A prospective randomized clinical trial in preemptive analgesia for postoperative pain was conducted.
To compare the efficacy of three preemptive analgesics combined with local anesthesia: continuous ...subcutaneous morphine (SC), continuous epidural morphine (ED), and diclofenac sodium (DS).
Systemic opioids are known to be effective methods of postoperative pain control. The use of epidural morphine for postoperative analgesia has been a standard treatment in spinal surgery. Only a few studies in the literature have investigated the efficacy of preemptive analgesia using morphine. This is the first prospective randomized clinical trial to assess both subcutaneous and epidural continuous administration of opioids for preemptive analgesia.
For this study, 73 patients were assigned randomly to one of three treatment groups: SC, ED, or DS. All patients underwent posterior lumbar interbody fusion with instrumentation. Pain management was assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS). Usage of supplemental analgesics, the time to first request of them, and side effects were also investigated.
Twenty-two patients were randomized to SC, 23 to ED, and 27 to DS. No baseline variable differences among the three groups were seen. The results showed no significant difference in analgesic effects among those three preemptive analgesics. Only immediately after surgery (at 0 hours), the VAS of the DS group was lowest among three groups. But the DS group took more supplemental analgesic drugs until 72 hours, and the time to first request of this group was shorter than that of the other two groups. High rates of minor side effects were seen in both the ED and DS groups. SC gave moderate analgesic effects as well as the other two groups with few adverse effects.
DS provided a favorable effect immediately after surgery, but the effective time was short and the patient needed more supplemental drugs after that. ED did not give the expected effect, with comparatively high rates of side effects. Continuous epidural anesthesia did not seem to be suitable for preemptive analgesia. Continuous subcutaneous morphine brought some analgesic effects with a low rate of complications. It can be an attractive method for postoperative analgesia with technical ease.
In the symbiosis of the bean bug Riptortus pedestris with Burkholderia insecticola, the bacteria occupy an exclusive niche in the insect midgut and favor insect development and reproduction. In order ...to understand how the symbiotic bacteria stably colonize the midgut crypts and which services they provide to the host, we compared the cytology, physiology, and transcriptomics of free-living and midgut-colonizing B. insecticola. The analyses revealed that midgut-colonizing bacteria were smaller in size and had lower DNA content, they had increased stress sensitivity, lost motility, and an altered cell surface. Transcriptomics revealed what kinds of nutrients are provided by the bean bug to the Burkholderia symbiont. Transporters and metabolic pathways of diverse sugars such as rhamnose and ribose, and sulfur compounds like sulfate and taurine were upregulated in the midgut-colonizing symbionts. Moreover, pathways enabling the assimilation of insect nitrogen wastes, i.e. allantoin and urea, were also upregulated. The data further suggested that the midgut-colonizing symbionts produced all essential amino acids and B vitamins, some of which are scarce in the soybean food of the host insect. Together, these findings suggest that the Burkholderia symbiont is fed with specific nutrients and also recycles host metabolic wastes in the insect gut, and in return, the bacterial symbiont provides the host with essential nutrients limited in the insect food, contributing to the rapid growth and enhanced reproduction of the bean bug host.
Fukuyama-type congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD), one of the most common autosomal-recessive disorders in Japan, is characterized by congenital muscular dystrophy associated with brain malformation ...due to a defect during neuronal migration. Through positional cloning, we previously identified the gene for FCMD, which encodes the fukutin protein. Here we report that chimeric mice generated using embryonic stem cells targeted for both fukutin alleles develop severe muscular dystrophy, with the selective deficiency of α-dystroglycan and its laminin-binding activity. In addition, these mice showed laminar disorganization of the cortical structures in the brain with impaired laminin assembly, focal interhemispheric fusion, and hippocampal and cerebellar dysgenesis. Further, chimeric mice showed anomaly of the lens, loss of laminar structure in the retina, and retinal detachment. These results indicate that fukutin is necessary for the maintenance of muscle integrity, cortical histiogenesis, and normal ocular development and suggest the functional linkage between fukutin and α-dystroglycan.
In order to seek promising cancer chemopreventive agents, we assessed the antitumor promoting activities of 3-O-octanoyl- or 3-O-(2-methyloctanoyl)-(--)-epigallocatechins, inhibiting markedly the ...activation of Epstein-Barr virus early antigen, in a two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis assay. As a result, these derivatives inhibited a papilloma formation 1.3-1.6-fold more strongly than (--)-epigallocatechin gallate well established as anti-tumor promoter.
The actin cytoskeleton has been assumed to take part in the intracellular positioning of chloroplasts. In several plants, the configurations of actin filaments that seem to anchor chloroplasts onto ...the plasma membrane (PM) were reported. To elucidate the role of the actin cytoskeleton in the interaction of chloroplasts with PM, we prepared the PM ghosts that exposed the cytoplasmic side of the PM from spinach mesophyll protoplasts. Even after washing with a buffer solution, many chloroplasts remained on the PM ghosts. A fluorescent image of actin filaments in a reticulated array surrounding the chloroplasts on the PM ghosts was obtained. In the PM ghosts treated with an actin-depolymerizing reagent latrunculin B or Ca super(2+) at higher than 1 mu M, the relative area occupied by chloroplasts on PM ghost substantially decreased, and moreover, most of the actin filaments were severed and/or depolymerized. The participation of Ca super(2+)-sensitive actin binding proteins is assumed. A crude protein extract prepared from spinach leaves in the presence of Ca super(2+) was applied to a DNasel affinity column. When adsorbed materials eluted by a solution containing 5 mM EGTA were separated by SDS-PAGE and stained with silver, 135- and 120-kDa polypeptides were detected. Antibodies against villin of lily pollen tube (P-135-ABP and P-115-ABP) recognized 135- and 120-kDa polypeptide, respectively. These polypeptides were localized in the vicinity of the chloroplasts on the PM ghosts by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy.
We prepare the high quality epitaxial MgO(001)100/Pt(001)100/NiO(001)100/FeNi/SiO2 films to investigate the spin transport in the NiO antiferromagnetic insulator. The ferromagnetic resonance ...measurements of the FeNi under a spin current injection from the Pt by the spin Hall effect revealed the change of the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth depending on the amount of the spin current injection. The results can be interpreted that there is an angular momentum transfer through the NiO. A high efficient angular momentum transfer we observed in the epitaxial NiO can be attributed to the well-defined orientation of the antiferromagnetic moments and the spin quantization axis of the injected spin current.
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