Neuromuscular efficiency during sit to stand movement in women with knee osteoarthritis

The purpose of this study was to investigate the neuromuscular efficiency of women with knee osteoarthritis (OA) when performing a sit-to-stand movement and during maximum strength efforts. Twelve women with unilateral knee OA (age 60.33 ± 6.66 years, height 1.61 ± 0.05 m, mass 77.08 ± 9.2 kg) and 11 controls (age 56.54 ± 5.46 years, height 1.64 ± 0.05 m, mass 77.36 ± 13.34 kg) participated in this study. Subjects performed a sit-to-stand movement from a chair while position of center of pressure and knee angular speed were recorded. Furthermore, maximal isokinetic knee extension and flexion strength at 60°/s, 120°/s and 150°/s was measured. Surface, electromyography (EMG) from the biceps femoris (BF), vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis (VM) was recorded during all tests. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that during the sit-to-stand OA group demonstrated significantly lower knee angular speed (44.49 ± 9.61°/s vs. 71.68 ± 19.86°/s), a more posterior position of the center of pressure (39.20 ± 7.02% vs. 41.95 ± 2.49%) and a higher antagonist BF activation (57.13 ± 20.55% vs. 32.01 ± 19.5%) compared with controls (p < 0.05). Further, women with knee OA demonstrated a lower Moment-to-EMG ratio than controls in extension and eccentric flexion at 60°/s and 150°/s, while the opposite was found for concentric flexion at 60°/s (p < 0.05). Among other factors, the slower performance of the sit-to-stand movement in women with OA is due to a less efficient use of the knee extensor muscles (less force per unit of EMG) and, perhaps, a higher BF antagonist co-activation. This may lead subjects with OA to adopt a different movement strategy compared with controls.     

Revision of a nonunited subtrochanteric femoral fracture around a failed intramedullary nail with the use of RIA products, BMP-7 and hydroxyapatite: a case report

Introduction

Küttner's tumor is characterized through histology by peri-ductal fibrosis, dense lymphocytic infiltration with lymphoid follicles, loss of acini, and occasional marked sclerosis of the salivary gland. On occasion, Küttner's tumor can be difficult to distinguish from malignant neoplasm.

Case presentation

A 58-year-old Japanese man was referred to our hospital with a three-month history of a painless swollen mass in the right sub-mandibular region. Histological findings revealed both lymphoid follicles with reactive germinal centers and variously sized lymphoid follicle-like nodules without definitive germinal centers or mantle zones. B-cells of similar size and shape occupied the lymphoid follicle-like nodules and stained positive for B-cell lymphoma. These cells were detected in the polyclonal B-cells by flow cytometric analysis and tested negative for CD10. Unusual B-cell proliferation was observed, but as there was no definitive evidence of B-cell lymphoma, the lesion was diagnosed as Küttner's tumor.

Conclusion

We report on a rare case of Küttner's tumor associated with fibrosclerosis and atypical lymphoid hyperplasia in both the sub-mandibular gland and regional lymph nodes. Although more cases need to be investigated, our findings might be helpful to further studies seeking to clarify the etiology of idiopathic sclerosing lesions arising in the organs and regional lymph nodes.     

Aberrant cell plate formation in the Arabidopsis thaliana microtubule organization 1 mutant

MICROTUBULE ORGANIZATION 1 encodes a microtubule-associated protein in Arabidopsis thaliana but different alleles have contradictory phenotypes. The original mutant mor1 alleles were reported to have disrupted cortical microtubules, swollen organs and normal cytokinesis, whereas other alleles, embryo-lethal gemini pollen 1 (gem1), have defective pollen cytokinesis. To determine whether MOR1 functions generally in cytokinesis, we examined the ultrastructure of cell division in roots of the original mor1-1 allele. Cell plates are misaligned, branched and meandering; the forming cell plates remain partly vesicular, with electron-dense or lamellar content. Phragmoplast microtubules are abundant but organized aberrantly. Thus, MOR1 functions in both phragmoplast and cortical arrays.     

Transcriptional program of early sporulation and stationary-phase events in Clostridium acetobutylicum

DNA microarray analysis of Clostridium acetobutylicum was used to examine the genomic-scale gene expression changes during the shift from exponential-phase growth and acidogenesis to stationary phase and solventogenesis. Self-organizing maps were used to identify novel expression patterns of functional gene classes, including aromatic and branched-chain amino acid synthesis, ribosomal proteins, cobalt and iron transporters, cobalamin biosynthesis, and lipid biosynthesis. The majority of pSOL1 megaplasmid genes (in addition to the solventogenic genes aad-ctfA-ctfB and adc) had increased expression at the onset of solventogenesis, suggesting that other megaplasmid genes may play a role in stationary-phase phenomena. Analysis of sporulation genes and comparison with published Bacillus subtilis results indicated conserved expression patterns of early sporulation genes, including spo0A, the sigF operon, and putative canonical genes of the sigma(H) and sigma(F) regulons. However, sigE expression could not be detected within 7.5 h of initial spo0A expression, consistent with the observed extended time between the appearance of clostridial forms and endospore formation. The results were compared with microarray comparisons of the wild-type strain and the nonsolventogenic, asporogenous M5 strain, which lacks the pSOL1 megaplasmid. While some results were similar, the expression of primary metabolism genes and heat shock proteins was higher in M5, suggesting a difference in metabolic regulation or a butyrate stress response in M5. The results of this microarray platform and analysis were further validated by comparing gene expression patterns to previously published Northern analyses, reporter assays, and two-dimensional protein electrophoresis data of metabolic genes (including all major solventogenesis genes), sporulation genes, heat shock proteins, and other solventogenesis-induced gene expression.     

