Effect of Long-Lasting Diabetes Mellitus on Rat and Human Brain Monoamines

Experimental alloxan- or streptozotocin-produced diabetes in rats was accompanied by an increase in the levels of norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin, whereas the contents of metabolites, i.e., 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and homovanillic acid, in the whole brain gradually decreased with the duration of diabetes. Among the striatum, thalamus, and hypothalamus of alloxan diabetic rats, monoamine alterations were observed only in the hypothalamus; after 1 week an increase of norepinephrine content and after 13 weeks an increase of norepinephrine and dopamine contents were found. Tissues of 11 brain regions of 10 diabetic and 12 control patients post mortem were investigated for monoamine concentrations. Patients were all male, of similar age and interval between death and autopsy. Diabetic patients had an increase in the content of serotonin in the medial and lateral hypothalamus. The content of dopamine increased in the medial hypothalamus, putamen, and medial and lateral pallidus. In diabetic patients, the content of norepinephrine increased in the lateral pallidus and decreased in the nucleus accumbens and claustrum. Thus, it seems that diabetes mellitus in rats, as well as in humans is associated with regionally specific changes in brain monoamines.     

Effect of Planting Unit Size and Sediment Stabilization on Seagrass Transplants in Western Australia

Abstract The effect of increasing planting unit size and stabilizing sediment was examined for two seagrass planting methods at Carnac Island, Western Australia in 1993. The staple method (sprigs) was used to transplant Amphibolis griffithii (J. M. Black) den Hartog and the plug method was used to transplant A. griffithii and Posidonia sinuosa Cambridge and Kuo. Transplant size was varied by increasing the number of rhizomes incorporated into a staple and increasing the diameter of plugs. Planting units were transplanted into bare sand, back into the original donor seagrass bed, or into a meadow of Heterozostera tasmanica, which is an important colonizing species. Sprigs of A. griffithii were extracted from a monospecific meadow; tied into bundles of 1, 2, 5, and 10 rhizomes; and planted into unvegetated areas. Half the units were surrounded by plastic mesh and the remainder were unmeshed. All treatments were lost within 99 days after transplanting, and although larger bundles survived better than smaller ones, no significant differences could be attributed to the effects of mesh or sprig size. Plugs of P. sinuosa and A. griffithii were extracted from monospecific meadows using polyvinyl chloride pipe of three diameters, 5, 10, and 15 cm, and planted into unvegetated areas nearby. Half the units were surrounded by plastic mesh and the remainder were unmeshed. Posidonia sinuosa plugs were also placed within a meadow of H. tasmanica (Martens ex Aschers.) den Hartog. Only 60% of A. griffithii plug sizes survived 350 days after transplanting back into the donor bed; however, survival of transplants at unvegetated areas varied considerably, and analysis of variance indicated a significant two‐way interaction between treatment and plug size. Transplants survived better when meshed (90% survived) and survival improved with increasing plug size. Posidonia sinuosa transplants survived poorly (no plugs survived beyond 220 days in bare or meshed treatments) regardless of size. Survival of 10‐ and 15‐cm plugs was markedly better than the 5‐cm plugs in vegetated areas, including the H. tasmanica meadow. The use of large seagrass plugs may be appropriate for transplantation in high‐energy wave environments.     

Adaptation to salinity inHordeum jubatum L. populations studied using reciprocal transplants

Tillers and seedlings ofHordeum jubatum L. from three sites with contrasting salinity regimes in central Saskatchewan, Canada were reciprocally transplanted in order to examine the tolerance of populations of this species to salinity and related habitat factors. Survival, growth and fecundity of the three populations were controlled more by transplant site characteristics than by genetic differences, i.e. differences among populations at a site tended to be smaller than differences among sites. Survival, growth and reproduction of all three populations were best at the non-saline site. The population originating at the non-saline site showed the poorest growth in the two saline habitats, but still had substantial salt tolerance. Fecundity was greatest when the populations were grow at their site of origin.     

Peptide recognition by PTB and PDZ domains

Protein tyrosine binding (PTB) and ‘post synaptic density disc-large zo-1’ (PDZ) domains bind to short peptidic ligands by augmentation of one of the domain's β sheets and other recognition mechanisms. The two domain classes have a superficial resemblance to each other, even though no sequential homology exists. The structural bases of the interactions are well understood for the domains now experimentally determined, and ligand—target pairs can probably be identified in favorable cases by analogy with the known domains. For both PTB and PDZ classes, functional activities are still not fully defined: it is possible that these domain classes, along with pleckstrin homology domains, have multiple roles.     

Indoor environmental study and post occupancy evaluation in an office environment

1. 1. The objective of this paper is to investigate the indoor environment from the viewpoint of interaction between physical environment and the human responses. The field survey has been conducted over 1 year.

2. 2. A continuous measurement has been carried out for 1 week and distribution of variables have been measured for 1 day.

3. 3. The attitude of workers was investigated by a questionnaire.

4. 4. As the result, average luminance represented more than 1000 lx in the new building, in contrast with less tha 300 lx in the existing building.

5. 5. There was a significant difference of the occupants' response to the light environment between the two buildings.

