Improvement Of Frontal Lobe Dysfunction And White Matter Integrity By rTMS In Treatment-Resistant Depression.

Aim: The impairment experienced by many individuals with depression is closely related to the cognitive symptoms of the disorder. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation method providing a promising technique for improving cognitive symptoms in treatment-resistant depression (TRD). In the present study, we investigated whether a relationship exists between improvements in frontal lobe dysfunction induced by rTMS and improvement of white matter integrity revealed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in TRD patients receiving rTMS treatment.

Toxicity of dextran stabilized fullerene C against C6 Glial cells.

Elevated application potential of fullerene C paved the way to think on its adverse effect when it reaches to biological system and environment. Though fullerenes are insoluble in water, various strategies are employed to make it soluble. Method of solubilization with organic solvents, yield cytotoxic responses both in vitro and in vivo.

Successful granulocyte apheresis using medium molecular weight hydroxyethyl starch.

Granulocyte transfusion (GTX) is a therapeutic option for severe bacterial or fungal infection in patients with sustained neutropenia after chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation. However, high molecular weight hydroxyethyl starch (HES), which has been used for selective sedimentation of red blood cells during apheresis, is not easily available in many countries including Japan. In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of granulocyte collection using medium molecular weight HES (130 kDa) in combination with the Spectra Optia apheresis system.

Application of Consistent Massage-Like Perturbations on Mouse Calves and Monitoring the Resulting Intramuscular Pressure Changes.

Massage is generally recognized to be beneficial for relieving pain and inflammation. Although previous studies have reported anti-inflammatory effects of massage on skeletal muscles, the molecular mechanisms behind are poorly understood. We have recently developed a simple device to apply local cyclical compression (LCC), which can generate intramuscular pressure waves with varying amplitudes.

Synthesis and characterization of Mono-disperse Carbon Quantum Dots from Fennel Seeds: Photoluminescence analysis using Machine Learning.

Herein, we present the synthesis of mono-dispersed C-QDs via single-step thermal decomposition process using the fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare). As synthesized C-QDs have excellent colloidal, photo-stability, environmental stability (pH) and do not require any additional surface passivation step to improve the fluorescence. The C-QDs show excellent PL activity and excitation-independent emission.

Anorectal cancer surveillance in Crohn's disease.

Objectives: One of the characteristics of colorectal cancer complicating Crohn's disease (CD) in the Japanese population is that it frequently occurs in the lower anorectal site. This study aimed to examine CD patients biopsied in the lower anorectal sites to investigate the significance and problems associated with this method of cancer surveillance.

Methods: Among 116 patients with CD duration of ≥10 years, we examined patients diagnosed with cancer using histological examination of the lower anorectal site (287 times).

White Matter Abnormalities in Multiple Sclerosis Evaluated by Quantitative Synthetic MRI, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, and Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging.

Background And Purpose: A number of MR-derived quantitative metrics have been suggested to assess the pathophysiology of MS, but the reports about combined analyses of these metrics are scarce. Our aim was to assess the spatial distribution of parameters for white matter myelin and axon integrity in patients with relapsing-remitting MS by multiparametric MR imaging.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-four patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 24 age- and sex-matched controls were prospectively scanned by quantitative synthetic and 2-shell diffusion MR imaging.

Changes in the microbial community during the acclimation process of anaerobic digestion for treatment of synthetic lipid-rich wastewater.

Changes in the microbial community were investigated during the acclimation process of anaerobic digestion while treating synthetic lipid-rich wastewater, which comprised of glucose, acetic acid, lactic acid, and soybean oil. The oil content in the synthetic wastewater was increased successively from 0% to 25% and finally to 50% of the total carbon content, to clarify the effect of substrate type change from easily degradable organic materials to lipid. The oil decomposition-associated methane production rate increased as the microorganisms acclimated to the oil and eventually levelled off around 0.

Three-dimensional high-resolution simultaneous quantitative mapping of the whole brain with 3D-QALAS: An accuracy and repeatability study.

Background: Previous methods for the quantification of brain tissue properties by magnetic resonance imaging were mainly based on two-dimensional acquisitions and were thus limited to a relatively low resolution in the slice direction compared to three-dimensional (3D) acquisitions. The 3D-quantification using an interleaved Look-Locker acquisition sequence with a T2 preparation pulse (3D-QALAS) sequence may allow for simultaneous acquisition of relaxometry parameters in high spatial resolution.

Purpose: To evaluate bias, linearity, and day-to-day repeatability of relaxometry parameters, as well as tissue fraction maps, acquired with 3D-QALAS.

Chlorotoxin modified morusin-PLGA nanoparticles for targeted glioblastoma therapy.