Differential segregation patterns of sperm mitochondria in embryos of the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis)

In Mytilus, females carry predominantly maternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) but males carry maternal mtDNA in their somatic tissues and paternal mtDNA in their gonads. This phenomenon, known as doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) of mtDNA, presents a major departure from the uniparental transmission of organelle genomes. Eggs of Mytilus edulis from females that produce exclusively daughters and from females that produce mostly sons were fertilized with sperm stained with MitoTracker Green FM, allowing observation of sperm mitochondria in the embryo by epifluorescent and confocal microscopy. In embryos from females that produce only daughters, sperm mitochondria are randomly dispersed among blastomeres. In embryos from females that produce mostly sons, sperm mitochondria tend to aggregate and end up in one blastomere in the two- and four-cell stages. We postulate that the aggregate eventually ends up in the first germ cells, thus accounting for the presence of paternal mtDNA in the male gonad. This is the first evidence for different behaviors of sperm mitochondria in developing embryos that may explain the tight linkage between gender and inheritance of paternal mitochondrial DNA in species with DUI.     

The pursuit of cryptococcal pathogenesis: heterologous hosts and the study of cryptococcal host-pathogen interactions

Analysis of the molecular mechanisms by which a pathogen interacts with the human host is most commonly performed using a mammalian model of infection. However, several virulence-related genes previously shown to be involved in mammalian infection with Cryptococcus neoformans have also been shown to play a role in the interaction of these pathogens with invertebrates, such as Acanthamoeba castellanii, Caenorhabditis elegans, Dictyostelium discoideum, Drosophila melanogaster and Galleria mellonella. The study of host-pathogen interactions using these model hosts has allowed rapid screening of mutant libraries and can be used for the study of evolutionarily preserved aspects of microbial virulence and host response.     

Isolation, characterization, sequencing and crystal structure of charybdin, a type 1 ribosome-inactivating protein from Charybdis maritima agg

A novel, type 1 ribosome-inactivating protein designated charybdin was isolated from bulbs of Charybdis maritima agg. The protein, consisting of a single polypeptide chain with a molecular mass of 29 kDa, inhibited translation in rabbit reticulocytes with an IC50 of 27.2 nm. Plant genomic DNA extracted from the bulb was amplified by PCR between primers based on the N-terminal and C-terminal sequence of the protein from dissolved crystals. The complete mature protein sequence was derived by partial DNA sequencing and terminal protein sequencing, and was confirmed by high-resolution crystal structure analysis. The protein contains Val at position 79 instead of the conserved Tyr residue of the ribosome-inactivating proteins known to date. To our knowledge, this is the first observation of a natural substitution of a catalytic residue at the active site of a natural ribosome-inactivating protein. This substitution in the active site may be responsible for the relatively low in vitro translation inhibitory effect compared with other ribosome-inactivating proteins. Single crystals were grown in the cold room from PEG6000 solutions. Diffraction data collected to 1.6 A resolution were used to determine the protein structure by the molecular replacement method. The fold of the protein comprises two structural domains: an alpha + beta N-terminal domain (residues 4-190) and a mainly alpha-helical C-terminal domain (residues 191-257). The active site is located in the interface between the two domains and comprises residues Val79, Tyr117, Glu167 and Arg170.     

In silico identification and Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of multiple new mammalian kallikrein gene families

Kallikrein gene families have been identified previously in genomes of the human, the mouse, and the rat, and individual kallikrein-like genes have been found in many more species. This study presents the in silico identification of kallikrein gene families in the recently sequenced genomes of four additional mammalian species, the chimpanzee, the dog, the pig, and the opossum. Phylogenies were constructed with gene sequences from all seven mammalian families, using Bayesian analysis, which clarified the evolutionary relationships between these genes. Individual gene sequences, as well as concatenated constructs of multiple sequences, were used. Fifteen kallikrein genes were located in the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) genome, while only 14 were identified in the canine (Canis familiaris) genome as no orthologue to human KLK3 was found. Thirteen genes were identified from the pig (Sus scrofa) genome, which lacked homologues to KLK2 and KLK3, and 11 genes, orthologous to human KLK5 through KLK15, were found in the opossum (Monodelphis domestica) genome. No kallikrein genes were identified from the available genome sequences of the chicken (Gallus gallus) or African clawed frog (Xenopus tropicalis). Within the family of kallikreins several subfamilies were suggested by phylogenetic analysis. One consisted of KLK4, KLK5, and KLK14; another of KLK9, KLK11, and KLK15; a third of KLK10 and KLK12; a fourth of KLK6 and KLK13; and finally one of KLK8 and the classical kallikreins (KLK1, KLK2, and KLK3).