Autonomic function measurements for evaluating fatigue and quality of life in patients with breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy: a prospective longitudinal study.

Background: Fatigue during radiation therapy in women with breast cancer can decrease quality of life (QOL), yet it is often underestimated and needs to be evaluated objectively. This longitudinal study aimed to evaluate fatigue and QOL of women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy with a simple autonomic function measurement.

Methods: Women with breast cancer who underwent postoperative radiotherapy in eight cancer care hospitals in Chubu and Kinki regions in Japan were recruited between October 2021 and June 2022.

Human amnion-derived mesenchymal stem cells attenuate xenogeneic graft-versus-host disease by preventing T cell activation and proliferation.

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is characterized by severe tissue damage that is a life-threatening complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Due to their immunosuppressive properties, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been increasingly examined for the treatment of immune-related diseases. We aimed to assess the immunosuppressive effects of human amnion-derived MSC (AMSC) in a xenogeneic GVHD NOD/Shi-scid IL2rγnull mouse model using human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).

Critical role of Ror2 receptor tyrosine kinase in regulating cell cycle progression of reactive astrocytes following brain injury.

Ror2 receptor tyrosine kinase plays crucial roles in developmental morphogenesis and tissue-/organo-genesis. In the developing brain, Ror2 is expressed in neural stem/progenitor cells (NPCs) and involved in the regulation of their stemness. However, it remains largely unknown about its role in the adult brain.

Characterization of nickel(II)-acylperoxo species relevant to catalytic alkane hydroxylation by nickel complex with mCPBA.

Nickel complexes with hydrotris(pyrazolyl)borate ( = Tp(R)) ligands catalyze alkane oxidation with organic peroxide meta-Cl-C(6)H(4)C([double bond, length as m-dash]O)OOH ( = mCPBA). The electronic and steric hindrance properties of Tp(R) affect the catalyses. The complex with an electron-withdrawing group containing a less-hindered ligand, that is, Tp(Me2,Br), exhibits higher alcohol selectivity.

Tuning the stability and reactivity of metal-bound alkylperoxide by remote site substitution of the ligand.

An alkylperoxonickel(II) complex with hydrotris(3,5-diisopropyl-4-bromo-1-pyrazolyl)borate, [Ni(II)(OOtBu)(Tp(iPr2,Br))] (3 a), is synthesized, and its chemical properties are compared with those of the prototype non-brominated ligand derivative [Ni(II)(OOtBu)(Tp(iPr2))] (3 b; Tp(iPr2)=hydrotris(3,5-diisopropyl-1-pyrazolyl)borate). Same synthetic procedures for the prototype 3 b and its precursors can be employed to the synthesis of the Tp(iPr2,Br) analogues. The dimeric nickel(II)-hydroxo complex, [(Ni(II)Tp(iPr2,Br))(2)(mu-OH)(2)] (2 a), can be synthesized by the base hydrolysis of the labile complexes [Ni(II)(Y)(Tp(iPr2,Br))] (Y=NO(3) (1 a), OAc (1 a')), which are obtained by the metathesis of NaTp(iPr2,Br) with the corresponding nickel(II) salts, and the following dehydrative condensation of 2 a with the stoichiometric amount of tert-butylhydroperoxide yields 3 a.

Ordering and freezing-in phenomena of nanochannel water in crystalline organic/inorganic self-assembled complex [Cr(H2bim)3](TMA) x 23.5 H2O.

The thermal properties of crystalline complex [Cr(H(2)bim)(3)](TMA) x 23.5 H(2)O were studied by adiabatic calorimetry to clarify the structural ordering and dynamic freezing-in behaviors of the nanochannel water within the pores possessing crystalline wall structure, where H(2)bim denotes 2,2'-biimidazole and TMA is 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid. Phase and glass transitions were found to occur at 233 K with the associated entropy of Delta(trs)S = 7.

Genetic background conversion ameliorates semi-lethality and permits behavioral analyses in cystathionine beta-synthase-deficient mice, an animal model for hyperhomocysteinemia.

Cystathionine beta-synthase-deficient mice (Cbs(-/-)) exhibit several pathophysiological features similar to hyperhomocysteinemic patients, including endothelial dysfunction and hepatic steatosis. Heterozygous mutants (Cbs(+/-)) on the C57BL/6J background are extensively analyzed in laboratories worldwide; however, detailed analyses of Cbs(-/-) have been hampered by the fact that they rarely survive past the weaning age probably due to severe hepatic dysfunction. We backcrossed the mutants with four inbred strains (C57BL/6J(Jcl), BALB/cA, C3H/HeJ and DBA/2J) for seven generations, and compared Cbs(-/-) phenotypes among the different genetic backgrounds.

A colorimetric assay for studying effector secretion through the bacterial type III secretion system.

We have devised a colorimetric method that monitors secretion of effector proteins into host cytoplasm through the bacterial type III secretion machinery. Here we used constructs of effectors fused with Bordetella adenylate cyclase as a reporter, but evaluated the effector translocation by quantifying cell viability, rather than by measuring the intracellular cAMP concentration. This is based on our findings that cells infected by a secretion-competent bacterium expressing the fusion protein lost their viability under our experimental conditions.

Drebrin a content correlates with spine head size in the adult mouse cerebral cortex.

Synaptic activities alter synaptic strengths at the axospinous junctions, and such changes are often accompanied by changes in the size of the postsynaptic spines. We have been exploring the idea that drebrin A, a neuron-specific actin-binding protein localized on the postsynaptic side of excitatory synapses, may be a molecule that links synaptic activity to the shape and content of spines. Here, we performed electron microscopic immunocytochemistry with the nondiffusible gold label to explore the relationship among levels of drebrin A, the NR2A subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors, and the size of spines in the perirhinal cortex of adult mouse brains.

Binding of intimin with Tir on the bacterial surface is prerequisite for the barrier disruption induced by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) infects intestinal epithelial cells and perturbs the intestinal barrier that limits the paracellular movement of molecules. The disruption of the barrier is mediated by the effectors translocated into the host cells through the bacterial type III secretion system (TTSS). A previous report has described the importance of a bacterial outer membrane protein, intimin, in EPEC-mediated disruption of the barrier, and proposed that intimin, in concert with a host intimin receptor, controls the activity of the translocated barrier-disrupting effectors [P.

An epidemic of caprine arthritis encephalitis in Japan: isolation of the virus.

A disease characterized by arthritis of carpal joints and occasionally by pneumonia was seen among goats on a farm in Nagano prefecture of Japan in the summer of 2002. Serological investigation was done on 30 goats, that is one group on the farm by agar gel immunodiffusion tests using maedi-visna virus as the antigen, and 19 goats were positive. The caprine arthritis encephalitis virus genome was detected in peripheral blood leukocytes from several antibody-positive goats.

A new membrane-attack complex/perforin (MACPF) domain lethal toxin from the nematocyst venom of the Okinawan sea anemone Actineria villosa.

The Okinawan sea anemone Actineria villosa causes severe cases of stinging. We isolated the 60 kDa A. villosa toxin (AvTX-60A) as the major toxin from the isolated nematocysts of this species.