Asthma is a heterogeneous disease composed of various phenotypes. Periostin, a molecule inducible with interleukin (IL)-4 or IL-13 in bronchial epithelial cells, is a biomarker of “TH2-high” asthma. ...The objective of this study is to examine whether the serum periostin concentrations are correlated with the severity, specific phenotype(s), or comorbidity of asthma.
Serum concentrations of periostin were measured in 190 Japanese asthmatic patients and 11 healthy controls. The protocol was registered under UMIN 000002980 in the clinical trial registry.
The serum concentrations of periostin were significantly higher (P = 0.014) in asthmatics 70.0 (54.0–93.5) ng/ml than in healthy subjects 57.0 (39.0–63.0) ng/ml, though we found no correlation between serum periostin concentrations and treatment steps required to control asthma. To characterize “high-periostin” phenotype(s), the patients with asthma were divided among tertiles based on the serum concentrations of periostin. The high-periostin group was older at onset of asthma (P = 0.04), had a higher prevalence of aspirin intolerance (P = 0.04) or concomitant nasal disorders (P = 0.03–0.001), higher peripheral eosinophil counts (P < 0.001), and lower pulmonary function (P = 0.02–0.07). The serum concentrations of periostin were particularly high in asthmatic patients complicated by chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and olfactory dysfunction. In contrast, neither atopic status, control status of asthma, nor quality of life were related with the “high-periostin” phenotype.
Elevated periostin concentrations in serum were correlated with a specific phenotype of eosinophilic asthma, late-onset and often complicated by obstructive pulmonary dysfunction and nasal disorders.
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Imaginary-time Nambu–Bethe–Salpeter (NBS) wave function is introduced to extend our previous approach for hadron–hadron interactions on the lattice. Scattering states of hadrons with different ...energies encoded in the NBS wave function are utilized to extract non-local hadron–hadron potential. “The ground state saturation”, which is commonly used in lattice QCD but is hard to be achieved for multi-baryons, is not required. We demonstrate that the present method works efficiently for the nucleon–nucleon interaction (the potential and the phase shift) in the S01 channel.
In many industrialized countries, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is recognized as an important disease that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, and metabolic ...syndrome. Most people with NAFLD are asymptomatic, and the disease is discovered incidentally during clinical laboratory tests. Present screening methods for NAFLD use ultrasound, and CT scans that are time-consuming, and a simple screening method for NAFLD is needed. In this study, we investigated whether serum miRNAs are associated with NAFLD and assessed the potential of serum miRNAs as a biomarker for NAFLD.
We assessed intrahepatic fat by ultrasound scan, and the serum levels of five miRNAs (miR-21, miR-34a, miR-122, miR-145, and miR-451), which help regulate cholesterol and fatty acid homeostasis in liver tissue, by real-time PCR in a cross-sectional sample of 403 participants who attended health examinations.
Serum levels of miRNAs, miR-21, miR-34a, miR-122, and miR-451 were higher in participants with NAFLD. The serum level of miR-122 was correlated with the severity of liver steatosis.
Serum levels of miRNAs, particularly miR-122, may be a useful biomarker for NAFLD.
•Serum levels of circulating miRNAs, miR-21, miR-34a, miR-122 and miR-451 are associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.•The serum level of miR-122 is correlated with the severity of liver steatosis.•This is the first report of cross-sectional analysis in general people of serum miRNAs.
Olfactory dysfunction is associated with aging and the earliest stages of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases; it is thought to be an early biomarker of cognitive ...decline. In marmosets, a small non-human primate model used in brain research, olfactory pathway activity during olfactory stimulation has not been well studied because of the difficulty in clearly switching olfactory stimuli inside a narrow MRI. Here, we developed an olfactory-stimulated fMRI system using a small-aperture MRI machine. The olfactory presentation system consisted of two tubes, one for supply and one for suction of olfactory stimulants and a balloon valve. A balloon valve installed in the air supply tube controlled the presentation of the olfactory stimulant, which enabled sharp olfactory stimulation within MRI, such as 30 s of stimulation repeated five times at five-minute intervals. The olfactory stimulation system was validated in vivo and in a simulated system. fMRI analysis showed a rapid increase in signal values within 30 s of olfactory stimulation in eight regions related to the sense of smell. As these regions include those associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, olfactory stimulation fMRI may be useful in clarifying the relationship between olfactory dysfunction and dementia in non-human primates.
The interaction energies between two baryons at short distance in different flavor channels are calculated from the constituent quark model (CQM) and are compared with the recent lattice QCD (LQCD) ...results for baryon–baryon potentials at short distance. We consider the six-quark system with two strange quarks and focus on the quantum numbers, (Flavor, Spin) = (1, 0), (8, 1), (10, 1), (
10
¯
, 1) and (27, 0). The interaction energy is defined by subtracting out isolated baryon masses and relative kinetic energy of two baryons from the total energy of a compact six-quark state. We introduce interaction energy ratio between different flavors as a useful measure to test the prediction of CQM. We find that the ratios in CQM show good agreement with those in LQCD, which indicates that the short range part of the baryon-baryon interaction can be understood qualitatively in terms of the Pauli principle and spin-dependent color interaction among constituent quarks.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Cerebral hyperperfusion (CHP) is a potential complication of superficial temporal artery–middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) anastomosis for moyamoya disease (MMD), and optimal ...postoperative management has not yet been established. Minocycline, a neuroprotective antibiotic agent, plays a role in blocking matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), which contributes to edema formation and hemorrhagic conversion after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion. Patients with MMD have been shown to have increased serum MMP-9 levels.
OBJECTIVE:
To examine the effect of minocycline on the prevention of postoperative CHP after STA-MCA anastomosis for MMD.
