Visceral adiposity is associated with serum retinol binding protein-4 levels in healthy women

Objective: Retinol binding protein‐4 (RBP4) has been reported to impair insulin sensitivity throughout the body. We investigated the relationship between serum RBP4 levels and adiposity indices as well as metabolic risk variables. Research Methods and Procedure: We recruited a total of 102 healthy women 21 to 67 years old. We assessed body composition by computed tomography and divided the study population into four groups based on body weight and visceral fat area (non‐obese without visceral adiposity, non‐obese with visceral adiposity, obese without visceral adiposity, and obese with visceral adiposity). Serum RBP4 levels were measured by radioimmunoassay. Results: Despite similar levels of total body fat, non‐obese women had lower systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), low‐density lipoprotein (LDL)‐cholesterol levels, insulin resistance indices, and RBP4 levels than non‐obese women with visceral adiposity and had higher high‐density lipoprotein‐cholesterol levels. Similarly, obese women without visceral adiposity had lower blood pressure, total cholesterol, TG levels, insulin resistance indices, and RBP4 levels than obese women with visceral adiposity. In addition, despite having increased body fat, obese women without visceral adiposity had lower TGs, insulin resistance indices, and serum RBP4 levels than non‐obese women with visceral adiposity. By step‐wise multiple regression analysis, visceral fat areas and LDL‐cholesterol levels independently affected RBP4 levels. Discussion: We determined that serum RBP4 levels are independently associated with visceral fat and LDL‐cholesterol levels. These results suggest that, irrespective of body weight, visceral obesity is an independent predictor of serum RBP4 levels, and RBP4 may represent a link between visceral obesity and cardiovascular disease.     

The emergence of patterned movement during late embryogenesis of Drosophila

Larval behavioral patterns arise in a gradual fashion during late embryogenesis as the innervation of the somatic musculature and connectivity within the central nervous system develops. In this paper, we describe in a quantitative manner the maturation of behavioral patterns. Early movements are locally restricted "twitches" of the body wall, involving single segments or parts of segments. These twitches occur at a low frequency and have low amplitude, reflecting weak muscle contractions. Towards later stages twitches increase in frequency and amplitude and become integrated into coordinated movements of multiple segments. Most noticeable among these is the peristaltic wave of longitudinal segmental contractions by which the larva moves forward or backward. Besides becoming more complex as development proceeds, embryonic movements also acquire a pronounced rhythm. Thus, late embryonic movements occur in bursts, with phases of frequent movement separated by phases of no movement at all; early movements show no such periodicity. These data will serve as a baseline for future studies that address the function of embryonic lethal genes controlling neuronal connectivity and larval behavior. We have analyzed behavioral abnormalities in two embryonic lethal mutations with severe neural defects, tailless (tll), which lacks the protocerebrum, and glial cells missing (gcm), in which glial cells are absent. Our results reveal prominent alterations in embryonic motility for both of these mutations, indicating that the protocerebrum and glial cells play a crucial role in the neural mechanism controlling larval movement in Drosophila.     

Automated builder and database of protein/membrane complexes for molecular dynamics simulations

Molecular dynamics simulations of membrane proteins have provided deeper insights into their functions and interactions with surrounding environments at the atomic level. However, compared to solvation of globular proteins, building a realistic protein/membrane complex is still challenging and requires considerable experience with simulation software. Membrane Builder in the CHARMM-GUI website (http://www.charmm-gui.org) helps users to build such a complex system using a web browser with a graphical user interface. Through a generalized and automated building process including system size determination as well as generation of lipid bilayer, pore water, bulk water, and ions, a realistic membrane system with virtually any kinds and shapes of membrane proteins can be generated in 5 minutes to 2 hours depending on the system size. Default values that were elaborated and tested extensively are given in each step to provide reasonable options and starting points for both non-expert and expert users. The efficacy of Membrane Builder is illustrated by its applications to 12 transmembrane and 3 interfacial membrane proteins, whose fully equilibrated systems with three different types of lipid molecules (DMPC, DPPC, and POPC) and two types of system shapes (rectangular and hexagonal) are freely available on the CHARMM-GUI website. One of the most significant advantages of using the web environment is that, if a problem is found, users can go back and re-generate the whole system again before quitting the browser. Therefore, Membrane Builder provides the intuitive and easy way to build and simulate the biologically important membrane system.     

