Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary dominant neurodegenerative disorder and the progression of the disease may be associated with apoptosis and altered expression of apoptotic proteins. The aim ...of this study was to investigate gene expression of bax and bcl-2 in tissues from R6/1 transgenic (TGN) mice of different ages (3, 6 and 9 months). The mRNA expression was investigated and related to apoptotic cells measured by TUNEL. Results showed a significant and progressive increase in bax levels in the cortex of TGN (from 10 to 33%) when compared to control (CT) (8 to 20%) mice with 3, 6 and 9-month-old. The increase in bax was correlated with the elevation in the number of apoptotic nuclei, especially in the cortex of 6 (10%) and 9 (18%)-month-old mice. Increase in bax expression might be related to an apoptotic induction which contributes to the HD progression.
Cinacalcet, an allosteric modulator of the calcium sensing receptor, effectively reduces serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) in patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism. It is not well known whether ...bone mineral density (BMD) of hemodialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism is altered after cinacalcet treatment.
The BMD in the distal 1/3 of the radius and in the ultradistal radius, which are enriched with cortical and cancellous bone, respectively, was examined by dual X-ray absorptiometry, 1 year prior to, at the start, and 1 year after cinacalcet treatment, in 61 patients.
The BMD of both the distal 1/3 and ultradistal radius decreased significantly in the year prior to cinacalcet treatment (p < 0.01). However, the BMD at either site did not change significantly in the year after cinacalcet treatment. The annual changes in the BMD of the distal 1/3 radius increased significantly from -0.023 ± 0.029 g/cm2/year to -0.002 ± 0.033 g/cm2/year, prior to and after cinacalcet treatment, respectively; however, the annual changes in the BMD of the ultradistal radius did not change significantly prior to and after cinacalcet treatment.
There was a significant association between cinacalcet treatment and reduction in BMD loss in patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism. Cortical bone, rather than cancellous bone, was particularly affected by cinacalcet treatment.
Background. Although vitamin D has been reported to be useful in the treatment of patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism, it is not effective in some of them. The goal of this study was to see ...whether a relationship could be found between maxacalcitol responsiveness and parathyroid gland size. Methods. Parathyroid gland size was measured by ultrasonography in 25 patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism serum intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) >300 pg/ml, 58.1 ± 2.8 years old, 15 males and 10 females, who were treated with maxacalcitol. Patients were divided into two groups according to the mean value of the maximum diameter of the glands: group S with a diameter <11.0 mm and group L with a diameter ≥11.0 mm. Between the two groups there were no significant differences in serum intact PTH, calcium or phosphate level or duration of haemodialysis. Results. Mean (± SE) maximal diameter of detectable parathyroid glands was 11.0 ± 0.7 mm before treatment. At 4–24 weeks after administration of maxacalcitol, intact PTH concentrations decreased significantly in group S (from 546 ± 39 to 266 ± 34 pg/ml at 24 weeks; P < 0.01), but did not significantly change in group L (from 481 ± 39 to 403 ± 49 pg/ml at 24 weeks). At 24 weeks after maxacalcitol administration, the number of detectable parathyroid glands was significantly decreased in group S (from 2.2 ± 0.3 to 1.8 ± 0.4; P < 0.05), but not in group L. Serum calcium increased significantly in group L (from 9.6 ± 0.2 to 10.2 ± 0.3 mg/dl; P < 0.05), but not in group S. There was a significant correlation between reduction in PTH and parathyroid gland size (r = −0.42, P < 0.05). Conclusions. These results indicate that the responsiveness to maxacalcitol therapy of secondary hyperparathyroidism is dependent on parathyroid gland size and that the simple measurement of maximum parathyroid gland diameter by ultrasonography may be useful for predicting responsiveness to maxacalcitol treatment.
An eddy-current-based SQUID-NDE system has been developed to detect shallow surface flaws of less than 50 mum in depth on heat-exchanger copper tubes using an HTS-SQUID gradiometer and an ...Helmholtz-coil-type inducer. In this study, detectable flaw sizes on the tubes were investigated by experiments and simulation. Copper tube specimens with flaws of various sizes were inspected by the system with an excitation field of 5.6 muT at 3 kHz. A magnetic anomaly due to the shallowest flaw of 10 mum depth, 100 mum width and 15 mm length was successfully detected. The experimental results showed that the magnetic signal amplitude due to a flaw was proportional to the effective flaw size given by the product of flaw depth, width and length. A numerical simulation was carried out to calculate the magnetic signal from a flaw on a copper tube to determine the dependence on the flaw size. It is concluded that a flaw with a volume of 10 6 mum 3 should be detectable by improving the system parameters.
Nutritional status affects well-being and survival in patients who are undergoing hemodialysis. It was examined how maintenance hemodialysis altered body fat mass. In 72 patients with chronic renal ...failure (age, 62 +/- 12 yr; 42 men, 30 women), body fat was measured by dual x-ray absorptiometry 1 mo after initiation of maintenance hemodialysis and approximately 1 yr later (mean +/- SD, 11 +/- 2 mo). The second measurement showed significantly greater body fat mass than the first (11.38 +/- 3.84 versus 10.09 +/- 4.12 kg; P < 0.0001). After calculation of the change in body fat mass per month, no significant differences were evident in relation to gender or to presence of diabetes. Changes in body fat mass per month correlated negatively with baseline serum albumin concentration (r = -0.449, P < 0.0001) and baseline body fat mass (r = -0.423, P < 0.001). These factors independently influenced the change according to multiple regression analysis (R(2) = 0.323, P < 0.0001). In conclusion, body fat mass increases significantly in the first year of maintenance hemodialysis, especially in patients with poor nutritional status. More general, dual x-ray absorptiometry assessment of body fat mass was found to be useful for evaluating the nutritional status of hemodialysis patients.
In this paper, we present the analysis and results of a direct measurement of the cosmic-ray proton spectrum with the CALET instrument onboard the International Space Station, including the detailed ...assessment of systematic uncertainties. The observation period used in this analysis is from October 13, 2015 to August 31, 2018 (1054 days). We have achieved the very wide energy range necessary to carry out measurements of the spectrum from 50 GeV to 10 TeV covering, for the first time in space, with a single instrument the whole energy interval previously investigated in most cases in separate subranges by magnetic spectrometers (BESS-TeV, PAMELA, and AMS-02) and calorimetric instruments (ATIC, CREAM, and NUCLEON). The observed spectrum is consistent with AMS-02 but extends to nearly an order of magnitude higher energy, showing a very smooth transition of the power-law spectral index from -2.81±0.03 (50-500 GeV) neglecting solar modulation effects (or -2.87±0.06 including solar modulation effects in the lower energy region) to -2.56±0.04 (1-10 TeV), thereby confirming the existence of spectral hardening and providing evidence of a deviation from a single power law by more than 3σ.
PDF
