オスカー・ワイルドと本間久雄

This essay focuses on the activities of Honma Hisao, who merits attention as the first Japanese to translate Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis. Honma also introduced Wilde’s other works relating to the theory of aestheticism and wrote a doctoral dissertation with the title “A Study of the Aesthetic Movement in Modern England.” I am concerned to highlight the sequence in which Wilde’s works were introduced, those aspects of Oscar Wilde’s oeuvre that were—and were not—readily received by young Japanese intellectuals of the late Meiji and early Taisho periods, and the influence Oscar Wilde exerted on Japanese literature. Through this process, it will become apparent that the social and literary needs of the time and the interest and enthusiasms of those involved in the translation endeavor were necessary conditions for the successful introduction of not only Wilde but any Western writer into Japan. The possibility that Honma’s very distinctive personal and provincial backgroun

Vaginal stimulation enhances ovulation of queen ovaries treated using a combination of eCG and hCG

Follicular changes throughout the oestrous phase have been poorly documented in queens because of the location and the small size of ovaries. We investigated follicular development in queens treated with a combination of equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and evaluated the effects of vaginal stimulation by a tomcat on ovulation induction. A hormonal treatment was administered using a simple crossover design. Four queens were administered 150 IU of eCG (day 1) and 250 IU of hCG on day 5 and 6. Half of the queens were mated with a vasectomised tomcat for 3 days after hCG injection. Ultrasound imaging of the ovaries clamped at a subcutaneous site was performed once a day from day 1 to 7, and on day 13, and the serum concentrations of oestradiol and progesterone were examined on day 1, 5, 7 and 13. The mean number of follicles gradually increased with the eCG treatment and decreased after hCG injection. The ovulation rate of follicles was significantly higher in the vaginal stimulation group (70.0%) than in the control group (42.6%). During the hormonal treatments, the serum concentration of oestradiol and progesterone did not differ between the two groups. Ultrasound imaging of the ovaries clamped at a subcutaneous site showed that eCG and hCG treatment promoted the follicular growth and corpus luteum formation, respectively. The combination of hCG injection with vaginal stimulation by a vasectomised tomcat enhanced the ovulation rate of follicles

Asymmetric hydrogenation of N-substituted maleimides by cultured plant cells

The cultured suspension cells of higher plants hydrogenated the C-C double bond of N-substituted maleimides to afford corresponding succinimides. Hydrogenation of N-phenyl-2-methylmaleimide by the cultured cells of Nicotiana tabacum was highly-enantiospecific to give (R)-N-phenyl-2-methylsuccinimide (99 1.479619e-268.e.)

Thioredoxin-1 maintains mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) function during oxidative stress in cardiomyocytes

Thioredoxin 1 (Trx1) is a 12-kDa oxidoreductase that catalyzes thiol-disulfide exchange reactions to reduce proteins with disulfide bonds. As such, Trx1 helps protect the heart against stresses, such as ischemia and pressure overload. Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine/threonine kinase that regulates cell growth, metabolism, and survival. We have shown previously that mTOR activity is increased in response to myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, whether Trx1 interacts with mTOR to preserve heart function remains unknown. Using a substrate-trapping mutant of Trx1 (Trx1C35S), we show here that mTOR is a direct interacting partner of Trx1 in the heart. In response to H2O2 treatment in cardiomyocytes, mTOR exhibited a high molecular weight shift in non-reducing SDS-PAGE in a 2-mercaptoethanol-sensitive manner, suggesting that mTOR is oxidized and forms disulfide bonds with itself or other proteins. The mTOR oxidation was accompanied by reduced phosphorylation of endogenous substrates, such as S6 kinase (S6K) and 4E-binding protein 1 (4E-BP1) in cardiomyocytes. Immune complex kinase assays disclosed that H2O2 treatment diminished mTOR kinase activity, indicating that mTOR is inhibited by oxidation. Of note, Trx1 overexpression attenuated both H2O2-mediated mTOR oxidation and inhibition, whereas Trx1 knockdown increased mTOR oxidation and inhibition. Moreover, Trx1 normalized H2O2-induced down-regulation of metabolic genes and stimulation of cell death, and an mTOR inhibitor abolished Trx1-mediated rescue of gene expression. H2O2-induced oxidation and inhibition of mTOR were attenuated when Cys-1483 of mTOR was mutated to phenylalanine. These results suggest that Trx1 protects cardiomyocytes against stress by reducing mTOR at Cys-1483, thereby preserving the activity of mTOR and inhibiting cell death

Comparison of the effects of introducing the CRISPR/Cas9 system by microinjection and electroporation into porcine embryos at different stages

