Feasibility and safety of Robot Suit HAL treatment for adolescents and adults with cerebral palsy.

To investigate whether Robot Suit HAL treatment (HAL-T) is safe and feasible for gait disorders in adolescents and adults with cerebral palsy (CP). We tested HAL-T in adolescents and adults with bilateral spastic CP (four men, four women; mean age: 18.2 years).

Overexpression of a Gene Involved in Phytic Acid Biosynthesis Substantially Increases Phytic Acid and Total Phosphorus in Rice Seeds.

The manipulation of seed phosphorus is important for seedling growth and environmental P sustainability in agriculture. The mechanism of regulating P content in seed, however, is poorly understood. To study regulation of total P, we focused on phytic acid (inositol hexakisphosphate; InsP₆) biosynthesis-related genes, as InsP₆ is a major storage form of P in seeds.

Synthesis of zeolites from paper sludge ash and their ability to simultaneously remove NH4+ and PO43-.

The objective of this study was to investigate the synthesis of zeolites from paper sludge ash, and to evaluate their applications for water purification to simultaneously remove NH4+ and PO43- in aqueous solution. Paper sludge ash had a low abundance of Si and a significant Ca content, due to the presence of calcite that was used as paper filler. Na2SiO3 was added to the NaOH solution to increase Si content in order to synthesize zeolites with high cation exchange capacity.

Selective enhancer of tumor vascular permeability for optimization of cancer chemotherapy.

Clinical approach using tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) as selective destruction against tumor endothelial cells and selective enhancer of tumor vascular permeability for effective accumulation of antitumor chemotherapeutic agents has attracted attention. However, the clinical application of TNF-alpha as a systemic antitumor agent has been limited because of toxic side-effects. To systemically use TNF-alpha as an antitumor agent and the selective enhancer of tumor vascular permeability, we assessed the usefulness of PEGylated TNF-alpha (PEG-TNF-alpha).

Site-specific PEGylation of a lysine-deficient TNF-alpha with full bioactivity.

Addition of polyethylene glycol to protein (PEGylation) to improve stability and other characteristics is mostly nonspecific and may occur at all lysine residues, some of which may be within or near an active site. Resultant PEGylated proteins are heterogeneous and can show markedly lower bioactivity. We attempted to develop a strategy for site-specific mono-PEGylation using tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha).