酢酸摂取と運動が脂肪代謝と運動耐久性に及ぼす影響

Previously, we found that acetic acid had effects on lipid metabolism in skeletal muscles and has functions that work against obesity and obesity-linked type 2 diabetes through the activation of AMPactivated protein kinase (AMPK). During exercise, AMPK is activated in skeletal muscle according to exercise intensity and it increases fatty acid oxidation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactive effects of chronic intake of acetic acid and exercise training on lipid metabolism and endurance performance. Six-week-old SD rats were randomly assigned to four groups: water-injected (rest-water), acetic acid-injected (rest-ace), exercise-trained after injection of water (water-ex), and exercise-trained after injection of acetic acid (ace-ex) for 4 weeks. Body weight (BW) in rest-ace and ace-ex groups was significantly lower than rest-water group. Exercise-training groups showed an increase of exercise capacity, by the addition of intake of acetic acid, lipid oxidation was promoted during exercise tolerance test. Skeletal muscle of rats treated with acetic acid and exercise training led to higher expressions of cytochrome c (cycs), and tended to stimulate expressions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator 1-α (PGC1-α ) and MHC1 genes than those of rest-water group. Those results indicate that treatments both of exercise training and intake of acetic acid contribute to enhancement of lipid metabolism and improvement of exercise capacity.これまで我々は、酢酸の摂取が骨格筋内のAMP活性化プロテインキナーゼ（AMPK）の活性化を介して脂質代謝と肥満、肥満に関連した2型糖尿病の予防に効果があることを示唆してきた。AMPKは運動によって骨格筋で活性化し、脂肪酸酸化を促進する。この研究は、4週間の継続的な酢酸摂取と運動トレーニングが運動中の脂肪代謝と運動耐久性に及ぼす影響について調べることを目的とした。　6週齢のSD系雄ラットを安静期に水を摂取するrest-water群、酢酸を摂取するrest-ace群、運動前に水を摂取するwater-ex群、運動前に酢酸を摂取するace-ex群に無作為に分け実験を行った。酢酸を継続的に摂取すると水摂取に比較して腹腔内脂肪量の減少と体重増加の抑制がみられた。また継続的な酢酸摂取および運動トレーニングにより、耐久性運動下でのグルコース利用の抑制および脂肪酸酸化の促進が見られた。酢酸摂取および運動トレーニング群の腓腹筋では、MHCIおよびcytochrome c等の遅筋線維マーカー遺伝子が増加していた。継続的な酢酸摂取と運動トレーニングにより、脂肪代謝と運動耐久性の向上が示唆された

Categorical discrimination of human body parts by magnetoencephalography

Humans recognize body parts in categories. Previous studies have shown that responses in the fusiform body area (FBA) and extrastriate body area (EBA) are evoked by the perception of the human body, when presented either as whole or as isolated parts. These responses occur approximately 190 ms after body images are visualized. The extent to which body-sensitive responses show specificity for different body part categories remains to be largely clarified. We used a decoding method to quantify neural responses associated with the perception of different categories of body parts. Nine subjects underwent measurements of their brain activities by magnetoencephalography (MEG) while viewing 14 images of feet, hands, mouths, and objects. We decoded categories of the presented images from the MEG signals using a support vector machine (SVM) and calculated their accuracy by 10-fold cross-validation. For each subject, a response that appeared to be a body-sensitive response was observed and the MEG signals corresponding to the three types of body categories were classified based on the signals in the occipitotemporal cortex. The accuracy in decoding body- part categories (with a peak at approximately 48%) was above chance (33.3%) and significantly higher than that for random categories. According to the time course and location, the responses are suggested to be body-sensitive and to include information regarding the body-part category. Finally, this non-invasive method can decode category information of a visual object with high temporal and spatial resolution and this result may have a significant impact in the field of brain-machine interface research

3,4-Dicaffeoylquinic Acid, a Major Constituent of Brazilian Propolis, Increases TRAIL Expression and Extends the Lifetimes of Mice Infected with the Influenza A Virus

Brazilian green propolis water extract (PWE) and its chemical components, caffeoylquinic acids, such as 3,4-dicaffeoylquinic acid (3,4-diCQA), act against the influenza A virus (IAV) without influencing the viral components. Here, we evaluated the anti-IAV activities of these compounds in vivo. PWE or PEE (Brazilian green propolis ethanol extract) at a dose of 200 mg/kg was orally administered to Balb/c mice that had been inoculated with IAV strain A/WSN/33. The lifetimes of the PWE-treated mice were significantly extended compared to the untreated mice. Moreover, oral administration of 3,4-diCQA, a constituent of PWE, at a dose of 50 mg/kg had a stronger effect than PWE itself. We found that the amount of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) mRNA in the mice that were administered 3,4-diCQA was significantly increased compared to the control group, while H1N1 hemagglutinin (HA) mRNA was slightly decreased. These data indicate that PWE, PEE or 3,4-diCQA possesses a novel and unique mechanism of anti-influenza viral activity, that is, enhancing viral clearance by increasing TRAIL

Expression of Smooth Muscle Calponin in Synovial Sarcoma

Purpose. Histogenesis of synovial sarcoma remains controversial and reliable molecular markers for diagnosis are necessary. Expression of basic calponin, a smooth muscle differentiation-specific actin-binding protein, was studied in synovial sarcoma

Mutant analyses reveal different functions of fgfr1 in medaka and zebrafish despite conserved ligand–receptor relationships

