Generation and validation of antibody 42B1 recognizing galactose-deficient IgG for diagnosis of chronic inflammatory diseases.

Galactose-deficient (agalactosyl) IgG is significantly increased in the serum of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and autoantibodies against it are used in clinical tests. Subsequent studies also show increased agalactosyl IgG in many chronic inflammatory diseases. In this study, we generated antibody 42B1 recognizing agalactosyl IgG and developed a new method to evaluate chronic inflammatory diseases with it.

Outer-surface adduct formation and selective separation of -type gallated and -type non-gallated catechins using cucurbit[7]uril.

We found that -type gallated and non-gallated catechins form low water solubility outer-surface adducts with cucurbit[7]uril in aqueous solution, with -type gallated catechins showing a higher tendency to precipitate as outer-surface adducts. By exploiting this phenomenon, we achieved the selective separation of -type gallated and non-gallated catechins in solution.

Acceptance characterization of electron detector in SEM using stainless steel sphere.

Although modern scanning electron microscope (SEM) possess several electron detectors, it is not clear what kind of information is contained in a SEM image taken by a certain detector. Especially the detectors installed in the objective lens are difficult to know their characters. Thus, we propose a simple method to assess the acceptance of electron detector using a stainless-steel sphere.

Ser/Leu-swapped cell-free translation system constructed with natural/in vitro transcribed-hybrid tRNA set.

The Ser/Leu-swapped genetic code can act as a genetic firewall, mitigating biohazard risks arising from horizontal gene transfer in genetically modified organisms. Our prior work demonstrated the orthogonality of this swapped code to the standard genetic code using a cell-free translation system comprised of 21 in vitro transcribed tRNAs. In this study, to advance this system for protein engineering, we introduce a natural/in vitro transcribed-hybrid tRNA set.

A point system to predict the future risk of obesity in 10-year-old children.

Background: A 4-year longitudinal study was conducted to develop a model and a point system for predicting childhood obesity.

Methods: This study included 1,504 Japanese 10-year-old children who underwent health check-ups between 2011 and 2015. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted using the explanatory variables overweight and lifestyle.