Enhancement of near‐infrared up‐conversion and blue down‐conversion luminescence in LuNbO4:Yb3+,Tm3+ with Ga3+ and Ta5+ substitutions

Under a 980‐nm excitation, the up‐conversion (UC) spectra of LuNbO₄:Yb³⁺,Tm³⁺ powders exhibited predominantly near‐infrared bands (~805 nm) of Tm³⁺ through an energy transfer process from Yb³⁺ to Tm³⁺. Regarding the down‐conversion (DC) luminescence of the powders, the photoluminescence excitation spectra consisted of a broad charge transfer band (270 nm) due to [NbO₄]^3? and sharp band (360 nm) of Tm³⁺, while the corresponding emission spectra exhibited a blue emission at 458 nm. Upon substitution of Ga³⁺ and Ta⁵⁺ for Lu³⁺ and Nb⁵⁺, respectively, both UC and DC luminescence properties were significantly enhanced. For the Ga³⁺ substitution, the increased emission intensity could be explained by the crystal field asymmetry surrounding the Tm³⁺ ions induced by the large difference in ionic radius between Ga³⁺ and Lu³⁺. For the Ta⁵⁺ substitution, we believe that an M′‐LuTaO₄ substructure was formed in the host, which led to the formation of a TaO₆ octahedral coordination instead of a NbO₄ tetrahedral coordination. Consequently, the crystal symmetry of the local structure was modified, and thus the UC and DC luminescence properties were enhanced. The dual‐mode (UC and DC) luminescence demonstrates that LuNbO₄:Yb³⁺,Tm³⁺ has a great potential in the fields of temperature sensing probes, anti‐counterfeiting, and bioapplications.     

Supramolecular Engineering for Formamidinium‐Based Layered 2D Perovskite Solar Cells: Structural Complexity and Dynamics Revealed by Solid‐State NMR Spectroscopy

Perovskite solar cells are one of the most promising photovoltaic technologies, although their molecular level design and stability toward environmental factors remain a challenge. Layered 2D Ruddlesden–Popper perovskite phases feature an organic spacer bilayer that enhances their environmental stability. Here, the concept of supramolecular engineering of 2D perovskite materials is demonstrated in the case of formamidinium (FA) containing A₂FA_n?1Pb_nI_3n+1 formulations by employing (adamantan‐1‐yl)methanammonium (A) spacers exhibiting propensity for strong Van der Waals interactions complemented by structural adaptability. The molecular design translates into desirable structural features and phases with different compositions and dimensionalities, identified uniquely at the atomic level by solid‐state NMR spectroscopy. For A₂FA₂Pb₃I₁₀, efficiencies exceeding 7% in mesoscopic device architectures without any additional treatment or use of antisolvents for ambient temperature film deposition are achieved. This performance improvement over the state‐of‐the‐art FA‐based 2D perovskites is accompanied by high operational stability under humid ambient conditions, which illustrates the utility of the approach in perovskite solar cells and sets the basis for advanced supramolecular design in the future.     

Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the yellow-spotted long-horned beetle <Emphasis Type="Italic">Psacothea hilaris</Emphasis> (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and phylogenetic analysis among coleopteran insects

We have determined the complete mitochondrial genome of the yellow-spotted long horned beetle, Psacothea hilaris (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), an endangered insect species in Korea. The 15,856-bp long P. hilaris mitogenome harbors gene content typical of the animal mitogenome and a gene arrangement identical to the most common type found in insect mitogenomes. As with all other sequenced coleopteran species, the 5-bp long TAGTA motif was also detected in the intergenic space sequence located between tRNA^Ser(UCN) and ND1 of P. hilaris. The 1,190-bp long non-coding A+T-rich region harbors an unusual series of seven identical repeat sequences of 57-bp in length and several stretches of sequences with the potential to form stem-and-loop structures. Furthermore, it contains one tRNA^Arg-like sequence and one tRNA^Lys-like sequence. Phylogenetic analysis among available coleopteran mitogenomes using the concatenated amino acid sequences of PCGs appear to support the sister group relationship of the suborder Polyphaga to all remaining suborders, including Adephaga, Myxophaga, and Archostemata. Among the two available infraorders in Polyphaga, a monophyletic Cucujiformia was confirmed, with the placement of Cleroidea as the basal lineage for Cucujiformia. On the other hand, the infraorder Elateriformia was not identified as monophyletic, thereby indicating that Scirtoidea and Buprestoidea are the basal lineages for Cucujiformia and the remaining Elateriformia.     

A new ginsenosidase from Aspergillus strain hydrolyzing 20-O-multi-glycoside of PPD ginsenoside

A ginsenosidase specifically hydrolyzing multi-20-O-glycosides of protopanaxadiol type ginsenosides such as ginsenoside Rb₁, Rb₃, Rb₂ and Rc, named ginsenosidase type II, was isolated and purified from Aspergillus sp.g48p strain. The molecular weight of the enzyme was 60 kDa. Ginsenosidase type II was demonstrated to hydrolyze multi-20-O-glycoside of protopanaxadiol type ginsenoside Rb₁, Rb₃, Rb₂ and Rc; i.e. the ginsenosidase type II hydrolyzes 20-O-β-glucoside of the ginsenoside Rb₁, 20-O-β-xyloside of ginsenoside Rb₃, 20-O-α-arabinoside(p) of ginsenoside Rb₂ and α-arabinoside(f) of ginsenoside Rc to produce mainly ginsenoside Rd, and small amount of Rg₃. However, it did not hydrolyze 3-O-β-glucosides of ginsenoside Rb₁, Rb₃, Rb₂ and Rc which was different with the ginsenosidase type I previously reported, either did not hydrolyze the glycosides of protopanaxatriol type ginsenoside such as ginsenoside Re, Rf and Rg₁, showing significant difference from all previously described glycosidases.