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Abstract: Values of the complete adiabatic elastic tensor for single-crystal chrome-diopside (a monoclinic pyroxene mineral) are presented from 298 to 1,300 K. The data were obtained using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS). They are the first published results for the temperature T dependences of the 13 individual elastic constants C ij of any clinopyroxene mineral. Each C ij is appropriately described by a linear function in T throughout the range of T. Values for each (∂C ij /∂T) P in GPa K−1 are as follows: C 11, −0.0291; C 22, −0.0248; C 33, −0.0179; C 44, −0.0103; C 55, −0.0077; C 66, −0.0152; C 12, −0.0119; C 13, −0.0064; C 23, 0.0000; C 15, 0.0025; C 25, 0.0022; C 35, −0.0046; and C 46, 0.0026. Values of (∂M/∂T) P in GPa K−1, where M represents an isotropic bulk property calculated from the C ij data, are as follows: adiabatic bulk modulus K S , −0.0123; isothermal bulk modulus K T , −0.0178; and shear modulus G, −0.00998. Some diopside derivatives, notably (∂K S /∂T) P , (∂K T /∂T) P , and (∂V P /∂T) P , where V P is the compressional wave velocity, have smaller magnitudes than all other minerals of importance in Earth’s mantle, thus, confirming predictions from systematics studies. We find several dimensionless quantities for this monoclinic mineral have normal values compared to other mantle minerals. Further, αK T (α is the volume coefficient of thermal expansion) for diopside is approximately independent of both T and volume V at elevated temperature, so its equation of state is accurately expressed in simplified form.

Diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) is a life-threatening airway disease in which neutrophils persistently and massively emigrating to the airways cause progressive and irreversible tissue damage. However, the pathogenesis of the airway inflammation remains unclear. The failure of non-inflammatory removal of emigrating neutrophils due to delayed apoptosis has been proposed as a mechanism by which the neutrophilic inflammation persists. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether an activity that delays neutrophil apoptosis is present at the inflamed sites in DPB. Neutrophils isolated from normal volunteers were cultured with sputum extracts of patients with DPB, and viability and apoptosis of neutrophil was evaluated for the culture period. Neutrophils cultured with sputum extracts for 2 and 3 days showed significantly enhanced survival compared to those with medium alone. The neutrophil survival-enhancing activity in sputum extracts was heat-labile and partially, but significantly, neutralized with anti-human GM-CSF, but not with anti-human G-CSF antibody. The enhancement of neutrophil survival was associated with an inhibition of apoptosis demonstrated by cytology, TUNEL assay and DNA fragmentation analysis. These results suggest that neutrophil apoptosis is prevented by survival-enhancing factors including GM-CSF in the airways of DPB, leading to neutrophil death by necrosis that causes further recruitment and activation of neutrophils.

The right-rectangular parallelepiped resonance (RPR) form of resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) is applied to monoclinic crystal symmetry to determine the 13 adiabatic elastic constants, C ij, of single-crystal chrome-diopside Di 0.93Hd 0.03Ur 0.02 X 0.02 (Di, diopside; Hd, hedenbergite; Ur, ureyite; X, other or unknown). These data represent the first published values of the elastic tensor for a monoclinic single-crystal determined by the RPR method, thus demonstrating the feasibility of this method for studying elasticity of low-symmetry crystals. The lowest 62 modal frequencies of a gem-quality specimen were measured and identified at ambient temperature and pressure. Inverting the modal frequencies results in, respectively C 11, C 22, C 33, C 44, C 55, C 66, C 12, C 13, C 23, C 15, C 25, C 35, C 46 values (GPa) of 228.1(1.0), 181.1(0.6), 245.4(1.3), 78.9(0.3), 68.2(0.2), 78.1(0.2), 78.8(0.5), 70.2(0.7), 61.1(0.7), 7.9(0.5), 5.9(0.5), 39.7(0.4), and 6.4(0.2), where numbers in parentheses indicate experimental uncertainty. The corresponding isotropic bulk, K S, and shear, G, moduli are 116.5 (0.9) and 72.8(0.4) GPa, respectively. When comparing these results with other pyroxene data, we find systematic correlations between M2 site composition and C ij values for most, but not all, moduli. Unusual compositional dependence near end-member diopside is seen for a few moduli, and is propagated to the K S and G moduli, which should prompt a reexamination of some C ij values of end-member diopside.

BodyMap is a collection of site-directed 3' expressed sequence tags (ESTs) (gene signatures, GSs) that contains the transcript compositions of various human tissues and was the first systematic effort to acquire gene expression data. For the construction of BodyMap, cDNA libraries were made, preserving abundance information and histologic resolutions of tissue mRNAs. By sequencing 164,000 randomly selected clones, 88,587 GSs that represent chromosomally coded transcripts have been collected from 51 human organs and tissues. They were clustered into 18,722 independent 3' termini from transcripts, and more than 3000 of these were not found among ESTs assembled in UniGene (Build 75). Assessment of the prevalence of polyadenylation signals and comparison with GenBank cDNAs indicated that there was no significant contamination by internally primed cDNAs or genomic fragments but that there was a relatively high incidence (12%) of alternative polyadenylation sites. We evaluated the sensitivity and resolution of expression information in BodyMap by in silico Northern hybridization and selection of tissue-specific gene probes. BodyMap is a unique resource for estimation of the absolute abundance of transcripts and selection of gene probes for efficient hybridization-based gene expression profiling.

