Islet autotransplantation following total pancreatectomy differs from allograft transplantation with respect to the requirement of biliary reconstruction. Although it is known that careful ...consideration should be given to postoperative cholestatic liver injury after biliary reconstruction, its direct effects on transplanted islets have not been completely elucidated. In this study, we developed a murine model of postoperative cholestatic liver injury after biliary reconstruction with islet autotransplantation that involved syngeneic intraportal islet transplantation into chemically induced diabetic mice and common bile duct ligation. We assessed the viability and function of the transplanted islets. The impaired viability of transplanted islets and increased blood glucose levels indicated restoration of the diabetic state after common bile duct ligation in this murine model. Furthermore, impaired islet viability and function occurred earlier in the transplanted islets than in the surrounding liver tissues, which was consistent with the faster and higher expression of oxidative stress markers in the transplanted islets. Transplanted islets may be more vulnerable to oxidative stress caused by cholestatic liver injury than the surrounding liver tissue. Therefore, patients should be intensively managed after total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation to preserve viability and function of the transplanted islets.
In an animal model, the authors evaluate the influence of cholestasis on transplanted islets in the early postoperative period and find that management of the oxidative stress induced by cholestasis is critical to preserve the viability and function of the transplanted islets.
The Super DIOS project, which is an improved version of DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor), is one of the candidates for Japan’s future scientific satellites, to be launched after 2030. The ...main scientific objective of the project is to unravel the flow of energy and metal cycles at various scales from galaxies, galaxy clusters to the warm-hot intergalactic medium along the Cosmic Web. The primary goal is the quantification of baryons, especially the unidentified “dark baryons”. Super DIOS will have a wide field of view of
∼
1 degree, with an angular resolution of
∼
15 arcseconds and high energy resolution (
E
/
d
E
>
1000
). The detector will be a 30 kilo-pixel array of Transition Edge sensor (TES) with a micro-wave SQUID multiplexer read-out system. In this paper, we report on the scientific concept of Super DIOS and the status of its newly developed technologies.
Non-volatile sesquiterpenoids, a trichothecene family of phytotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON) and T-2 toxin, contain numerous molecular species and are synthesized by phytopathogenic Fusarium ...species. Although trichothecene chemotypes might play a role in the virulence of individual Fusarium strains, the phytotoxic action of individual trichothecenes has not been systematically studied. To perform a comparative analysis of the phytotoxic action of representative trichothecenes, the growth and morphology of Arabidopsis thaliana growing on media containing these compounds was investigated. Both DON and diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS) preferentially inhibited root elongation. DON-treated roots were less organized compared with control roots. Moreover, preferential inhibition of root growth by DON was also observed in wheat plants. In addition, T-2 toxin-treated seedlings exhibited dwarfism with aberrant morphological changes (e.g. petiole shortening, curled dark-green leaves, and reduced cell size). These results imply that the phytotoxic action of trichothecenes differed among their molecular species. Cycloheximide (CHX)-treated seedlings displayed neither feature, although it is known that trichothecenes inhibit translation in eukaryotic ribosomes. Microarray analyses suggested that T-2 toxin caused a defence response, the inactivation of brassinosteroid (BR), and the generation of reactive oxygen species in Arabidopsis. This observation is in agreement with our previous reports in which trichothecenes such as T-2 toxin have an elicitor-like activity when infiltrated into the leaves of Arabidopsis. Since it has been reported that BR plays an important role in a broad range of disease resistance in tobacco and rice, inactivation of BR might affect pathogenicity during the infection of host plants by trichothecene-producing fungi.
Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) is associated with Fcγ receptors (FcγRs) and transmits activation signals through FcγRs in myeloid cells. Thus, application of drugs to inhibit Syk activity can affect ...the development of immune diseases mediated by autoantibodies, while unexpected systemic effects by the inhibition may be concerned because Syk has multiple physiological functions. We used tamoxifen-inducible systemic conditional Syk knockout (KO) mice to evaluate the role of Syk in the pathogenesis of autoimmune arthritis and to investigate the systemic effects of Syk deletion. In a collagen antibody-induced arthritis model, Syk KO mice were almost completely protected from disease induction and showed significantly attenuated accumulation of neutrophils and macrophages in the joints. Syk-deleted macrophages showed less IL-6 and MCP-1 production upon FcγR ligation and exhibited reduced FcγR-mediated phagocytosis in vitro. Syk-deleted macrophages produce more RANTES upon FcγR ligation, indicating a Syk-independent signaling through the FcγR. We further found that both wild-type and Syk-deleted macrophages induced neutrophil chemotaxis upon FcγR ligation in vitro, and air-pouch model demonstrated that Syk-deleted neutrophils have a potential to infiltrate into local tissues in response to collagen and anti-collagen antibodies. However, Syk-deleted neutrophils exhibited greatly decreased neutrophil extracellular traps formation and FcγR-mediated phagocytosis. Our results indicated that Syk deficiency rendered mice completely unresponsive to immune activation by anti-collagen antibodies with disabling one pathway of FcγR-mediated signaling that was crucial for arthritis induction.
► High temperature erosion of overlay welding and forging of SUS410 steels was investigated. ► Erosion rate at 30̊ was reduced by 50% for welded material and 30% for forged material. ► Vickers ...hardness was decreased to approximately 70% at 1173
K for materials. ► Higher wear resistance of welded material was related to the harder hardness at high temperatures. ► Wear removal of forged material was restrained by the refinement of matrix and residual stress.
