Epithelial stem cells: An epigenetic and wnt‐centric perspective

Epithelial stem cells, such as those present in mammalian skin, intestine, or mammary gland, are tissue stem cells capable of both long‐term self‐renewal and multi‐lineage differentiation. Here we review studies implicating epigenetic control mechanisms in mammalian epithelial stem cell development and homeostasis. We also provide an update of recent progresses in the involvement of canonical Wnt signaling and note an interesting link between the Wnt pathway and chromatin regulation in epithelial stem cells. We anticipate that epigenetic and epigenomic studies of these cells will increase exponentially in the near future. J. Cell. Biochem. 106: 1279–1287, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Preference for consonant music over dissonant music by an infant chimpanzee

It has been shown that humans prefer consonant sounds from the early stages of development. From a comparative psychological perspective, although previous studies have shown that birds and monkeys can discriminate between consonant and dissonant sounds, it remains unclear whether nonhumans have a spontaneous preference for consonant music over dissonant music as humans do. We report here that a five-month-old human-raised chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) preferred consonant music. The infant chimpanzee consistently preferred to produce, with the aid of our computerized setup, consonant versions of music for a longer duration than dissonant versions. This result suggests that the preference for consonance is not unique to humans. Further, it supports the hypothesis that one major basis of musical appreciation has some evolutionary origins.     

Secondary indoor air pollution and passive smoking associated with cannabis smoking using electric cigarette device–demonstrative in silico study

With electronic (e)-liquids containing cannabis components easily available, many anecdotal examples of cannabis vaping using electronic cigarette devices have been reported. For electronic cigarette cannabis vaping, there are potential risks of secondary indoor air pollution from vapers. However, quantitative and accurate prediction of the inhalation and dermal exposure of a passive smoker in the same room is difficult to achieve due to the ethical constraints on subject experiments. The numerical method, i.e., in silico method, is a powerful tool to complement these experiments with real humans. In this study, we adopted a computer-simulated person that has been validated from multiple perspectives for prediction accuracy. We then conducted an in silico study to elucidate secondary indoor air pollution and passive smoking associated with cannabis vaping using an electronic cigarette device in an indoor environment. The aerosols exhaled by a cannabis vaper were confirmed to be a secondary emission source in an indoor environment; non-smokers were exposed to these aerosols via respiratory and dermal pathways. Tetrahydrocannabinol was used as a model chemical compound for the exposure study. Its uptake by the non-smoker through inhalation and dermal exposure under a worst-case scenario was estimated to be 5.9% and 2.6% of the exhaled quantity from an e-cigarette cannabis user, respectively.     

Intraoperative gamma cameras for radioguided surgery: Technical characteristics,performance parameters,and clinical applications

Several small gamma cameras (SGCs) intended for surgical use are now in development or currently being marketed. In this review, we discuss the characteristics, performance, and clinical use of SGCs which are hand-held and small enough to be easily managed by surgeons during their procedures. We expect that SGCs have the potential to be used more widely in radioguided surgery. As advancing molecular imaging technologies will broaden clinical indications, SGCs will likely be used and integrated with other imaging modalities into numerous types of radioguided surgery in the near future.