of the B-fields in Star-forming Region Observations survey initiated to understand the role of magnetic fields in star formation for nearby star-forming molecular clouds. We present a first look at the geometry and strength of magnetic fields in Oph-B. The field geometry is traced over ~0.2 pc, with clear detection of both of the sub-clumps of Oph-B. The field pattern appears significantly disordered in sub-clump Oph-B1. The field geometry in Oph-B2 is more ordered, with a tendency to be along the major axis of the clump, parallel to the filamentary structure within which it lies. The degree of polarization decreases systematically toward the dense core material in the two sub-clumps. The field lines in the lower density material along the periphery are smoothly joined to the large-scale magnetic fields probed by NIR polarization observations. We estimated a magnetic field strength of 630 ± 410 μG in the Oph-B2 sub-clump using a Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi analysis. With this magnetic field strength, we find a mass-to-flux ratio λ = 1.6 ± 1.1, which suggests that the Oph-B2 clump is slightly magnetically supercritical

Efficient Isolation of Lymphocytes and Myogenic Cells from the Tissue of Muscle Regeneration

Isolation of both lymphocytes and myogenic cells from muscle tissue is required for elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms of muscle regeneration. Here, we aimed to establish an optimal method obtaining a high yield of lymphocytes during muscle regeneration. After the muscle injury, we observed higher infiltration of lymphocytic cells in the muscle on day 3 after injury. Then, we compared two different white blood cell isolation methods, the Percoll gradient and CD45-magnetic bead methods, to assess the percentage and number of T and B cells. Flow cytometry analysis showed that the CD45-magnetic bead method has a better efficiency in isolating CD4+, CD8+ T cells, and B cells from injured muscle tissues of wild-type and mdx mice than that by the Percoll gradient method. Moreover, we found that the CD45-negative fraction from wild-type and mdx mice includes myogenic cells. In conclusion, we report that the CD45-magnetic bead method is suitable to isolate T and B cells during muscle regeneration with higher purity and yield and can also isolate myogenic cells within the same sample. This method provides a technical basis for further studies on muscle regeneration, involving lymphocytes and muscle cells, with a wide range of clinical applications

Changes in airway diameter and mucus plugs in patients with asthma exacerbation.

BACKGROUND:Airway obstruction due to decreased airway diameter and increased incidence of mucus plugs has not been directly observed in asthma exacerbation. We studied the changes in the inner diameter of the airway (Din) and the frequency of mucus plugs by airway generation in patients with asthma exacerbation. We compared these patients to those in a stable phase using high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). METHODS AND FINDINGS:Thirteen patients with asthma were studied by HRCT during asthma exacerbation and in a stable period. The HRCT study was performed on patients who could safely hold their breath for a short while in a supine position 1 hour after initial treatment for asthma exacerbation. Using a curved multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) software, we reconstructed the longitudinal airway images and the images exactly perpendicular to the airway axis to measure the Din and mucus plugs from the second- (segmental) to sixth-generation bronchi in all segments of the lungs.The ratios of Din (exacerbation/stable) were 0.91(P = 0.016), 0.88 (P = 0.002), 0.83 (P = 0.001), 0.80 (P = 0.001), and 0.87 (NS) in the second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation bronchi, respectively. The percentages of airway obstruction due to mucus plugs were notably higher in the fourth- and fifth-generation bronchi (17.9%/18.1% in stable phase and 43.2%/45.9% in the exacerbation phase, respectively) than in the other generations of bronchi. CONCLUSIONS:Among the bronchi examined, the fourth- and fifth-generation bronchi were significantly obstructed during asthma exacerbation compared with the stable phase in terms of a decreased airway diameter and mucus plugs