The influence of aging on the effectiveness of heat stress in preventing disuse muscle atrophy

This study examined the aging effect on disuse muscle atrophy prevention using heat stress. Wistar rats aged 7 and 60 weeks were divided into three groups as follows: control, immobilized (Im), and immobilized and heat stressed (ImH). Heat stress was given by immersing the hindlimbs in hot water (42 °C) for 60 min, once in every 3 days and the gastrocnemius (GAS) and soleus (SOL) muscles were extracted after 14 days. Muscle-fiber types were classified using ATPase staining. Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) was assessed through Western blotting. In GAS muscle of both groups and SOL muscle of 7-week-old rats, the fiber diameter of each muscle type in the ImH group significantly increased compared with that in the Im group. However, this could not be observed in the SOL muscle of the 60-week-old rats. The increased percentage of type-I fibers and variability of types I and II muscle-fiber diameter were evident in the SOL muscle of the 60-week rats. HSP70 was significantly elevated in the ImH group compared with in the Im group in both muscle types of both age groups. Thus, effectiveness of heat stress in the prevention of disuse muscle atrophy appears unsatisfactory in aging muscle fibers.

Identification of ecdysteroidogenic enzyme genes and their expression during pupal diapause in the cabbage armyworm, Mamestra brassicae

In this study, we identified ecdysteroidogenic enzymes in the cabbage armyworm, Mamestra brassicae, and demonstrated reduced expression of these genes during diapause. Some insects employ a temporary developmental arrest, diapause, to survive in severe environments. The titres of the moulting hormone ecdysteroid were reduced in diapause pupae of M. brassicae; therefore, ecdysteroidogenesis might be suppressed by a diapause-specific mechanism. To clarify expression changes of ecdysteroidogenic enzyme genes during diapause in M. brassicae, we first identified the genes for seven ecdysteroidogenic enzymes: Neverland, Non-molting glossy (Nm-g), CYP307A1 (Spook), CYP306A1 (Phantom), CYP302A1 (Disembodied), CYP315A1 (Shadow) and CYP314A1 (Shade). Enzymatic assays using heterologous expression in Drosophila Schneider 2 (S2) cells and analysis of mRNA distribution indicated that the identified genes were ecdysteroidogenic enzymes of M. brassicae. Expression levels of these ecdysteroidogenic enzyme genes were compared between prothoracic glands in different pupal stages throughout diapause. Immediately after pupation, diapause-destined pupae showed similar expression levels of ecdysteroidogenic enzyme genes to those of nondiapause pupae. All of these genes showed reduced gene expression after diapause initiation. Expression was immediately increased in diapause-destined pupae at the postdiapause quiescence phase. These results indicate that reduced expression of ecdysteroidogenic enzyme genes suppresses ecdysteroidogenesis and maintains developmental arrest during diapause.

Nucleases from Prevotella intermedia can degrade neutrophil extracellular traps

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease caused by periodontal bacteria in subgingival plaque. These bacteria are able to colonize the periodontal region by evading the host immune response. Neutrophils, the host's first line of defense against infection, use various strategies to kill invading pathogens, including neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). These are extracellular net‐like fibers comprising DNA and antimicrobial components such as histones, LL‐37, defensins, myeloperoxidase, and neutrophil elastase from neutrophils that disarm and kill bacteria extracellularly. Bacterial nuclease degrades the NETs to escape NET killing. It has now been shown that extracellular nucleases enable bacteria to evade this host antimicrobial mechanism, leading to increased pathogenicity. Here, we compared the DNA degradation activity of major Gram‐negative periodontopathogenic bacteria, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. We found that Pr. intermedia showed the highest DNA degradation activity. A genome search of Pr. intermedia revealed the presence of two genes, nucA and nucD, putatively encoding secreted nucleases, although their enzymatic and biological activities are unknown. We cloned nucA‐ and nucD‐encoding nucleases from Pr. intermedia ATCC 25611 and characterized their gene products. Recombinant NucA and NucD digested DNA and RNA, which required both Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ for optimal activity. In addition, NucA and NucD were able to degrade the DNA matrix comprising NETs.

