Sake, the Japanese rice wine, contains a variety of oligosaccharides and glucosides produced by fungal enzymes during the brewing process. This study investigates the effect of knocking out the α-glucosidase () gene on the transglycosylation products in brewed sake. In addition to α-ethyl glucoside and α-glyceryl glucoside, the amount of two compounds that have molecular mass values similar to that of ethyl maltose decreased by gene knockout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper introduces methods used to communicate with participants in the 'Biobank Japan Project (BBJP)', which is a disease-focused biobanking project. The methods and their implications are discussed in the context of the ethical conduct of the biobanking project. Informed consent, which ensures the autonomous decisions of participants, is believed to be practically impossible for the biobanking project in general.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe two patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease, both in the convalescent stage, who presented with unilateral macular holes together with clinically significant epi-retinal membranes. Vitreo-retinal surgery was performed on the affected eyes and the surgical technique involved a standard three-port vitrectomy, peeling of the epi-retinal and internal limiting membrane (ILM). In both cases the retinae were tamponaded with air resulting in anatomical closure of the macular holes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have identified four cytosolic sulfotransferase (SULT) homologs in the genome database of Drosophila melanogaster, and have designated these genes dmST1-4. Each of these four isozymes was subsequently classified into a different and novel gene family, as determined by the low amino acid sequence homology (less than 40%) between them, and also toward their vertebrate homologs. The transcripts for these four SULT homologs were detectable at all developmental stages in D.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 65-year-old female was first treated under a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 62 years. Just after subcutaneous rheumatoid nodules appeared, she suddenly complained of shortness of breath and vomiting. The diagnosis was overt congestive heart failure with complete atrioventricular block and severe mitral regurgitation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn patients with implanted DDD pacemaker, cardiac output is maximal when atrioventricular (AV) delay is set to give the maximum QT interval (QTI). QTI is used as a sensor of a rate-responsive pacemaker and the evoked QTI (eQTI) is measured as the time duration from the ventricular pace-pulse and the T sense point, which is the steepest point of the intracardiac T wave. The relationship between the changes in eQTI according to AV delay variations and cardiac function was studied in 13 patients (74.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPacing Clin Electrophysiol
February 2002
QT interval (QTI) may change when cardiac function is improved by optimizing the AV delay. QTI is used as the sensor for rate responsive pacemakers. Evoked (e)QTI is measured as the time duration from the ventricular pace-pulse to the T sense point, which is the steepest point of the intracardiac T wave.
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