Control of rat glomerular microcirculation by juxtaglomerular adenosine A1 receptors

Control of rat glomerular microcirculation by juxtaglomerular adenosine A1 receptors. The role of adenosine A1 receptors in the glomerular microcirculation and tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF) was studied in anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats. TGF activity was assessed as the reduction in proximal tubular stop-flow pressure (SFP) on establishing orthograde perfusion of the loop of Henle with artificial tubular fluid at 40 nl/min. Administration of a selective A1 receptor antagonist, KW-3902 (0.5 μg/kg/min i.v.), increased fractional excretion of Na (FENa) 4.3-fold without changing blood pressure, glomerular filtration rate, renal plasma flow, or filtration fraction. SFP in the absence of distal flow (SFP0) increased, and TGF-mediated SFP reduction was suppressed dose dependently [by 23 ± 2% from an SFP0 of 34 ± 1mm Hg, by 15 ± 4% from 36 ± 2mm Hg, and by 2 ± 1% from 39 ± 1mm Hg during vehicle, low- and high-dose infusions (0.5 and 5.0 μg/kg/min), respectively]. Intratubular or peritubular capillary administration of 10-4m KW-3902 completely suppressed TGF without affecting SFP0. TGF suppression and elevation of SFP0 during systemic A1 blockade indicated vasodilation, both in the afferent arteriole and more proximal preglomerular vessels. Inhibition of tubular Na reabsorption combined with TGF suppression allowed the marked natriuresis. TGF suppression through systemic, luminal, and peritubular application of the drug suggest that juxtaglomerular apparatus A1 receptors are important in the control of glomerular microcirculation

Cross-talk between IL-6 and TGF-β signaling in hepatoma cells

AbstractInterleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that plays important roles in the immune system, hematopoiesis, and acute phase reactions. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) also has pleiotropy including the production of acute phase proteins in hepatocytes. To elucidate the cross-talk between IL-6 and TGF-β signaling pathways in hepatic cells, we investigated the effects of TGF-β on IL-6-induced signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) activation in a human hepatoma cell line, Hep3B. IL-6-induced activation of STAT3 activity and STAT3-mediated gene expression were augmented by TGF-β in Hep3B cells. We provide evidence that these activities were due to physical interactions between STAT3 and Sma- and MAD-related protein-3, bridged by p300. These results demonstrate a molecular mechanism of a cross-talk between STAT3 and TGF-β signaling pathways in hepatocytes

Study on variation of neutral temperature in the polar MLT region using a sodium LIDAR at Tromsø

第2回極域科学シンポジウム/第35回極域宙空圏シンポジウム 11月14日（月） 国立極地研究所 2階大会議

Study of laser frequency stability from the observed vertical wind velocity by the Na lidar at Troms*

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OS] Space and upper atmospheric sciences, Wed. 4 Dec. /Entrance Hall (1st floor) at National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR

An automated auroral detection system using deep learning: real-time operation in Tromsø, Norway

The activity of citizen scientists who capture images of aurora borealis using digital cameras has recently been contributing to research regarding space physics by professional scientists. Auroral images captured using digital cameras not only fascinate us, but may also provide information about the energy of precipitating auroral electrons from space; this ability makes the use of digital cameras more meaningful. To support the application of digital cameras, we have developed artificial intelligence that monitors the auroral appearance in Tromsø, Norway, instead of relying on the human eye, and implemented a web application, “Tromsø AI”, which notifies the scientists of the appearance of auroras in real-time. This “AI” has a double meaning: artificial intelligence and eyes (instead of human eyes). Utilizing the Tromsø AI, we also classified large-scale optical data to derive annual, monthly, and UT variations of the auroral occurrence rate for the first time. The derived occurrence characteristics are fairly consistent with the results obtained using the naked eye, and the evaluation using the validation data also showed a high F1 score of over 93%, indicating that the classifier has a performance comparable to that of the human eye classifying observed images

Spectra of pulsating aurora emissions observed by an optical spectrograph at Tromso, Norway

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OS] Space and upper atmospheric sciences, Wed. 4 Dec. /Entrance Hall (1st floor) at National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR

Biomarker discovery for practice of precision medicine in hypopharyngeal cancer: a theranostic study on response prediction of the key therapeutic agents

Background: Hypopharyngeal cancer is a relatively rare malignancy with poor prognosis. Current chemotherapeutic algorithm is still far from personalized medicine, and the identification of the truly active therapeutic biomarkers and/or targets is eagerly awaited.Methods: Venturing to focus on the conventional key chemotherapeutic drugs, we identified the most correlative genes (and/or proteins) with cellular sensitivity to docetaxel (TXT), cisplatin (CDDP) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in the expression levels, through 3 steps approach: genome-wide screening, confirmation study on the quantified expression levels, and knock-down and transfection analyses of the candidates. The probable action pathways of selected genes were examined by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis using a large-scale database, The Cancer Genome Atlas.Results: The first genome-wide screening study derived 16 highly correlative genes with cellular drug sensitivity in 15 cell lines (|R| > 0.8, P 0.5, P Conclusion: We newly propose 4 molecules -AGR2, PDE4D,NINJ2 and CDC25B) as the powerful exploratory markers for prediction of cellular response to 3 key chemotherapeutic drugs in hypopharyngeal cancers and also suggest their potentials to be the therapeutic targets, which could contribute to the development of precision medicine of the essential chemotherapy in hypopharyngeal patients.</p

How many times can patients tolerate reoperation?

The frequency of resection for the recurrence of colorectal cancer has not been investigated in previous studies. Likewise, the related postoperative complications and the limit for indicating surgical resection has not been reported. Herein, we reported the complications of a highly frequent surgical approach for rectal cancer recurrence, i.e., exceeding three reoperations, based on our clinical experience. We included 15 cases exceeding two operations for the local recurrence of colorectal cancer from 2014 to 2019. We examined the postoperative complications classified as Clavien–Dindo IIIb. The positive rates of the complications were 0 (0.0%), 0 (0.0%), 2 (13.3%), 3 (37.5%), and 0 (0.0%) for the primary, 1st recurrent, 2nd recurrent, 3rd recurrent, and 4th recurrent operation group (p = 0.027), respectively. It is important to exercise caution in handling cases exceeding two reoperations (exceeding three reoperations including the primary operation)