Analysis of Flow Phenomena in Gastric Contents Induced by Human Gastric Peristalsis Using CFD

This paper uses computational fluid dynamics to simulate and analyze intragastric fluid motions induced by human peristalsis. We created a two-dimensional computational domain of the distal stomach where peristalsis occurs. The motion of the gastric walls induced by an antral contraction wave (ACW) on the wall of the computational domain was well simulated using a function defined in this study. Retropulsive flow caused by ACW was observed near the occluded region, reaching its highest velocity of approximately 12 mm/s in the narrowest region. The viscosity of the model gastric contents applied in this study hardly affected the highest velocity, but greatly affected the velocity profile in the computational domain. The shear rate due to gastric fluid motion was calculated using the numerical output data. The shear rate reached relatively high values of approximately 20 s⁻¹ in the most occluded region. The shear rate profile was almost independent of the fluid viscosity. We also simulated mass transfer of a gastric digestive enzyme (pepsin) in model gastric content when peristalsis occurs on the gastric walls. The visualized simulation results suggest that gastric peristalsis is capable of efficiently mixing pepsin secreted from the gastric walls with an intragastric fluid.     

Effects of winter flooding on phosphorus dynamics in rice fields

Limnology - Controlling phosphorous (P) loads from rice fields is important for the conservation of aquatic ecosystems, in part because P is relatively concentrated at its sources. Recently, winter...     

Cloning and sequencing of Schizosaccharomyces pombe DNA topoisomerase I gene, and effect of gene disruption.

We cloned the structural gene topl+ for Schizosaccharomyces pombe DNA topoisomerase I (topo I) by hybridization. An eight-fold increase of topo I relaxing activity was obtained in S. pombe cells transformed with multicopy plasmid with topl+ insert. Nucleotide sequence determination showed a hypothetical coding frame interrupted by two short introns, encoding a 812 residue polypeptide (M.W. 94,000), 43 residues longer than and 47% homologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae topo I. We show that the topl (null) strain made by gene disruption is viable, although its generation time is 20% longer than that of wild type. The topl locus is mapped in the long arm of chromosome II, using the Leu+ marker integrated with the cloned topl+ sequence. We constructed a double mutant topl (null) top2 (ts) and found its defective phenotype similar to that of previously obtained topl (heat sensitive) top2 (ts). The other double mutant topl (null) top2 (cs), however, was lethal. Our results suggest that topl+ gene of S. pombe is dispensable only if topo II activity is abundant.     

High levels of manganese-containing superoxide dismutase and thermally induced DNA disruption in a dnaK7(Ts) mutant of Escherichia coli K12

Summary IndnaK7(Ts) mutant cells, scission of DNA strands occurred after temperature shift up. When cells at 30°C were labeled with [³H]-thymidine and then shifted to 46° or 49°C for 20 min, the profiles of sedimentation of thier cellular DNA in an alkaline sucrose gradient revealed a decrease in the size of DNA to a quarter of that at 30°C in the mutant, but not in wild-type cells. The level of manganese-containing superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) in the mutant was about twice that in wild-type cells, even at the permissive temperature, implying increased production of superoxide radical anion, which may cleave DNA strands directly or indirectly in the mutant. Moderate increase in the MnSOD level on temperature shift up was observed in both strains. These results indicated that some components of the DnaK protein participate in protection of cellular membrane functions from thermal damage resulting from elevated production of the superoxide anion radical.     

numb, a gene required in determination of cell fate during sensory organ formation in Drosophila embryos

Neurons and support cells of each sensory organ in Drosophila embryos are most likely derived from a single precursor cell. This cell lineage is affected in numb mutants. Morphological alterations of sensory structures, as well as changes in the number of cells expressing cell type-specific markers, indicate that sensory neurons in numb mutant embryos are transformed into lineage-related nonneuronal support cells. Thus the numb gene controls the fate of progeny derived from sensory organ precursors. The numb gene has been isolated by the plasmid rescue method. The structure of its predicted product is discussed.     

Involvement of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate in Ca2+ influx in thrombin stimulated human platelets

By incubating platelets at low temperature (10 degrees C), the relationship between Ca2+ mobilization and formation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) in thrombin stimulated platelets could be precisely investigated. In the presence of 1 mM EGTA, time dependent changes in the intracellular free calcium concentration [( Ca2+]i) were closely related to those in IP3 formation. Time course of the influx of external Ca2+, estimated by delta [Ca2+]i obtained by subtracting [Ca2+]i in the presence of 1 mM EGTA from that in the presence of 1 mM CaCl2 was also very similar to that of IP3 formed. Furthermore, the increase in delta [Ca2+]i was extremely well correlated with the amount of IP3 formed (Y = 49X - 34, r = 0.99). Thus, these data indicate that IP3 might be involved not only in intracellular Ca2+ mobilization but in Ca2+ influx of human platelets stimulated by thrombin.     

Calyculin A and okadaic acid: inhibitors of protein phosphatase activity

Calyculin A and okadaic acid induce contraction in smooth muscle fibers. Okadaic acid is an inhibitor of phosphatase activity and the aims of this study were to determine if calyculin A also inhibits phosphatase and to screen effects of both compounds on various phosphatases. Neither compound inhibited acid or alkaline phosphatases, nor the phosphotyrosine protein phosphatase. Both compounds were potent inhibitors of the catalytic subunit of type-2A phosphatase, with IC50 values of 0.5 to 1 nM. With the catalytic subunit of protein phosphatase type-1, calyculin A was a more effective inhibitor than okadaic acid, IC50 values for calyculin A were about 2 nM and for okadaic acid between 60 and 500 nM. The endogenous phosphatase of smooth muscle myosin B was inhibited by both compounds with IC50 values of 0.3 to 0.7 nM and 15 to 70 nM, for calyculin A and okadaic acid, respectively. The partially purified catalytic subunit from myosin B had IC50 values of 0.7 and 200 nM for calyculin A and okadaic acid, respectively. The pattern of inhibition for the phosphatase in myosin B therefore is similar to that of the type-1 enzyme.     

Lysing of fresh human tumor by a cytotoxic factor derived from autologous large granular lymphocytes independently of other known cytokines

Summary During interaction with autologous tumor cells large granular lymphocytes (LGL) of cancer patients released a soluble cytotoxic factor, termed LGL-derived cytotoxic factor, which mediated lysing of autologous fresh tumor cells. The cytotoxic factor was compared with purified human recombinant cytotoxic cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF), lymphotoxin (LT), interferon (IFN) , IFN, interleukin-1 (IL-1) and IL-2. The LGL cytotoxic factor exhibited cytotoxicity against autologous and allogeneic fresh human tumor cells in an 18-h⁵¹Cr-release assay, while these target cells were resistant to lysing by any of the recombinant cytokines. Mixtures of recombinant(r) TNF, rLT, rIFN, rIFN, rIL-1 and rIL-2 were still unable to produce cytotoxic effects on fresh human tumor cells. Treatment with monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies directed against rTNF, rLT, rIFN, rIFN, or rIL-1 did not inhibit the cytotoxic activity of LGL-derived cytotoxic factor against fresh human tumor cells. Even a mixture of all the antibodies was incapable of blocking the cytolytic activity of the factor to fresh human tumor cells. Furthermore, intact LGL-mediated lysing of autologous tumor cells was not inhibited by any of the antibodies. These results may indicate that a cytotoxic factor produced by LGL in response to autologous tumor cells mediates lysing of fresh human tumor cells independently of TNF, LT, IFN, IL-1 and IL-2.