Effects of Splenectomy on Spontaneously Chronic Pancreatitis in aly/aly Mice

Background and Aim. Mice with alymphoplasia (aly/aly) mutation characterized by a lack of lymph nodes, Peyer's patches, and well-defined lymphoid follicles in the spleen were found. In this study, we used splenectomized aly/aly mice to elucidate the effects of secondary lymphoid organs in the development of aly/aly autoimmune pancreatitis. Methods. Forty-eight 10-week-old aly/aly mice were divided into two groups for splenectomy and sham operation. Histological and immunohistochemical analyses of the pancreas were performed at the ages of 20, 30, and 40 weeks old after operation, respectively. Results. Our results showed that mononuclear cell infiltration was restricted to the interlobular connective tissues at the age of 20 weeks, and not increase obviously at the age of 30 and 40 weeks in splenectomized aly/aly mice. Furthermore, an apparent decrease in the expressions of CD4+ T, CD8+ T, and B cells was detected in the pancreatic tissues compared with sham aly/aly mice, however, no significant difference in macrophage expression between mice with and without a splenectomy. Conclusions. Inflammation infiltration and development of the pancreatitis in aly/aly mice were suppressed effectively after splenectomy, which was, at least partly, correlated to inhibition of the infiltration of T and B cells in pancreatic tissues but not to macrophages

Involvement of NGF in the Rat Model of Persistent Muscle Pain Associated With Taut Band

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is an important clinical condition characterized by chronic muscle pain and a myofascial trigger point (MTrP) located in a taut band (TB). However, its pathogenic mechanism is still unclear. We developed an animal model relevant to conditions of MPS, and analyzed the mechanism of the muscle pain in this model. We applied eccentric contraction (EC) to a rat\u27s gastrocnemius muscle (GM) for 2 weeks, and examined the mechanical withdrawal thresholds, histological changes, and expressions and contents of nerve growth factor (NGF). The mechanical withdrawal threshold decreased significantly at the next day of first EC and continued up to 9 days after EC. TBs were palpable at 3 to 8 days after initiation of EC. In EC animals, necrotic and regenerating muscle cells were found significantly more than in control animals. In EC animals, NGF expressions in regenerating muscle cells and NGF contents of GM were significantly higher than control animals. Administration of NGF receptor (TrkA) inhibitor K252a showed significant suppression of mechanical hyperalgesia in EC animals. Repeated EC induced persistent mechanical muscle hyperalgesia associated with TB. NGF expressed in regenerating muscle cells may have an important role in persistent mechanical muscle hyperalgesia which might be relevant to pathogenesis of MPS. Perspective: The present study shows that NGF expressed in regenerating muscle cells is involved in persistent muscular mechanical hyperalgesia. NGF-TrkA signaling in primary muscle afferent neurons may be one of the most important and promising targets for MPS. © 2011 American Pain Society

Cerebral oscillatory activity during simulated driving using MEG

We aimed to examine cerebral oscillatory differences associated with psychological processes during simulated car driving. We recorded neuromagnetic signals in 14 healthy volunteers using magnetoencephalography (MEG) during simulated driving. MEG data were analyzed using synthetic aperture magnetometry to detect the spatial distribution of cerebral oscillations. Group effects between subjects were analyzed statistically using a nonparametric permutation test. Oscillatory differences were calculated by comparison between passive viewing and active driving. Passive viewing was the baseline, and oscillatory differences during active driving showed an increase or decrease in comparison with a baseline. Power increase in the theta band was detected in the superior frontal gyrus (SFG) during active driving. Power decreases in the alpha, beta, and low gamma bands were detected in the right inferior parietal lobe (IPL), left postcentral gyrus (PoCG), middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCiG) during active driving. Power increase in the theta band in the SFG may play a role in attention. Power decrease in the right IPL may reflect selectively divided attention and visuospatial processing, whereas that in the left PoCG reflects sensorimotor activation related to driving manipulation. Power decreases in the MTG and PCiG may be associated with object recognition

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Effect of Manual Acupuncture Stimulation at “Bai-Hui” (GV 20) or “Yintáng” (Ex-HN3) on Depressed Rats

