COMMUNICATION: Culture conditions producing structure entities composed of Cellulose I and II in bacterial cellulose

Culture conditions for the production of Cellulose I and/or II structures have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy using smooth colonies of Acetobacter xylinum ATCC23769. Cells prepared from smooth colonies produce the band material composed of Cellulose II in phosphate buffer (pH 7) at 4 °C. In contrast, the same cells produce the normal twisting ribbons of Cellulose I when the incubation temperature is raised to 28 °C. The band material is also produced at 4 °C in 2% buffered glucose solution and in the standard Hestrin-Schramm medium. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Internal radiocesium contamination of adults and children in Fukushima 7 to 20 months after the Fukushima NPP accident as measured by extensive whole-body-counter surveys

The Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP accident contaminated the soil of densely-populated regions in Fukushima Prefecture with radioactive cesium, which poses significant risks of internal and external exposure to the residents. If we apply the knowledge of post-Chernobyl accident studies, internal exposures in excess of a few mSv/y would be expected to be frequent in Fukushima.Extensive whole-body-counter surveys (n = 32,811) carried out at the Hirata Central Hospital between October, 2011 and November, 2012, however show that the internal exposure levels of residents are much lower than estimated. In particular, the first sampling-bias-free assessment of the internal exposure of children in the town of Miharu, Fukushima, shows that the ¹³⁷Cs body burdens of all children (n = 1,383, ages 6–15, covering 95% of children enrolled in town-operated schools) were below the detection limit of 300 Bq/body in the fall of 2012. These results are not conclusive for the prefecture as a whole, but are consistent with results obtained from other municipalities in the prefecture, and with prefectural data.     

Predicting the Classification of Home Oxygen Therapy for Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Patients Using a Neural Network

Objective: We evaluated the accuracy of a neural network to classify and predict the possibility of home oxygen therapy at the time of discharge from hospital based on patient information post-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at admission. Methods: Patients who survived acute treatment with COVID-19 and were admitted to the Amagasaki Medical Co-operative Hospital during August 2020–December 2021 were included. However, only rehabilitation patients (n = 88) who were discharged after a rehabilitation period of at least 2 weeks and not via home or institution were included. The neural network model implemented in R for Windows (4.1.2) was trained using data on patient age, gender, and number of days between a positive polymerase chain reaction test and hospitalization, length of hospital stay, oxygen flow rate required at hospitalization, and ability to perform activities of daily living. The number of training trials was 100. We used the area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity as evaluation indicators for the classification model. Results: The model of states at rest had as AUC of 0.82, sensitivity of 75.0%, specificity of 88.9%, and model accuracy of 86.4%. The model of states on exertion had an ACU of 0.82, sensitivity of 83.3%, specificity of 81.3%, and model accuracy of 81.8%. Conclusion: The accuracy of this study’s neural network model is comparable to that of previous studies recommended by Japanese Guidelines for the Physical Therapy and is expected to be used in clinical practice. In future, it could be used as a more accurate clinical support tool by increasing the sample size and applying cross-validation.     

PHOTOREVERSIBLE PROTON DISSOCIATION AND ASSOCIATION IN PEA PHYTOCHROME AND ITS CHROMOPEPTIDES

Abstract— Effect of red-light irradiation on the medium pH at 10d?C was measured and compared among unbuffered solutions of the 121-kDa native pea (Pisum sativum cv. Alaska) phytochrome and its 114- and 62-kDa fragments in a red-light-absorbing form (P_r), all of which converted to far-red-light-absorbing form (Pf_r) on red-light irradiation. Red-light irradiation induced alkalinization in the solutions of the phytochrome and the fragments in the pH range 6.6-7.2 and 6.2-7.8, respectively. The amount of protons taken up by the 121-kDa phytochrome was less than one half of that of the 114-kDa fragment. Red-light irradiation induced acidification in the solutions of the 114- and the 62-kDa fragments above pH 7.8. In the solutions of the 121-kDa phytochrome, however, the irradiation induced no pH change at pH 7.2-8.2, and only a slight acidification at pH 8.2-8.7, which may be ascribed to a small amount of contamination from the 114-kDa fragment. All these red-light-induced pH changes were reversible following exposure to far-red light. The 7-kDa polypeptide(s) of the native 121-kDa phytochrome, which is lacking in the 114-kDa fragment, thus, prohibited proton transfer between phytochrome and the medium. A red-light-induced pH change was also measured in unbuffered solutions of the 39-kDa fragment of the phytochrome and of the 114-kDa fragment in the presence of 0.8 mM soyasaponin I. The 39-kDa fragment showed partially photoreversible conversion between a spectral form having an absorption maximum at 659 nm (P₆₅₉) and a bleached form, P_***. The 114-kDa fragment in the presence of the saponin showed a photoreversible conversion between P65V and Pb,. Exposure of P₆₅₉ from the 39-kDa fragment and from the 114-kDa fragment in the presence of the saponin to red light, caused acidification of the medium in the pH range 6.8-8.8 and 7.2-9.0, respectively, but no change at pH 6.2-6.8 and 6.4-7.2, respectively. The acidification of the latter was reversible following a far-red-light irradiation, but that of the former was only partially photoreversible. Proton uptake of phytochrome was inhibited by tryptic degradation to the 39-kDa fragment and also by the presence of the saponin. Only proton release was observed during the photoconversion from P₆₅₉ and P_***hl. It is suggested that a phytochrome molecule has possible site(s) for both proton release and for uptake and that the proton release reaction may be correlated to the photoconversion process(es) prior to the bleached intermediate (I_***) of phytochrome.     

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for three consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys covering over 93% of the school children between the ages of 6 and 15 in Miharu town, Fukushima Prefecture, have been conducted for three consecutive years, in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Although the results of a questionnaire indicate that approximately 60% of the children have been regularly eating local or home-grown rice, in 2012 and 2013 no child was found to exceed the ¹³⁷Cs detection limit of 300 Bq/body.     

狗枣猕猴桃叶化学成分研究(Ⅱ)

从狗枣猕猴桃叶中分离出4个新的黄酮类化合物, 经1D NMR, 2D NMR及ESI-MS等波谱分析鉴定了其结构, 分别是4'-甲氧基-槲皮素-7-O-(4"-O-乙酰基-鼠李糖基)-3-O-β-D-吡喃葡萄糖苷(1), 山柰甲黄素-7-O-(3"-O-乙酰基-鼠李糖基)-3-O-芸香糖苷(2), 山柰酚-7-O-(4"-O-乙酰基-鼠李糖基)-3-O-芸香糖苷(3)和4'-甲氧基-槲皮素-7-O-(4"-O-乙酰基-鼠李糖基)-3-O-芸香糖苷(4).     

Phytoestrogens Inhibiting Androgen Receptor Signal and Prostate Cancer Cell Proliferation

The androgen receptor(AR) signaling activated by dihydrotestosterone(DHT) plays critical roles in prostate cancer development and progression. Phytoestrogens, which are diphenolic compounds with estrogen and anti-estrogen effects, can bind to estrogen receptors. However, their function on AR signaling has not been fully elucidated. In this study, dual-luciferase reporter assay, immunobloting, docking system test, MTT assay, immunofluorescence and chromatin immunoprecipitation(ChIP) assays were employed to examine the potential effects of three phytoestrogens(genistein, daidzein, flavone) on DHT-activated prostate specific antigen(PSA) activation, cell proliferation and AR transactivation in lymph node carcinoma of prostate(LNCaP) cells. Phytoestrogens were detected to down-regulate DHT-activated AR-mediated PSA promoter transactivation by dual-luciferase reporter system. Furthermore, three phytoestrogens, especially genistein, were demonstrated to significantly decrease AR-activated PSA protein expression by Western blotting analysis. MTT experiment proves that phytoestrogens, especially genistein, remarkably inhibits the DHT-induced cell proliferation in LNCaP cells. To provide reasonable explanations for experimental phenomena mentioned above, we did docking system test and detected phytoestrogens to share the same AR-binding site with DHT. To further prove the competition between phytoestrogen and DHT on AR binding, we examined the effects of phytoestrogens on DHT-activated AR nuclear translocation and immunofluorescence analysis which confirms that phytoestrogens, especially genistein, inhibit DHT-activated androgen receptor nuclear translocation. Results from ChIP show that phytoestrogens down-regulate DHT-induces AR binding to the androgen response elements(AREs, including AREI, AREII, and AREIII) in PSA promoter. Genistein remarkably down-regulates AR, binding to the AREI located in -250― -39 bp and AREIII in -4170― -3978 bp in the presence of DHT. In general, three phytoestrogens were identified to inhibit DHT-AR binding by competitively binding to AR and inhibit AR-mediated transactivation. And genistein shows the strongest effects among three phytoestrogens. Our findings confirm that phytoestrogens are AR antagonist in the regulation of AR-related PSA activation and cell proliferation, which provides valuable insights into the treatment of prostate cancer.     

Whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for four consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children have been conducted for four consecutive years, in 2011–2014. This represents the only long-term sampling-bias-free study of its type conducted after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident. For the first time in 2014, a new device called the Babyscan, which has a low ^134/137Cs MDA of <50 Bq/body, was used to screen the children shorter than 130 cm. No child in this group was found to have detectable level of radiocesium. Using the MDAs, upper limits of daily intake of radiocesium were estimated for each child. For those screened with the Babyscan, the upper intake limits were found to be ≲1 Bq/day for ¹³⁷Cs. Analysis of a questionnaire filled out by the children’s parents regarding their food and water consumption shows that the majority of Miharu children regularly consume local and/or home-grown rice and vegetables. This however does not increase the body burden.