Malignant brain tumors remain a major cause of concern and mortality as successful treatment is hindered due to the poor transport and low penetration of chemotherapeutics across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). In this study, a nano formulation composed of chlorotoxin (CTX)-conjugated morusin loaded PLGA nanoparticles (PLGA-MOR-CTX) was devised against Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) and its anti-proliferative effects were evaluated in vitro. The synthesized nanoparticles were loaded with morusin, a naturally derived chemotherapeutic drug, and surface conjugated with CTX, a peptide derived from scorpion venom, highly specific for chloride channels (CIC-3) expressed in glioma tumor cells, as well as for matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2), which is up regulated in the tumor microenvironment.

Characterizing the microbial community involved in anaerobic digestion of lipid-rich wastewater to produce methane gas.

This study attempted to characterize the microbial community and its role in anaerobic digestion of lipid. Reactors were fed semi-continuously with three related substrates, oil and its degradation intermediates (glycerol and long chain fatty acids (LCFAs)), with a stepwise increase in organic loading rate for 90 days. Microbial community analysis using next-generation sequencing (NGS) with the MiSeq Illumina platform revealed that Anaerolineaceae was the most dominant group of bacteria in all experiments, whereas Clostridium, Desulfovibrio, Rikenellaceae, and Treponema were observed characteristically in glycerol degradation and Leptospirales, Synergistaceae, Thermobaculaceae and Syntrophaceae were seen with high abundance in LCFA and oil mineralization.

Detection of streptavidin-biotin intermediate metastable states at the single-molecule level using high temporal-resolution atomic force microscopy.

Although the streptavidin-biotin intermolecular bond has been extensively used in many applications due to its high binding affinity, its exact nature and interaction mechanism have not been well understood. Several reports from previous studies gave a wide range of results in terms of the system's energy potential landscape because of bypassing some short-lived states in the detection process. We employed a quasi-static process of slowly loading force onto the bond (loading rate = 20 pN s) to minimize the force-induced disruption and to provide a chance to explore the system in near-equilibrium.

Molecular diffusion and nano-mechanical properties of multi-phase supported lipid bilayers.

Understanding the properties of cell membranes is important in the fields of fundamental and applied biology. While the characterization of simplified biological membrane mimics comprising liquid phase lipids has been routinely performed due to the ease of fabrication, the characterization of more realistic membrane mimics comprising multi-phase lipids remains challenging due to more complicated fabrication requirements. Herein, we report a convenient approach to fabricate and characterize multi-phase supported lipid bilayers (SLBs).

STEFTR: A Hybrid Versatile Method for State Estimation and Feature Extraction From the Trajectory of Animal Behavior.

Animal behavior is the final and integrated output of brain activity. Thus, recording and analyzing behavior is critical to understand the underlying brain function. While recording animal behavior has become easier than ever with the development of compact and inexpensive devices, detailed behavioral data analysis requires sufficient prior knowledge and/or high content data such as video images of animal postures, which makes it difficult for most of the animal behavioral data to be efficiently analyzed.

Stress-induced and ATF7-dependent epigenetic change influences cellular senescence.

Cellular senescence plays an important role in aging and is induced by cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitors that accumulate following stresses during aging. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Herein, we demonstrate that activating transcription factor 7 (ATF7), the stress-responsive recruiter of histone H3K9 di- and trimethyltransferases, functions in the accumulation of Cdk inhibitors.

RNA-Sequencing Analysis of Paternal Low-Protein Diet-Induced Gene Expression Change in Mouse Offspring Adipocytes.

Increasing evidence indicates that parental diet affects the metabolism and health of offspring. It is reported that paternal low-protein diet (pLPD) induces glucose intolerance and the expression of genes involved in cholesterol biosynthesis in mouse offspring liver. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of a pLPD on gene expression in offspring white adipose tissue (WAT), another important tissue for the regulation of metabolism.

Aberrant myelination in patients with Sturge-Weber syndrome analyzed using synthetic quantitative magnetic resonance imaging.

Purpose: Accelerated myelination in the affected hemisphere has been demonstrated previously in patients with Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS). This prospective study investigated myelin-related changes in patients with unilateral SWS using synthetic quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI).

Methods: Fourteen children with unilateral SWS were categorized according to age, i.

White matter alterations in adult with autism spectrum disorder evaluated using diffusion kurtosis imaging.

Purpose: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is related to impairment in various white matter (WM) pathways. Utility of the recently developed two-compartment model of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) to analyse axial diffusivity of WM is restricted by several limitations. The present study aims to validate the utility of model-free DKI in the evaluation of WM alterations in ASD and analyse the potential relationship between DKI-evident WM alterations and personality scales.

Brain tissue and myelin volumetric analysis in multiple sclerosis at 3T MRI with various in-plane resolutions using synthetic MRI.

Purpose: Synthetic MRI (SyMRI) enables automatic brain tissue and myelin volumetry based on the quantification of R1 and R2 relaxation rates and proton density. This study aimed to determine the validity of SyMRI brain tissue and myelin volumetry using various in-plane resolutions at 3T in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: We scanned 19 MS patients and 10 healthy age- and gender-matched controls using a 3T MR scanner with in-plane resolutions of 0.