The N-Terminal Fragment of Urine Titin Is Not a Product of Degradation by Calpain 3.

Introduction: A 20 kDa fragment at the N-terminus of titin is highly excreted in the urine of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), making urine titin a prominent biomarker for muscle breakdown. This N-terminal fragment is presumed to be a product of degradation by a protein-degrading enzyme, calpain 3; however, whether calpain 3 is required remains unclear. We aimed to determine whether urine titin elevation occurs in the absence of calpain 3.

Urinary titin reflects the severity of walking ability, muscle strength, and muscle and cardiac damage in patients with Becker muscular dystrophy.

Background: Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) is a dystrophinopathy caused by a pathological variant of the DMD gene. Urinary titin, a degradation product of the giant protein titin present in muscle sarcomeres, has been used as a biomarker to reflect muscle degradation in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a more severe dystrophinopathy. However, the clinical significance of urinary titin levels in BMD remains unclear.

Neuronal regeneration in the area postrema of adult mouse medulla oblongata following glutamate-induced neuronal elimination.

Neural stem cells and/or progenitor cells (NSCs/NPCs) in the subventricular and subgranular zones of the adult mammal forebrain generate new neurons and are involved in partial repair after injury. Recently, NSCs/NPCs were identified in the area postrema (AP) of the medulla oblongata of the hindbrain. In this study, we used the properties of fenestrate capillaries to observe specific neuronal elimination in the AP of adult mice and investigated subsequent neuronal regeneration by neurogenesis.

Magnetic structure of the noncentrosymmetric magnet SrMnSiO through irreducible representation and magnetic space group analyses.

Magnetic structures of the noncentrosymmetric magnet SrMnSiO were examined through neutron diffraction for powder and single-crystalline samples, as well as magnetometry measurements. All allowed magnetic structures for space group P42m with the magnetic wavevector q = (0, 0, ½) were refined via irreducible representation and magnetic space group analyses. The compound was refined to have in-plane magnetic moments within the magnetic space group Cmc2.