METHODS:
N-isopropyl-p-123Iiodoamphetamine single-photon emission computed tomography was performed 1 and 7 days after STA-MCA anastomosis on 109 hemispheres in 86 consecutive patients with MMD (ages, 9-69 years; mean, 37.2 years). Postoperative systolic blood pressure was strictly maintained at lower than 130 mm Hg in all 109 surgeries. The most 60 recent hemispheres were managed by the intraoperative and postoperative intravenous administration of minocycline hydrochloride (200 mg/d). The incidence of focal neurological deterioration (FND) due to CHP was then compared with that in 36 patients undergoing 49 surgeries managed without minocycline.
RESULTS:
FND due to CHP was observed in 4 operated hemispheres in patients treated without minocycline (4/49, 8.16%), and in none in the minocycline-treated group (0/60) (P = .0241). Multivariate analysis revealed that minocycline administration (P < .001), surgery on the left hemisphere (P = .031), and a smaller recipient artery diameter (P < .001) significantly correlated with FND due to CHP.
CONCLUSION:
The administration of minocycline with strict blood pressure control may represent secure and effective postoperative management to prevent symptomatic CHP after STA-MCA anastomosis for MMD.
The effects of annealing conditions and molecular weight on the energies required for cracking and plastic deformation were investigated by the essential work of fracture (EWF) method. We found that ...the energy required for plastic deformation, βwp, regardless of the molecular weight, decreased upon annealing, and the energy required for cracking, we, did not change. On the basis of these results, it is suggested that annealing affects βwp because the density fluctuation is amplified by annealing, and as a result, the strain in the plastic region is concentrated. Moreover, both βwp and we increased with the molecular weight because the increase of molecular weight increases the number of entanglements formed by a molecular chain. In addition, comparing the values of the J‐integral (Jc), we found that we obtained from the EWF and Jc was almost the same, indicating that we obtained from the EWF also involves the energy required for plastic deformation when the deformation around the notch changes from biaxial stretching to uniaxial stretching.
Differences appearing in the polarized images of as‐molded polycarbonate (PC), annealed PC, and PC with a high molecular weight at same displacement.
Given the complicated history of Japan's National Immunization Program, a significant proportion of Japanese people including healthcare workers (HCWs) still lack adequate immunity against measles, ...mumps, and rubella (MMR), resulting in occasional outbreaks. In 2014, the Japanese Society of Infection Prevention and Control (JSIPC) published vaccination guidelines for HCWs. We evaluated antibody titers before and after MMR vaccination in HCWs at the Nara Medical University Hospital, the attainment rate of the target antibody titers defined by the JSIPC guidelines, and the safety of vaccines. We measured MMR antibody titers in HCWs, followed by inoculation with the respective monovalent vaccines and/or trivalent MMR (tMMR) vaccine according to the JSIPC guidelines. Among 467 HCWs evaluated, antibody titers against measles and mumps measured using the IgG-enzyme immunoassay increased from 11.0 interquartile range (IQR): 8.0-13.6 to 13.7 (IQR: 11.3-16.9; P < 0.001) and from 2.8 (IQR: 2.1-3.5) to 4.8 (IQR: 3.7-5.7; P < 0.001), respectively. By evaluating a logarithmic value of log2(X + 1) converted from an antibody titer X, antibody titers against rubella measured using the hemagglutination assay increased from 3.2 (IQR: 0-4.1) to 6.0 (IQR: 4.6-8.0; P < 0.001). Antibody titer elevated following tMMR vaccination was lower than that following monovalent vaccination in a single dose of the measles-containing, a single dose of the mumps-containing, and two doses of rubella-containing vaccine groups (P = 0.01, 0.01, and <0.001, respectively). After vaccination, 20.0%, 61.5%, and 46.2% of HCWs attained target antibody titers specified by the JSIPC guidelines for measles, rubella, and mumps, respectively. The systemic response in female HCWs who underwent monovalent mumps vaccination was statistically higher than that in others. Although the vaccination program for HCWs according to the JSIPC guidelines caused increased MMR antibody titers, the rates of attaining the target criteria were low.
Aortic calcification in the tunica media is correlated with aortic stiffness, elastin degradation, and wall shear stress. The study aim was to determine if aortic calcifications influence disease ...progression in patients with acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD). We retrospectively reviewed a total of 103 consecutive patients who had undergone surgery for ATAAD at our institution between January 2009 and December 2019. Of these, 85 patients who had preoperatively undergone plain computed tomography angiography (CTA) for evaluation of their aortic calcification were included. Moreover, we assessed the progression of aortic dissection after surgery via postoperative CTA. Using a classification and regression tree to identify aortic Agatston score thresholds predictive of disease progression, the patients were classified into high-score (Agatston score ≥ 3344; n = 36) and low-score (<3344; n = 49) groups. Correlations between aortic Agatston scores and CTA variables were assessed. Higher aortic Agatston scores were significantly correlated with the smaller distal extent of aortic dissection (p < 0.001), larger true lumen areas of the ascending (p = 0.009) and descending aorta (p = 0.002), and smaller false lumen areas of the descending aorta (p = 0.028). Patients in the high-score group were more likely to have DeBakey type II dissection (p = 0.001) and false lumen thrombosis (p = 0.027) than those in the low-score group, thereby confirming the correlations. Aortic dissection in the high-score group was significantly less distally extended (p < 0.001). A higher aortic Agatston score correlates with the larger true lumen area of the ascending and descending aorta and the less distal progression of aortic dissection in patients with ATAAD. Interestingly, the findings before and after surgery were consistent. Hence, aortic Agatston scores are associated with aortic dissection progression and may help predict postoperative residual dissected aorta remodeling.
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