Human monoclonal antibodies against the complex of phosphatidylserine and prothrombin from patients with the antiphospholipid antibodies

The presence of antibodies against the complex of prothrombin and phosphatidylserine (aPS/PT) more significantly correlates with manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and with the presence of lupus anticoagulants (LA) than antibodies against prothrombin bound to oxygenated polystyrene (aPT-A). To investigate immunological specificities and functional activities of aPS/PT, four monoclonal aPS/PT, designated as HG-4, KE-6, KF-5 and KF-6, from two patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) were established and characterized. Three of these antibodies (HG-4, KF-5 and KF-6) recognized the complex of phosphatidylserine and prothrombin, but did not react to prothrombin directly coated on oxygenated plates. KE-6 bound not only to the complex of phosphatidylserine and prothrombin but also to prothrombin on oxygenated plates. None of them showed the binding activity to prothrombin directly coated on non-oxygenated plates. HG-4, KE-6 and KF-5 had LA-like activity. The findings support the hypothesis that autoimmune aPS/PT recognize the cryptic epitopes or neoepitopes exposed upon interaction between prothrombin and phosphatidylserine, and that aPS/PT are, at least in part, responsible for LA activity. Lupus (2007) 16, 509—516.

Use of a Latent Topic Model for Characteristic Extraction from Health Checkup Questionnaire Data

OBJECTIVES

When patients complete questionnaires during health checkups, many of their responses are subjective, making topic extraction difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a model capable of extracting appropriate topics from subjective data in questionnaires conducted during health checkups.

METHODS

We employed a latent topic model to group the lifestyle habits of the study participants and represented their responses to items on health checkup questionnaires as a probability model. For the probability model, we used latent Dirichlet allocation to extract 30 topics from the questionnaires. According to the model parameters, a total of 4381 study participants were then divided into groups based on these topics. Results from laboratory tests, including blood glucose level, triglycerides, and estimated glomerular filtration rate, were compared between each group, and these results were then compared with those obtained by hierarchical clustering.

RESULTS

If a significant (p < 0.05) difference was observed in any of the laboratory measurements between groups, it was considered to indicate a questionnaire response pattern corresponding to the value of the test result. A comparison between the latent topic model and hierarchical clustering grouping revealed that, in the latent topic model method, a small group of participants who reported having subjective signs of urinary disorder were allocated to a single group.

CONCLUSIONS

The latent topic model is useful for extracting characteristics from a small number of groups from questionnaires with a large number of items. These results show that, in addition to chief complaints and history of past illness, questionnaire data obtained during medical checkups can serve as useful judgment criteria for assessing the conditions of patients.

Heat treatment inhibits skeletal muscle atrophy of glucocorticoid-induced myopathy in rats

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of heat treatment on glucocorticoid (GC)-induced myopathy. Eight-week-old Wistar rats were randomly assigned to the control, Dex, and Dex + Heat groups. Dexamethasone (2 mg/kg) was injected subcutaneously 6 days per week for 2 weeks in the Dex and Dex + Heat group. In the Dex + Heat group, heat treatment was performed by immersing hindlimbs in water at 42 °C for 60 min, once every 3 days for 2 weeks. The extensor digitorum longus muscle was extracted following 2 weeks of experimentation. In the Dex + Heat group, muscle fiber diameter, capillary/muscle fiber ratio, and level of heat shock protein 72 were significantly higher and atrogene expression levels were significantly lower than in the Dex group. Our results suggest that heat treatment inhibits the development of GC-induced myopathy by decreasing atrogene expression and increasing angiogenesis.

Induction of tissue-specific stem cells by reprogramming factors, and tissue-specific selection

Although induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have significant implications for overcoming most of the ethical issues associated with embryonic stem (ES) cells, there are still several unresolved issues related to the use of iPS cells for clinical applications, such as teratoma formation. In this study, we were able to generate tissue-specific stem (induced tissue-specific stem; iTS) cells from the pancreas (iTS-P) or liver (iTS-L) by transient overexpression of reprogramming factors, combined with tissue-specific selection. The generation of iTS cells was easier than that of iPS cells. The iTS-P/iTS-L cells express genetic markers of endoderm and pancreatic/hepatic progenitors and were able to differentiate into insulin-producing cells/hepatocytes more efficiently than ES cells. Subcutaneous transplantation of both types of iTS cells into immunodeficient mice resulted in no teratoma formation. The technology used for the transient overexpression of reprogramming factors and tissue-specific selection may be useful for the generation of other tissue-specific stem cells, and the generation of iTS cells could have important implications for the clinical application of stem cells.

Prediction model for glucose metabolism based on lipid metabolism

OBJECTIVES

We developed a robust, long-term clinical prediction model to predict conditions leading to early diabetes using laboratory values other than blood glucose and insulin levels. Our model protects against missing data and noise that occur during long-term analysis.