This study investigated the high temperature erosion characteristics of two types of surface-treated SUS410 steels; overlay welding and forging of the base metal. Two-layer overlay welding of 6
mm and forging with a 10% reduction, were used on a base metal of SUS410, to prepare specimens. High temperature solid particle erosion tests using a test temperature of 1173
K were performed using 1
mm alumina particles, with impact angles between 30° and 90° and a particle velocity of 100
m/s. Erosion rates, especially at shallow angles of 30°, were dramatically different for all specimens. Compared with the base metal of SUS410, the erosion rate was reduced by 50% for overlay welded material, and 30% for forged material.
High temperature hardness measurement and the observation of the eroded surface by scan electron microscopy were undertaken to analyse the erosion behaviour. An increase in the erosion rate of the specimen was related to a decrease in the high temperature hardness. Although the hardness was reduced to approximately 70% at 1173
K for all specimens, this suggested that the wear resistance of the overlay welding material was improved by restraining the plastic flow because it was harder at high temperatures. The forged material was suggesting that the plastic flow of eroded surface was restrained by the refinement of the microstructure and the residual stress near the surface, which reduced erosion rate regardless of this lower hardness.
•A construction method of microfluidics with a discrete MEMS structure is proposed.•The proposed method is useful for cost reduction.•The method can fabricate the structure that is unable to ...fabricate by typical photolithography.
This paper describes a novel approach to construct and/or functionalize a microfluidic chip with discrete microparts that are microfabricated small enough to place them in a microchannel. A preliminary demonstration was shown as a passive mixer. Microparts of several hundred micrometers were fabricated by double-sided etching with ICP RIE. The parts were manually placed in a typical Y-shaped PDMS microchannel. Fluorescence observation revealed that the constructed microfluidics had the same mixing ability as a fully silicon MEMS mixer. The configuration that is unattainable by the normal preassembled structure can also be fabricated.
Objective
Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can induce inflammatory bone loss such as periodontal disease. The formation of osteoclasts depends on macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (M‐CSF) and ...receptor activator of nuclear factor kb ligand (RANKL). It has recently been reported that administration of an antibody of the M‐CSF receptor c‐Fms completely blocked osteoclastogenesis and bone erosion induced by LPS in mouse calvaria. In this study, the effect of antibody against c‐Fms in the mouse periodontitis model by injection of LPS was investigated.
Materials and Methods
C57BL6/J mice were injected with LPS and anti‐c‐Fms antibody into the mesial gingiva of the first molar in the left mandible. Histological sections of periodontal tissue were stained for tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase, and osteoclast numbers and ratio of alveolar bone resorption determined.
Results
The number of osteoclasts and ratio of alveolar bone resorption in mice administered both LPS and anti‐c‐Fms antibody was lower than those in mice administered LPS alone. The expression of RANKL receptor, RANK, was inhibited by the anti‐c‐Fms antibody in periodontal tissue.
Conclusion
M‐CSF and/or its receptor are potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of bone resorption, caused by LPS, in periodontitis. Injection of an anti‐c‐Fms antibody might be useful for inhibition of pathological bone resorption in periodontitis.
The stearoyl‐CoA desaturase (delta‐9‐desaturase; SCD) gene is a candidate gene for fatty acid composition. It is located on pig SSC14 in a region where quantitative trait loci (QTL) for fatty acid ...composition were previously detected in a Duroc purebred population. The objective of the present study was to fine map the QTL, to identify polymorphisms of the pig SCD gene and to examine the effects of SCD polymorphisms on fatty acid composition and melting point of fat in the population. The pigs were examined for fatty acid composition and melting point of inner and outer subcutaneous fat and inter‐ and intramuscular fat; the number of pigs examined was 479–521. Two SNPs (g.−353C>T and g.−233T>C) were identified in the promoter region of the SCD gene and were completely linked in the pigs from the base generation. In all pigs, 19 microsatellite markers and SCD haplotypes were then genotyped. Different statistical models were applied to evaluate the effects of QTL and the possible causality of the SCD gene variants with respect to the QTL. The results show that all significant QTL for C14:0, C18:0, C18:1 and melting point of fat were detected in the same region, located near the SCD gene. The results also show a significant association between SCD haplotypes and fatty acid composition and fat melting point in this population. These results indicate that the haplotype of the SCD gene has a strong effect on fatty acid composition and melting point of fat.
This study estimated genetic parameters for fatty acids of different sites of fat tissue, meat production, and meat quality traits of Duroc pigs selected during 7 generations for ADG, LM area, ...backfat thickness (BF), and intramuscular fat (IMF). For this study, 394 barrows and 153 gilts were slaughtered at 105 kg of BW. High heritabilities for C18:0 of outer and inner subcutaneous fat tissue were estimated, respectively, as 0.54 and 0.51; those of intermuscular and intramuscular fat were 0.40 and 0.51, respectively. Genetic and phenotypic correlations of ADG and BF with saturated fatty acids of outer and inner subcutaneous fat were positive, but those with C16:1 and C18:2 were negative, and those with C18:1 were nearly zero. Genetic and phenotypic correlations between LM area and respective fatty acids showed opposite results. Respective genetic and phenotypic correlations of melting points with C18:0 and C18:1 were positive and high, and negative and high, respectively. Genetic correlations between cooking loss and SFA (C14:0, C16:0, and C18:0) of IMF were positive and moderate: 0.56, 0.47, and 0.47, respectively. On the other hand, monosaturated fatty acid of C18:1 was highly and negatively correlated with cooking loss (-0.61). Moreover, high genetic correlation between meat color (pork color standard and lightness) and fatty acid compositions of IMF suggest that the SFA (C14:0, C16:0, and C18:0) were correlated genetically with meat lightness and that unsaturated fatty acid compositions (C18:1 and C18:2) were correlated with meat darkness. Results of this study suggest that the fatty acid composition of adipose tissue is correlated genetically with meat production and meat quality traits.
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