Abstract Introduction Choline is essential for the synthesis of the major membrane phospholipid phosphatidylcholine (PC), the methyl donor betaine and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh), which ...is involved in several vital biological functions that play key roles in fetal development. In this study, we examined the molecular and functional characteristics of choline uptake in the human trophoblastic cell line JEG-3. Methods We examined 3 Hcholine uptake in the human trophoblastic cell line JEG-3. The expression of CTL1 and CTL2 was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR, western blotting and immunocytochemistry. Results We demonstrated that JEG-3 cells take up 3 H choline by a saturable process that is mediated by a Na+ -independent and pH-dependent transport system. The cells have two different 3 H choline transport systems, high- and low-affinity, with K m values of 28.4 ± 5.0 μM and 210.6 ± 55.1 μM, respectively. Cationic compounds and hemicholinium-3 (HC-3) inhibited choline uptake. Choline transporter-like protein 1 (CTL1) and CTL2 mRNA and protein were highly expressed in JEG-3 cells and were localized to the plasma membrane. Discussion The present results suggest that choline is mainly transported via a high-affinity choline transport system (CTL1) and a low-affinity choline transport system (CTL2) in human trophoblastic JEG-3 cells. These transporters play an important role in the growth of the fetus.
Context. Due to their low transit probability, the long-period planets are, as a population, only partially probed by transit surveys. Radial velocity surveys thus have a key role to play, in ...particular for giant planets. Cold Jupiters induce a typical radial velocity semi-amplitude of 10 m s−1, which is well within the reach of multiple instruments that have now been in operation for more than a decade. Aims. We take advantage of the ongoing radial velocity survey with the SOPHIE high-resolution spectrograph, which continues the search started by its predecessor ELODIE to further characterize the cold Jupiter population. Methods. Analyzing the radial velocity data from six bright solar-like stars taken over a period of up to 15 yr, we attempt the detection and confirmation of Keplerian signals. Results. We announce the discovery of six planets, one per system, with minimum masses in the range 4.8–8.3 Mjup and orbital periods between 200 days and 10 yr. The data do not provide enough evidence to support the presence of additional planets in any of these systems. The analysis of stellar activity indicators confirms the planetary nature of the detected signals. Conclusions. These six planets belong to the cold and massive Jupiter population, and four of them populate its eccentric tail. In this respect, HD 80869 b stands out as having one of the most eccentric orbits, with an eccentricity of 0.862−0.018+0.028. These planets can thus help to better constrain the migration and evolution processes at play in the gas giant population. Furthermore, recent works presenting the correlation between small planets and cold Jupiters indicate that these systems are good candidates to search for small inner planets.
Type B insulin resistance syndrome is a rare disease characterized by refractory transient hyperglycaemia and severe insulin resistance associated with circulating anti-insulin receptor antibodies. A ...standardized treatment regimen for type B insulin resistance syndrome has yet to be established.
We report the case of a 64-year-old man undergoing haemodialysis for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis and diabetic nephropathy, who developed rapid onset of hyperglycaemia (glycated albumin 52.1%). Type B insulin resistance syndrome was diagnosed, on the basis of positivity for anti-insulin receptor antibodies and the man's autoimmune history of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Although severe hyperglycaemia persisted in spite of corticosteroids and high-dose insulin therapy, rituximab treatment resulted in remarkable improvement of the man's severe insulin resistance and disappearance of anti-insulin receptor antibodies without any adverse effects.
According to a literature review of 11 cases in addition to the present case, rituximab appears to be a safe and effective strategy for the treatment of corticosteroid-resistant type B insulin resistance syndrome.
Nishida A, Sasaki T, Nishimura Y, Tanii H, Hara N, Inoue K, Yamada T, Takami T, Shimodera S, Itokawa M, Asukai N, Okazaki Y. Psychotic‐like experiences are associated with suicidal feelings and ...deliberate self‐harm behaviors in adolescents aged 12–15 years.
Objective: Psychotic disorders are a significant risk factor for suicide, especially among young people. Psychotic‐like experiences (PLEs) in the general population may share an etiological background with psychotic disorders. Therefore, the present study examined the association between PLEs and risk of suicide in a community sample of adolescents.
Method: Psychotic‐like experiences, suicidal feelings, and self‐harm behaviors were studied using a self‐report questionnaire administered to 5073 Japanese adolescents. Depression and anxiety were evaluated using the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ).
Results: The presence of PLEs was significantly associated with suicidal feelings (OR = 3.1, 95% CI = 2.2–4.5) and deliberate self‐harm behaviors (OR = 3.1, 95% CI = 2.0–4.8) after controlling for the effects of age, gender, GHQ‐12 score, victimization, and substance use. Suicidal feelings and behaviors were more prevalent in subjects with a greater number of PLEs.
Conclusion: Psychotic‐like experiences may increase the risk of suicidal problems among adolescents.
A new method of estimating coding peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) without the use of reference signals is presented. Although PSNR is commonly used as a measure of the picture degradation of ...digitally coded video, the calculation requires source signals as a reference.Therefore, the usage of PSNR is restricted to particular applications or systems. The proposed method enables PSNR estimation based on the probability density functions of quantized discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients extracted from an MPEG-2 bit stream. We experimented with MPEG-2 video coding bit streams under varying quantization scheme and evaluate a new method with comparing estimated PSNRs with actual PSNRs. Experimental results indicate that the determination coefficients are higher than 0.9 This method can apply to both SDTV and HDTV, and can evaluate PSNR of every frame coded by different picture types.