Objective: Cytoplasmic microinjection and electroporation of the CRISPR/Cas9 system into zygotes are used for generating genetically modified pigs. However, these methods create mosaic mutations in embryos. In this study, we evaluated whether the gene editing method and embryonic stage for gene editing affect the gene editing efficiency of porcine embryos. Results: First, we designed five guide RNAs (gRNAs) targeting the B4GALNT2 gene and evaluated mutation efficiency by introducing each gRNA with Cas9 protein into zygotes by electroporation. Next, the optimized gRNA with Cas9 protein was introduced into 1-cell and 2-cell stage embryos by either microinjection or electroporation. The sequence of gRNA affected the bi-allelic mutation rate and mutation efficiency of blastocysts derived from electroporated embryos. Microinjection significantly decreased the cleavage rates in each embryonic stage and blastocyst formation rates in 2-cell stage embryos compared with electroporation (p < 0.05). However, the bi-allelic mutation rate and mutation efficiency of blastocysts from the 1-cell stage embryos edited using microinjection were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those of blastocysts from the 2-cell stage embryos edited by both methods. These results indicate that the gene editing method and embryonic stage for gene editing may affect the genotype and mutation efficiency of the resulting embryos

Improvement of the in vitro fertilization and embryo development of microminipigs

This study aimed to compare the quality and the penetration ability of frozen–thawed spermatozoa from three microminipigs and Large White boars and to evaluate the effects of caffeine and heparin as well as the sperm–oocyte co-incubation length on the fertilization and embryonic development in vitro. Results showed that the fertilization rates of spermatozoa from three microminipig boars were significantly lower than those of a Large White boar. In the post-thaw spermatozoa from one of three microminipig boars, the sperm quality, penetration ability, and the oocyte development after in vitro fertilization were significantly lower than those of the spermatozoa from other boars. The caffeine supplementation in the fertilization media increased the rates of fertilization and blastocyst formation for the microminipig spermatozoa with low sperm quality. In addition to caffeine supplementation, the rates of fertilization and blastocyst formation after using microminipig spermatozoa were significantly higher with a 10 h sperm–oocyte co-incubation than with 3 h of co-incubation length. Our results indicate that the differences between the males and the breed influence the quality and fertility of frozen–thawed boar spermatozoa. In conclusion, the presence of caffeine in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) medium and adequate length of sperm–oocyte co-incubation may have beneficial effects for improving IVF results when using microminipig spermatozoa with low quality

Continuous oxygen saturation and risk of retinopathy of prematurity in a Japanese cohort

Kubota H., Fukushima Y., Kawasaki R., et al. Continuous oxygen saturation and risk of retinopathy of prematurity in a Japanese cohort. British Journal of Ophthalmology , bjo-2023-324225 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo-2023-324225.Background/aims : We assessed the associations between retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and continuous measurements of oxygen saturation (SpO2), and developed a risk prediction model for severe ROP using birth data and SpO2 data. Methods : This retrospective study included infants who were born before 30 weeks of gestation between August 2009 and January 2019 and who were screened for ROP at a single hospital in Japan. We extracted data on birth weight (BW), birth length, gestational age (GA) and minute-by-minute SpO2 during the first 20 days from the medical records. We defined four SpO2 variables using sequential measurements. Multivariate logistic regression was used to develop a model that combined birth data and SpO2 data to predict treatment-requiring ROP (TR-ROP). The model’s performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results : Among 350 infants, 83 (23.7%) required ROP treatment. The SpO2 variables in infants with TR-ROP differed significantly from those with non-TR-ROP. The average SpO2 and high SpO2 showed strong associations with GA (r=0.73 and r=0.70, respectively). The model incorporating birth data and the four SpO2 variables demonstrated good discriminative ability (AUC=0.83), but it did not outperform the model incorporating BW and GA (AUC=0.82). Conclusion Data obtained by continuous SpO2 monitoring demonstrated valuable associations with severe ROP, as well as with GA. Differences in the distribution of average SpO2 and high SpO2 between infants with TR-ROP and non-TR-ROP could be used to establish efficient cut-off values for risk determination

Mechanism of enhanced optical second-harmonic generation in the conducting pyrochlore-type Pb2_{2}Ir2_{2}O7−x_{7-x} oxide compound

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of pyrochlore-type Pb$_{2}$Ir$_{2}$O$_{6}$O'$_{0.55}$, which is a metal without spatial inversion symmetry at room temperature, were investigated. Structural analysis revealed that the structural distortion relevant to the breakdown of the inversion symmetry is dominated by the Pb-O' network but is very small in the Ir-O network. At the same time, gigantic second-harmonic generation signals were observed, which can only occur if the local environment of the Ir 5$d$ electrons features broken inversion symmetry. First-principles electronic structure calculations reveal that the underlying mechanism for this phenomenon is the induction of the noncentrosymmetricity in the Ir 5$d$ bands by the strong hybridization with O' 2$p$ orbitals. Our results stimulate theoretical study of inversion-broken iridates, where exotic quantum states such as a topological insulator and Dirac semimetal are anticipated