AbstractMedaka (Oryzias latipes) is a small freshwater teleost that provides an excellent developmental genetic model complementary to zebrafish. Our recent mutagenesis screening using medaka identified headfish (hdf) which is characterized by the absence of trunk and tail structures with nearly normal head including the midbrain–hindbrain boundary (MHB). Positional-candidate cloning revealed that the hdf mutation causes a functionally null form of Fgfr1. The fgfr1hdf is thus the first fgf receptor mutant in fish. Although FGF signaling has been implicated in mesoderm induction, mesoderm is induced normally in the fgfr1hdf mutant, but subsequently, mutant embryos fail to maintain the mesoderm, leading to defects in mesoderm derivatives, especially in trunk and tail. Furthermore, we found that morpholino knockdown of medaka fgf8 resulted in a phenotype identical to the fgfr1hdf mutant, suggesting that like its mouse counterpart, Fgf8 is a major ligand for Fgfr1 in medaka early embryogenesis. Intriguingly, Fgf8 and Fgfr1 in zebrafish are also suggested to form a major ligand–receptor pair, but their function is much diverged, as the zebrafish fgfr1 morphant and zebrafish fgf8 mutant acerebellar (ace) only fail to develop the MHB, but develop nearly unaffected trunk and tail. These results provide evidence that teleost fish have evolved divergent functions of Fgf8–Fgfr1 while maintaining the ligand–receptor relationships. Comparative analysis using different fish is thus invaluable for shedding light on evolutionary diversification of gene function

患者アドボカシー相談活動における相談者のエンパワメント形成過程

本研究の目的は,患者アドボカシー相談活動における相談者と相談対応者の関わりのなかで,対応者の援助内容と相談者のエンパワメントの形成過程について明らかにすることである。過去48事例の相談記録の中から,対応者が認識したエンパワーされたと考える相談者のポジティブな変化のみられた22事例を対象に内容分析によるカテゴリー抽出を行った。その結果,対応者の"理解・受け止め""問いかけ・振り返り""提案・指示""情報提供""支持""助言・指導"など6つの援助を通して,"相談者自身が気持ちを表出する""気持ちが落ち着く""問題の整理と意識化""問題解決方法を考える""問題解決行動への意思決定"の5つの局面でエンパワメント形成が認められた。The purpose of this study is to clarify the clients' empowerment features and the support they receive in advocacy consultations between the clients and consultants. A content analysis and categorization were performed, targeting 22 consultation cases (out of 48) which, nurses recognized, were empowered displaying positive changes. Results showed the clients were provided by the consultants with six types of intervention: 1) understanding and acceptance of the situation, 2) questioning and looking back, 3) suggestion and instruction, 4) supplying information, 5) ongoing support, and 6) advice and guidance. In receiving such support, the clients were found to go through the five stages of empowerment formation: 1) expression of personal feelings, 2) calm self-assessment, 3) recognition and awareness of the specific problems, 4) problem solving, and 5) decision making for taking specific problem-solving action

Immunogenicity of mini-cells prepared from Salmonella typhimurium

Immunogenicity of mini-cells of an avirulent strain λ9 of Salmonella typhimurium was examined by antilethal infection immunity, bactericidal activity of macrophages and by histopathological studies of livers of immunized mice. Similar to mice immunized with live whole cells of λ9 strain, mice immunized with mini-cells acquired anti-infection immunity against intraperitoneal challenge with LT_2 strain of S. typhimurium, while no anti-infection immunity was observed in mice immunized with heat-killed whole cells of S. typhimurium. Macrophages collected from mice which had been immunized with mini-cells exhibited enhancing bactericidal activity against Salmonella cells, while no enhancement of bactericidal activity was observed in macrophoges collected from mice which had been immunized with heat-killed whole cells. Moreover, by histopathological study, granuloma formation was observed in the livers of mice which were immunized with mini-cells or live whole cells, but not in those of mice immunized with heat-killed whole cells. These results strongly suggested that mini-cells have immunogenic properties similar to those of live whole cells of S. typhimurium

Comparison of Antioxidant Properties of Different Crude Extracts from <i>Citrus natsudaidai</i> Peel

International audienceCitrus natsudaidai is a popular citrus in Japan, but the peel is of limited use and its composition is not well documented. The purposes of this study were to obtain health-beneficial compounds from C. natsudaidai peel for food use by simple methods and to investigate the antioxidant capacities of extracts of different polarities without overestimating the effects. C. natsudaidai peel was extracted with water-ethanol and hexane-ethanol solutions to obtain five different soluble fractions. The highest total phenolic content (TPC) was obtained from the water-soluble fraction (WSF), and the lowest content was observed in the hexane soluble fraction (HSF). The WSF also showed the highest antioxidant activities, and the lowest activities were found in HSF. A positive correlation was detected between TPC and antioxidant activities. The polar extract of C. natsudaidai peel has potential as a natural additive or ingredient in foods, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products with antioxidant activity

Base-Resolution Methylome of Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells Used in the First Trial of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Based Autologous Transplantation

The first-in-human trial of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based autologous transplantation was successfully performed on a female patient with age-related macular degeneration. Here we delineated the base-resolution methylome of the iPSC-derived retinal pigment epithelium (iRPE) used in this trial. The methylome of iRPE closely resembled that of native RPE (nRPE), although partially methylated domains (PMDs) emerged in iRPE but not nRPE. Most differentially methylated regions between iRPE and nRPE appeared to originate from (de)methylation errors during differentiation, whereas errors at reprogramming resulted in aberrant genomic imprinting and X chromosome reactivation. Moreover, non-CpG methylation was prominent in nRPE but not iRPE. Intriguingly, xenotransplantation to mouse remodeled the iRPE methylome to demethylate a subset of suppressed genes and accumulate non-CpG methylation, but failed to resolve PMDs and hypermethylated CpG islands. Although the impacts of these alterations remain elusive, our findings should provide a useful guide for methylome analyses of other iPSC-derived cells