6. 6. Measured thermal conditions are on the edge of the ASHRAE comfort envelope in summer, and in the neighborhood of the lower dry limit of the envelope in spring.

7. 7. The occupants' evaluations were remarkably changed before and after the moving. The office environment is better than that of the factory.

Rituximab in immunologic glomerular diseases

Experimental data suggest that the B-cell antigen CD20 may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of many diseases including glomerular diseases. These and other findings underpin the central concept of B-cell-depleting therapies that target CD20 antigen as treatments for lupus nephritis, idiopathic membranous nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, cryglobulinemic glomerulonephritis, antibody mediated renal allograft rejection and recurrent glomerulonephritis in renal allograft. Use of rituximab as a B-cell depleting therapy has been associated with clinical improvement and has emerged as a possible adjunct or alternative treatment option in this field of nephrology.     

不同纤维桩表面处理方式对牙根修复后抗折裂强度的影响

目的:探讨不同纤维桩表面处理方式对牙根修复后抗折裂强度的影响。方法:收集行正畸拔除的前磨牙120颗作为本研究样本,随机将120个纤维桩分为对照组、喷砂组和过氧化氢酸蚀组,每组40例。对照组纤维桩表明不给予任何处理,喷砂组给予氧化铝砂粒持续喷砂粗化处理,过氧化氢酸蚀组给予10%过氧化氢溶液处理,均包埋于纤维桩道预备好的离体牙内,采用相同树脂制备成核,行全冠修复与黏固,再模拟口腔内部环境给予样本牙冷热循环处理,经相同环境加载后,置于电子万能实验机获取样本牙抗折裂强度数据。对比三组离体牙样本体型数据、离体牙断裂方式、抗折裂强度,对三组进行为期24个月的定期随访,统计三组修复体断裂率,并采用Kaplan-Meier曲线和Log Rank法分析三组的生存状况。结果:三组的离体牙样本关于牙齿长度、牙根长度、颈部颊舌径及颈部近远中径对比差异无统计学意义(P0.05);喷砂组和过氧化氢酸蚀组的离体牙抗折裂强度显著强于对照组(P0.05);喷砂组和过氧化氢酸蚀组的牙齿折裂总发生率分别为20.00%和22.50%,均显著低于对照组的70.00%(P0.05)。但两组间比较差异无统计学意义(P0.05)。喷砂组、过氧化氢酸蚀组的生存状况显著优于对照组。结论:前磨牙修复过程中,对纤维桩表面进行喷砂或过氧化氢酸蚀处理均能提高牙根修复后抗折裂强度,改善修复体修复效果生存状况,且两种纤维桩表面处理方式对离体牙样本的断裂方式和抗折裂强度影响相当。     

Post‐fire development of faunal habitat depends on plant regeneration traits

The concept that vegetation structure (and faunal habitat) develops predictably with time since fire has been central to understanding the relationship between fire and fauna. However, because plants regenerate after fire in different ways (e.g. resprouting from above‐ground stems vs. underground lignotubers), use of simple categories based on time since fire might not adequately represent post‐fire habitat development in all ecosystems. We tested the hypothesis that the post‐fire development of faunal habitat structure differs between ecosystems, depending on fire regeneration traits of the dominant canopy trees. We measured 12 habitat components at sites in foothill forests (n = 38), heathy woodlands (n = 38) and mallee woodlands (n = 98) in Victoria, Australia, and used generalised additive models to predict changes in each variable with time since fire. A greater percentage of faunal habitat variables responded significantly to time since fire in mallee woodlands, where fires typically are stand‐replacing, than in foothill forests and heathy woodlands, where canopy tree stems generally persist through fire. In the ecosystem with the highest proportion of epicormic resprouters (foothill forests), only ground cover and understorey vegetation responded significantly to time since fire, compared with all but one variable in the ecosystem dominated by basal resprouters (mallee woodlands). These differences between ecosystems in the post‐fire development of key habitat components suggest there may also be fundamental differences in the role of fire in shaping the distribution of fauna. If so, this challenges the way in which many fire‐prone ecosystems currently are categorised and managed, especially the level of dependence on time since fire and other temporal surrogates such as age‐classes and successional states. Where time since fire is a poor surrogate for habitat structural development, additional complexity (e.g. fire severity, topography and prior land‐use history) could better capture processes that determine faunal occurrence in fire‐prone ecosystems.     

Acetylation changes tau interactome to degrade tau in Alzheimer’s disease animal and organoid models

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age‐related neurodegenerative disease. The most common pathological hallmarks are amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. In the brains of patients with AD, pathological tau is abnormally accumulated causing neuronal loss, synaptic dysfunction, and cognitive decline. We found a histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitor, CKD‐504, changed the tau interactome dramatically to degrade pathological tau not only in AD animal model (ADLP^APT) brains containing both amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles but also in AD patient‐derived brain organoids. Acetylated tau recruited chaperone proteins such as Hsp40, Hsp70, and Hsp110, and this complex bound to novel tau E3 ligases including UBE2O and RNF14. This complex degraded pathological tau through proteasomal pathway. We also identified the responsible acetylation sites on tau. These dramatic tau‐interactome changes may result in tau degradation, leading to the recovery of synaptic pathology and cognitive decline in the ADLP^APT mice.