The Pentatricopeptide Repeat Protein PGR3 Is Required for the Translation of petL and ndhG by Binding Their 5' UTRs.

PGR3 is a P-class pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein required for the stabilization of petL operon RNA and the translation of the petL gene in plastids. Irrespective of its important roles in plastids, key questions have remained unanswered, including how PGR3 protein promotes translation and which plastid mRNA PGR3 activates the translation. Here, we show that PGR3 facilitates the translation from ndhG, in addition to petL, through binding to their 5' untranslated regions (UTRs).

Association of limited scleroderma and pulmonary hypertension in a patient with primary biliary cirrhosis.

We report a male patient with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) who developed limited scleroderma (l-SSc) and pulmonary hypertension (PHT). He had noticed shortness of breath seven months earlier, which slowly progressed before admission. Sclerodactyly and telagiectasia of the fingers and chest wall were found.

Hemodynamic features and impaired arterial oxygenation in patients with portopulmonary hypertension.

Portopulmonary hypertension (P-PHT) is sporadically found in cirrhosis patients who have portal hypertension. We retrospectively investigated the clinical features of six patients with P-PHT and compared their hemodynamics and arterial oxygenation with data from 60 cirrhosis patients without pulmonary hypertension (non-PHT cirrhosis) admitted to our department. The mean pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance index of P-PHT patients ranged from 25 to 57mmHg and from 399 to 1405dynesscm(-5)m(-2), respectively, and their arterial oxygenation was impaired.