A previous study on rats showed that simultaneous acupuncture stimulation at the “Bai-Hui” (GV 20) and the “Yintáng” (Ex-HN3) acupoints alleviated the state of depression to an extent similar to that achieved by pharmacotherapy. This study investigated whether the alleviation of the depressed state required simultaneous acupuncture at these two acupuncture points. For the purposes of testing the effect of acupuncture on depressive symptoms, we treated a depression model rat, where depression had been induced by using a mild water-immersion stress technique, with either acupuncture stimulation at only one acupuncture point (GV 20 or Ex-HN3) or an antidepressant, and we measured the immobile time for evaluating the state of depression. Anxiety, as a symptom commonly associated with depression, was also evaluated by measuring the number of head dips. Neither the immobile time nor the number of head dips decreased upon acupuncture stimulation. From this study, single acupuncture stimulation at either “GV 20” or “Ex-HN3” alleviated neither the state of depression nor the anxiety. The water-immersion stress used to make the depression model rats was shown not to induce anxiety; however, the stress induced by immobilizing the rats for acupuncture stimulation did lead to anxiety

Synthesis of porous and acidic complex metal oxide catalyst based on group 5 and 6 elements

Complex metal oxides of transition metals using Mo, W, V, Nb and Ta were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The synthesized complex metal oxides were characterized and the solid acid catalytic activity was tested through the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of anisole and benzyl alcohol. X-ray diffraction patterns of the obtained samples showed two peaks at 2 theta = 22 degrees and 46 degrees indicating these materials have layer-type crystal structure, regardless of the combination of several metals. Moreover, Mo-V-O, Mo-Nb-O, W-Nb-O and W-Ta-O showed microporosity from N-2 adsorption isotherm. Among of these combinations, Mo-Nb-O, W-Nb-O and W-Ta-O showed a higher catalytic performance for alkylation reaction. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B. V

Raw Data for GrsA Sub-domain Dynamics

This dataset is too large to download directly from this item page. You can access and download the data via Globus at this link: [ https://app.globus.org/file-manager?destination_id=dc43f461-0ca7-4203-848c-33a9fc00a464&destination_path=%2F6ehx-sr32%2F ] (See https://docs.globus.org/how-to/get-started/ for instructions on how to use Globus; sign-in is required).This repository contains the raw photon-by-photon single-molecule FRET (smFRET) trajectories, SAXS data, and MD simulation trajectories, multi-sequence alignment, and gel images for the paper titled "Sub-Domain Dynamics Enables Chemical Chain Reactions in Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases."This work was supported by an HFSP award (No. RGP0031/2010-C202, to H.D.M., T.K., and H.Y.), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG MO1073/8-1 to H.D.M.), and Princeton University (to H.Y.). The U.S. NIH (GM124847) and Princeton University (start-up funds) are acknowledged for financial support (to N.A.). Also acknowledged are supports (to J.-W.C.) from Taiwan MOST (109-2113-M-009-023-) and MOE (SPDSBTD project and IDS2B center, Featured Areas Research Center Program). The U.S. NSF is acknowledged for a Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-0646086, to T.E.M.). SAXS was performed at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), which is supported by the U.S. NSF under award DMR-1332208, using the Macromolecular Diffraction at CHESS facility, supported by award NIH GM-103485. This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment Resource Kraken at the NICS through allocation MCB140041, supported by NSF grant number ACI-1548562. Also used were resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.README.txt, /1_MD, /2_smFRET, /3_SEC-SAXS, /4_multi_seq_alignment, /5_gel

Total Synthesis of (+)-Gliocladin C Based on One-Pot Construction of a 3a-(3-Indolyl)pyrroloindoline Skeleton by Sulfonium-Mediated Cross-Coupling of Tryptophan and Indole

Total synthesis of (+)-gliocladin C has been achieved on the basis of one-pot construction of the 3a-(3-indolyl)­pyrrolo­indoline core structure by the cross-coupling of a tryptophan derivative and an indole promoted by a sulfonium species generated from dialkylsulfoxide and triflic anhydride