Glucose transporters (Gluts) are a family of membrane proteins responsible for the transport of glucose across cellular membranes. Generally, alterations of Gluts expression in limb skeletal muscle have been reported. However, the changes of Glut isoforms in respiratory muscle which contracts with a duty cycle have rarely been studied. This study was performed to evaluate at the light microscopy level the expression of Glut-4 and Glut-1 transporters in normal and denervated diaphragm by immunohistochemistry method with specific Gluts antibodies. The results showed Glut-4 immunoreactivity in both the cell periphery and the interior of myocytes. Glut-1 was also present in the cell border and in the interior of myocytes in control diaphragm. However, Glut-4 staining was stronger than Glut-1 staining in control diaphragm. In denervated hemidiaphragm, the Glut-4 immunolabelling decreased and Glut-1 increased. These data indicated that (1) Glut-4 and Glut-1 transporters were observed in diaphragm; and (2) there were alterations in the expression of both glucose transporters after denervation. These alterations in Glut isoforms after denervation may be associated with the removal of innervation itself, and/or may partly result from passive stretch imposed by inspiratory activation of the contralateral side.

We produced an animal model of CdCl2nephrotoxicity in rats, and treated them with polyaspartic acid (PAA) to prevent renal damage. Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (190–200 g) were used to induce proximal renal tubular damage by daily injection of CdCl23.0 mg/1,000 g body wt for 2 wk. CdCl2-exposed SD rats exhibited significant increases in urine volume, urinary excretion ofN-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), alanine aminopeptidase (AAP), and fractional excretion of sodium (FENa) and a decrease in the percentage of tubular reabsorption of phosphate (%TRP). Of these indicators of proximal tubular function, AAP and %TRP are more sensitive than NAG or FENa. No glycosuria or aminoaciduria, however, were observed. PAA markedly improved these indicators of proximal tubular function. Daily urinary protein excretion and creatinine clearance, on the other hand, did not change after administration of PAA. Cd concentrations in the cortex were 3 times higher than in the medulla, however, there were no differences between Cd-treated rats and PAA-treated rats. Our animal model is an excellent one for determining the effect of cadmium on renal proximal tubule damage. PAA appears to be useful in the treatment of CdCl2nephrotoxicity.

Endometrial tissue from the gravid uterine horn of pregnant mares was examined by northern analysis and in situhybridization for mRNA that hybridized to cDNA and RNA probes generated from a mouse TGF-β2 1.2 kb cDNA clone. The mouse cDNA probe hybridized to characteristic TGF-β2 mRNA transcripts on a northern blot of total RNA isolated from horse endometrium collected at day 45 of gestation. Two major 4.0 and 3.5 kb transcripts and possibly a minor 1.6 kb transcript were observed, consistent with specific hybridization to equine TGF-β2 mRNA. By in situhybridization, riboprobes transcribed from the same fragment used in northern analysis hybridized to clusters of cells scattered between endometrial glands at days 38, 40, 42, 43, 78 and 81 of gestation. Positive cells were absent before day 38. From day 38 to day 43 there was marked hybridization over maternal leucocytes in the region of the developing endometrial cups, and at later stages (day 78 and day 81) clusters of cells positive for mRNA encoding TGF-β2 were localized within the dense band of leucocytes at the periphery of the degenerating endometrial cups. There was no hybridization to invasive or non-invasive trophoblast or to fully differentiated endometrial cup cells. Approximately 90% of the TGF-β2 positive cells detected in the sections taken at day 78 also stained with chromotrope 2R used to detect eosinophils and the morphology of approximately 50% of these cells was characteristic of eosinophils. These cells are known to accumulate around endometrial cups and are therefore a possible source of mRNA encoding TGF-β2 in the endometrium after day 38 of gestation.

Autoimmune-prone mice spontaneously develop the disease characterized by autoantibodies to a wide variety of antigens. In the present study, we have demonstrated that IgG antibodies to interleukin 2 (IL-2) are to be found in serum of autoimmune mice in association with ageing. These antibodies can neutralize the biological activity of IL-2 and thus play an important role in the etiopathogenesis of autoimmune disease.

AbstractBackground/Aims: Familial juvenile gouty nephropathy (FJGN, MIM 162000) is an autosomal-dominant renal disease characterized by underexcretion-type hyperuricemia, gouty arthritis, and progressive renal disease at younger ages. We analyzed the localization of the responsible gene for FJGN concerning the chromosomal region of 16p12 using parametric linkage analysis in our FJGN. Methods: The affected members of this family were accompanied with polyuria due to nephrogenic diabetes insipidus and without hypertension. Fifteen samples were collected from 9 affected and 6 nonaffected members of the family. By using microsatellite markers mainly focused on the short arm of chromosome 16, two point and multipoint linkage analyses were carried out. Results: All of the 2-point logarithm of odds (LOD) scores were typically negative and all of the multipoint LOD scores were less than –3.0 in our FJGN family. Conclusion: The results suggested that the localization of the responsible gene to 16p12 can be excluded in our FJGN family. This finding means that the responsible gene for FJGN is not common.Copyright © 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

The effect of Sairei-to, an oriental traditional medicine, against gentamicin nephrotoxicity was examined in gentamicin nephrotoxicity rat models. Gentamicin nephrotoxicity was induced by s. c. injection of gentamicin (100 mg/kg/day, for 3 days) in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Renal functions of two rat groups were compared, one eating rat chow containing 2.5% Sairei-to, the other eating normal rat chow. Sairei-to administration reduced the increase of urinary N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) and protein excretion, and decreased creatinine clearance induced by gentamicin. Gentamicin increased renal cortical malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration in normal diet group but not in the Sairei-to diet group. The renal cortical gentamicin concentration was not different between the two groups. In conclusion, Sairei-to shows reno-protective action against gentamicin nephrotoxicity, possibly through its anti-oxidant action.