METHODS

RESULTS of a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were divided into three groups: diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and normal (n = 114, 235, and 325, respectively). For glucose metabolic and lipid metabolic parameters, near 30-day mean values and 10-year integrated values were compared. The relation between high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and variations in HbA1c was analyzed in 158 patients. We also constructed a state space model consisting of an observation model (HDL-C and HbA1c) and an internal model (disorders of lipid metabolism and glucose metabolism) and applied this model to 116 cases.

RESULTS

The root mean square error between the observed HbA1c and predicted HbA1c was 0.25.

CONCLUSIONS

In the observation model, HDL-C levels were useful for prediction of increases in HbA1c. Even with numerous missing values over time, as occurs in clinical practice, clinically valid predictions can be made using this state space model.

Different expression patterns of hepatic cytochrome P450 s during anaphylactic or lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation

Certain physiological states and diseases can alter the expression and activity of cytochrome P450 s (CYPs), which have the potential to cause unexpected adverse effects. We previously demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation attenuates the induction of CYPs by xenobiotics in mouse liver. In this study, to investigate whether anaphylaxis-induced inflammation affects the hepatic CYPs' expression, we examined the effects of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced anaphylaxis on constitutive CYP mRNA and protein expressions. We also compared these effects with those obtained with LPS treatment. In addition, we examined the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha and interleukin (IL)-113 mRNA levels, because these cytokines are known to be induced by LPS treatment and anaphylactic reactions. LPS treatment decreased the constitutively expressed Cyp1a2, Cyp2c29, and Cyp3al 1 mRNAs, and increased the TNFalpha and IL-1beta mRNAs. LPS treatment also decreased the CYP1A2 and CYP3A protein levels. Anaphylaxis, on the other hand, did not change the levels of the constitutively expressed Cyp1a2, Cyp2c29, or Cyp3a1 1 mRNAs, although it increased the TNFalpha and IL-1beta mRNAs, as observed in the LPS-treated mice. These results suggest that anaphylaxis-induced inflammation had less effect than LPS-induced inflammation on these CYPs in the liver. In contrast, we observed that the expressions of Cyp2b10 mRNA and its protein were quite different from those of the other CYPs in both the anaphylactic and LPS-treated mice. Our findings strongly suggest that the alteration of the constitutive CYPs' expression levels during inflammation varies according to the immunostimulation pathway.

Diagnostic laparoscopy identifies a peritoneal adenomatoid-like mesothelioma masquerading as ovarian cancer: a case report

The authors report a rare case of peritoneal adenomatoid mesothelioma in a woman with no history of asbestos exposure. A 61-year-old woman was originally suspected of having a bilateral ovarian tumor based on chest radiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Upon referral to our hospital, the presence of two solid masses was confirmed by enhanced MRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT). Physical examination was normal, as were serum concentrations of the tumor markers CA 19-9, CA 125, and CEA. Laparoscopic surgery showed a right ovarian tumor and laparoscopic right salpingo-oophorectomy and adhesiotomy were performed. Two months later, the patient underwent laparoscopic segmental resection of the sigmoid colon, with histological analysis identifying an adenomatoid-like tumor. The final diagnosis was peritoneal adenomatoid-like mesothelioma with invasion of the right ovary. This case report demonstrates that imaging techniques must be coupled with laparoscopic surgery for an accurate diagnosis of peritoneal mesothelioma.

Outcome of fertility-sparing treatment with medroxyprogesterone acetate for atypical hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma in young Japanese women

PURPOSE

To review the outcome in patients with atypical endometrial hyperplasia (AEH) and endometrial cancer (EC) who received MPA treatment in the present hospital.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Patients with AEH or EC were administered MPA for 12 weeks followed by endometrial curettage. The rates of effect, recurrence, pregnancy, and complications were evaluated. The changes in progesterone receptors and FOXO-1, known as a target of MPA treatment, were examined by immunostaining.

RESULTS

Four of seven patients with endometrial cancer and three of three patients with AH had complete response. Four of seven patients had recurred within one year after the treatment and had to undergo hysterectomy. None of the patients showed changes in progesterone receptors. Although six of seven patients were negative for FOXO-1 before and after treatment, all the patients showed increased developments of FOXO-1 during MPA treatment.

CONCLUSION

Progestin as a fertility-preserving treatment is expected to be effective for endometrial cancer, but judicious use might be required because it shows high rate of recurrence. Further studies regarding the mechanism may be necessary to achieve high efficacy.