We have expanded a liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric method that measures 3-hydroxykynurenine and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid in addition to tryptophan and kynurenine both intra- and ...extracellularly. After reversed phase HPLC separation, the compounds were detected in the MS positive multiple reaction monitoring mode. We found a good linear response for each tryptophan metabolite. The lower limit of quantification for each compound ranged from 0.01 to 0.1
μM. The extraction efficiencies from spiked cell samples and culture medium ranged between 83 and 111% and the overall coefficient of variation of analyses was less than 7%. Using our method, we found tryptophan metabolites in the cells and the culture medium of LN229 human glioma cells were stimulated by interferon-γ, a known inducer of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. The intracellular concentrations of kynurenine, 3-hydroxykynurenine and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid were higher than those in the medium. This is the first report of a method for the simultaneous determination of tryptophan and its metabolic products both intra- and extracellularly.
Brachytherapy is one of the standard treatments for localized prostate cancer (CaP). However, the feasibility of brachytherapy for renal transplant recipients (RTRs) is still uncertain.
Between ...August 2007 and March 2018, all patients who had undergone low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy or high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy for clinically localized CaP at our institution were retrospectively identified (n = 394). Of these patients, 3 had a history of renal transplantation. We reviewed all available clinical data retrospectively.
All of the RTRs received ABO-incompatible renal grafts from their spouses and had stable renal graft function before the diagnosis of CaP. The median age at diagnosis of CaP was 65 years (range, 60–67 years). The median time between transplantation and brachytherapy was 7 years (range, 4–10 years). In all of the patients, clinical stage was cT1cN0M0. Two patients received 125I LDR-brachytherapy (dose, 145 Gy) and 1 patient was treated by 192Ir HDR brachytherapy (dose, 19 Gy in 2 fractions) combined with external beam radiation therapy of 39 Gy in 13 fractions. The median follow-up period after brachytherapy was 44 months (range, 34–50 months). During the follow-up period, none of the patients developed disease progression including biochemical recurrence or clinically significant adverse events associated with radiation therapy.
LDR brachytherapy and HDR brachytherapy are safe and technically feasible in RTRs with CaP, and oncological outcomes in RTRs do not appear to be inferior to those of patients who did not receive renal transplant.
•This is the first report of a renal transplant recipient who received high-dose-rate brachytherapy.•Brachytherapy is safe and technically feasible in ABO-incompatible renal transplant recipients with prostate cancer.•Oncologic outcomes in renal transplant recipients do not appear to be inferior to those of patients who did not receive renal transplant.
We present the detection of a warm Neptune orbiting the M dwarf Gl 378, using radial velocity measurements obtained with the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence. The star was ...observed in the context of the SOPHIE exoplanet consortium’s sub-programme dedicated to finding planets around M dwarfs. Gl 378 is an M1 star, of solar metallicity, at a distance of 14.96 pc. The single planet detected, Gl 378 b, has a minimum mass of 13.02 MEarth and an orbital period of 3.82 days, which place it at the lower boundary of the hot Neptune desert. As one of only a few such planets around M dwarfs, Gl 378 b provides important clues to the evolutionary history of these close-in planets. In particular, the eccentricity of 0.1 may point to a high-eccentricity migration. The planet may also have lost part of its envelope due to irradiation.
Context. Brown dwarfs (BD) are substellar objects intermediate between planets and stars with masses of ~13–80 MJ. While isolated BDs are most likely produced by gravitational collapse in molecular ...clouds down to masses of a few MJ, a non-negligible fraction of low-mass companions might be formed through the planet-formation channel in protoplanetary discs. The upper mass limit of objects formed within discs is still observationally unknown, the main reason being the strong dearth of BD companions at orbital periods shorter than 10 yr, also known as the BD desert. Aims. To address this question, we aim at determining the best statistics of companions within the 10–100 MJ mass regime and located closer than ~10 au to the primary star, while minimising observation and selection bias. Methods. We made extensive use of the radial velocity (RV) surveys of northern hemisphere FGK stars within 60 pc of the Sun, performed with the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence. We derived the Keplerian solutions of the RV variations of 54 sources. Public astrometric data of the HIPPARCOS and Gaia missions allowed us to constrain the masses of the companions for most sources. We introduce GASTON, a new method to derive inclination combining RVs and Keplerian and astrometric excess noise from Gaia DR1. Results. We report the discovery of 12 new BD candidates. For five of them, additional astrometric data led to a revision of their mass in the M-dwarf regime. Among the seven remaining objects, four are confirmed BD companions, and three others are likely also in this mass regime. Moreover, we report the detection of 42 M-dwarfs within the range of 90 MJ–0.52 M⊙. The resulting M sin i-P distribution of BD candidates shows a clear drop in the detection rate below 80-day orbital period. Above that limit, the BD desert appears rather wet, with a uniform distribution of the M sin i. We derive a minimum BD-detection frequency around Solar-like stars of 2.0 ± 0.5%.
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