Role of virus inhibitory factor or interferon in the antitumoral effect of whole-body hyperthermia

The interferon inducing effect of hyperthermia was studied in normal and tumor-bearing mice. Circulating interferon was temporarily detected one day after subcutaneous transplantation of 1.6 X 10(6) Ehrlich's ascites tumor cells. Hyperthermia of 43.5 degrees C for 5 min did not induce the interferon formation in mice with or without subcutaneous tumor of the cells. These findings showed that the induction of interferon formation was not main cause of the hyperthermia-induced tumor inhibition.     

Disappearance of terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase in human malignant T-lymphoblasts treated with a human alpha interferon preparation

Human T-lymphoblastoid cell lines RPMI 8402, MOLT-3, and CCRF-CEM were treated with interferon (IFN) to determine if the treatment would result in the disappearance of cellular terminaldeoxynucleotidyltransferase (TdT), a possible differentiation marker for T-lymphocytes. Incubation of RPMI 8402 cells in the presence of IFN preparation caused a decrease in the number of TdT-positive cells and in TdT activity of the cell extract. The inhibition of cell multiplication was dose dependent. The anticellular effect of IFN preparation was cytostatic, not cytocidal. The IFN preparation modified neither the TdT content nor proliferation of MOLT-3 and CCRF-CEM cell lines. The effects of IFN preparation thus varied with the cell line.     

Concurrent Bursty Behavior of Social Sensors in Sporting Events

The advent of social media expands our ability to transmit information and connect with others instantly, which enables us to behave as “social sensors.” Here, we studied concurrent bursty behavior of Twitter users during major sporting events to determine their function as social sensors. We show that the degree of concurrent bursts in tweets (posts) and retweets (re-posts) works as a strong indicator of winning or losing a game. More specifically, our simple tweet analysis of Japanese professional baseball games in 2013 revealed that social sensors can immediately react to positive and negative events through bursts of tweets, but that positive events are more likely to induce a subsequent burst of retweets. We confirm that these findings also hold true for tweets related to Major League Baseball games in 2015. Furthermore, we demonstrate active interactions among social sensors by constructing retweet networks during a baseball game. The resulting networks commonly exhibited user clusters depending on the baseball team, with a scale-free connectedness that is indicative of a substantial difference in user popularity as an information source. While previous studies have mainly focused on bursts of tweets as a simple indicator of a real-world event, the temporal correlation between tweets and retweets implies unique aspects of social sensors, offering new insights into human behavior in a highly connected world.     

Wavelength Effect on the Action of a N-Phenylimide S-23142 and a Diphenylether Acifluorfen-Ethyl in Cotyledons of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Seedlings

Specific wavelengths of light required for expression of phytotoxic activity of S-23142 (N-[4-chloro-2-fluoro-5-propargyloxy]phenyl-3,4,5,6-tetra- hydrophthalimide) and acifluorfen-ethyl (ethyl-5-[2-chloro-4-(trifluoromethyl)phenoxy]-2-nitro benzoic acid) were determined in cotyledons of cucumber seedlings using the Okazaki Large Spectrograph. Leakage of amino acids from the cotyledons was measured as an indication of the phytotoxic activity. The wavelength effects showed common major peaks of activity at 550 and 650 nanometers and a minor peak at 450 nanometers for both herbicides, indicating a common primary photoreaction. Concomitant application of DCMU (3-[3,4-dichlorophenyl]-1,1-dimethylurea) with S-23142 had little influence on the effective wavelengths for S-23142 activity. Light of 450 and 650 nanometers was relatively less effective in achlorophyllous tissue grown in far red light than in green tissue. These results strongly suggest that the phytotoxic action of S-23142 and diphenylethers involves multiple photoreactions and that one of the photoreceptor pigments may be chlorophyll or its related pigment, although photosynthesis is not involved.     

Primary structures of two types of alpha-subunit of rat brain Na+,K+,-ATPase deduced from cDNA sequences

A rat brain cDNA library was screened by using as a probe a fragment of cDNA encoding the alpha-subunit of human Na+,K+-ATPase. Two different cDNA clones were obtained and analyzed. One of them was concluded to be a cDNA encoding the alpha-subunit of the weakly ouabain-sensitive rat kidney-type Na+,K+-ATPase. The deduced amino acid sequence consists of 1,018 amino acids. The alpha-subunit of the rat kidney-type Na+,K+-ATPase shows 97% homology in amino acid sequence with the alpha-subunit of human, sheep, or pig enzyme and 87% with that of Torpedo. Based on a comparison of the amino acid sequence at the extracellular domain of the alpha-subunit between weakly ouabain-sensitive rat kidney-type enzyme and the ouabain-sensitive human, sheep, pig, or Torpedo enzyme, it was proposed that only two significant amino acid replacements are unique to the rat kidney-type alpha-subunit. Another cDNA clone obtained showed 72% homology in nucleotide sequence with the former cDNA coding the alpha-subunit of the rat kidney-type Na+,K+-ATPase and the deduced amino acid sequence exhibited 85% homology with that of the alpha-subunit of rat kidney-type Na+,K+-ATPase.     

Stage-specific localization of cytoskeletal actin mRNA in murine seminiferous tubules and intestinal epithelia as demonstrated by in-situ hybridization

Summary In-situ hybridization experiments have been performed using isoactin ( and )-specific riboprobes in various tissues of the rat and mouse. Distribution of the grains of actin mRNAs for both and types was similar throughout sections of the rat testis. Although both mRNAs were evenly distributed in the seminiferous tubule, extremely heavy labeling was observed in about 10% of the seminiferous tubules that could be identified as stage XII of spermatogenesis. At high magnification, grains of the mRNA were found in the cytoplasm of elongating spermatids and in the Sertoli cell cytoplasm at the adluminal side. Much higher density of the grains of mRNA was observed in the neck region of the spermatids at stage XII. Thus, the dense distribution of cytoskeletal actin mRNAs is stage-specific in the tubule during spermatogenesis in the rat. The high expression of both and actin mRNAs was also observed in the epithelial cells of the intestinal crypts.