Appearance of Heterogeneous Macrophages During Development of Isoproterenol-Induced Rat Myocardial Fibrosis.

Macrophages appearing in lesions are polarized toward M1 (for inflammation) and M2 (for anti-inflammation/fibrosis) types. We analyzed immunophenotypes of macrophages appearing in myocardial lesion in rats injected once with isoproterenol (10 mg/kg body weight). Inflammation following myocardial necrosis on day 1 was seen with a peak on days 3 and 5, and thereafter, reparative fibrosis developed on days 7 to 28.

Immunohistochemical characterization of myofibroblasts appearing in isoproterenol-induced rat myocardial fibrosis.

Fibrotic lesion is formed by myofibroblasts capable of producing collagens. The myofibroblasts are characterized by immunoexpressions of vimentin, desmin and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in varying degrees. The cellular characteristics remain investigated in myocardial fibrosis.

Spontaneous hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in a cynomolgus macaque ().

The term is used to describe heart disease resulting from an abnormality in the myocardium. It is rare in cynomolgus macaques (). Here, we report a case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in an 11-year-old male cynomolgus macaque.

High cell-autonomy of the anterior endomesoderm viewed in blastomere fate shift during regulative development in the isolated right halves of four-cell stage Xenopus embryos.

The isolated right half (RH) or left half (LH) of Xenopus embryos can undergo regulation so as to form well-proportioned larvae. To assess how the combined actions of maternal determinants and cell-cell interactions contribute to form the well-proportioned larvae, we quantitatively compared four-cell stage blastomere fate between normal larvae and regulated larvae from RH embryos. In normal larvae, the clones of the right dorsal blastomere (RD) and right ventral blastomere (RV) were located unilaterally.

Regulation of the dissolved phosphate concentration of a mountainous stream, Kitakyushu, southwestern Japan.

The phosphate concentration in mountainous stream water can be a measure of the forest condition, because its concentration will be low when the biomass in the forest is increasing and vice versa when the forest is declining. To investigate the seasonal change in the dissolved phosphate concentration of the mountainous stream water of the Yamakami River, Kitakyushu, from June 2009 to August 2010, and the regulation mechanism of the phosphate concentration, solid-phase spectrophotometry, which can be applicable to natural water without any pretreatment procedures, was employed for the determination of phosphate at μg P L(-1) levels in natural water. The phosphate concentrations in the mountainous stream waters at 6 sites ranged from 2.

Improved solid-phase spectrometry for the microdetermination of total and dissolved phosphate.

Solid-phase spectrophotometry has been improved for the determination of the total and dissolved phosphate in water. The target phosphate-P at sub-µg dm(-3) to µg dm(-3) levels in a 20-cm(3) water sample was concentrated as the molybdenum blue species to 0.06 or 0.

Experimental induction of amyloidosis by bovine amyloid fibrils in Sore Hock rabbits.

We report the experimental amyloidosis associated with administration of bovine amyloid fibrils in rabbits afflicted by Sore Hock (SH), which is ulcerative pododermatitis. Two groups of SH-afflicted rabbits were subjected to five inflammatory stimulations at intervals of 4 days by intraepithelial injection of a mixture consisting of Freund's complete adjuvant and lipopolysaccharide. One group of rabbits was administered amyloid in conjunction with the last inflammatory stimulation and the other group was not.

A new triple staining method for double in situ hybridization in combination with cell lineage tracing in whole-mount Xenopus embryos.

To analyze cell to cell interaction effects on cell differentiation, we developed a new triple staining method for double in situ hybridization with cell lineage tracing in whole-mount Xenopus embryos. The method provides high color contrast views, and also enabled us to examine inside the embryos. Wild-type embryos whose blastomere(s) had been injected with a cell lineage tracer were cultured, fixed, hemisectioned when necessary, and first served for the double in situ hybridization, with two sequential chromogenic reactions.

DNA replication reaction in Xenopus cell-free system is suppressed by high pressure.

Previously, we demonstrated that when mouse erythroleukemia cells are exposed to a pressure of 80 MPa, the cell-cycle progression of S-phase cells is retarded. To examine the effects of high pressure on DNA replication, we used a Xenopus cell-free system. From cell-cycle progression of sperm nuclei, it was found that sperm nuclei are stable to a pressure of 80 MPa, whereas egg extracts are susceptible to high pressure.