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Abstract Background Malignant gliomas exhibit rapid tumor progression and resistance to treatment, leading to high lethality. One of the causes is the reduced progression of apoptosis in glioma cells. Layilin is a type 1 transmembrane protein with a C-type lectin motif in its extracellular domain. We previously reported that layilin is mainly localized to mitochondria or their close proximity and that layilin is essential for maintaining of the fragmented type of mitochondria. This study investigates the effects of layilin on mitochondria-mediated apoptosis, focusing on B cell lymphoma (BCL)-2 family proteins in a glioma cell line of A172 cells. Results We compared the levels of pro-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins of BAD, BAK, BAX, and BIM and anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins of BCL-2 and BCL-XL between layilin- knockdown (KD) cells and control cells using western blot. The protein levels of BAD were significantly smaller in layilin-KD cells than in control cells, while those of BCL-2 were significantly larger. We then compared the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) under p-trifluoromethoxyphenyl hydrazone (FCCP)-treated conditions using MT-1 staining. In layilin-KD cells, ΔΨm was significantly larger and FCCP-induced ΔΨm reduction was significantly lower than in control cells. Furthermore, we examined the levels of cell membrane-bound Annexin V and DNA-bound propidium idodide (PI) in layilin-KD cells with/without staurosporine (STS) treatment. Layilin-KD significantly decreased levels of cell membrane-bound Annexin V with/without STS treatment. On the other hand, PI levels were not changed by layilin-KD. We also investigated the amounts of the active caspase (CASP)-3, CASP-6, CASP-7, and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP1, cleaved form), as well as DNA fragmentation in layilin-KD cells under apoptotic conditions induced by STS, using western blot and the DNA ladder method, respectively. Under STS-treated conditions, the amounts of active CASP-3, CASP-7, and poly (ADP-ribose) PARP1 were significantly smaller in layilin-KD cells than in control cells. Accordingly, DNA fragmentation was significantly suppressed in layilin-KD cells compared to control cells under STS-treated conditions. Conclusion This study demonstrates that layilin contributes to ΔΨm reduction to promote apoptosis by up-regulating BAD and down-regulating BCL-2 in glioma cells. Our data elucidates a new function of layilin: regulation of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis.

Introduction: Finegoldia magna is a member of the Gram-positive anaerobic cocci group and constitutes the flora of the skin and other parts of the body. It sometimes colonizes diabetic foot and rarely infects skin or soft tissue of non-immunocompromised patients. Case Presentation: Here, we report the case of a severe subcutaneous abscess on the back caused by F. magna involving an immunocompromised patient with poorly controlled diabetes. A 48-year-old woman with diabetes mellitus and anemia associated with uterine fibroids was referred to us with a 1-month history of a skin manifestation on her back, with a body temperature of 35.9°C and blood pressure of 115/73 mm Hg. The manifestation involved a subcutaneous mass of 36 × 45 cm with a foul odor, partly covered with necrotic tissue, which had the appearance of a tortoiseshell-like pattern. Blood examination revealed C-reactive protein of 21.4 mg/dL and hemoglobin A1c of 9.1%. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography showed a subcutaneous abscess with internal emphysema. Emergency debridement was performed, resulting in drainage of foul-smelling gray-green pus. F. magna was detected in the pus and skin tissue. Conclusion: Skin and soft tissue infectious disease caused by F. magna is extremely rare, but the disease tends to become severe once developing in an immunocompromised patient, such as a patient with poorly controlled diabetes. Therefore, physicians should consider F. magna as a causative agent when poorly controlled diabetic patients suffer from severe infectious cutaneous manifestations.

Abstract Plasma β-amyloid (Aβ) assays are a promising tool for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis in clinical practice. To obtain reliable results, establishing an appropriate sample-handling procedure for each analytical platform is warranted. This study proposes an appropriate sample-handling procedure using HISCL analyzer by elucidating the individual/combined effects of pre-analytical parameters on plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 levels. We investigated the effects of various pre-analytical parameters, including storage times for whole blood, plasma, and freezing conditions, on plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 levels, and confirmed if these values met the acceptable criteria. Plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 levels were acceptable in all conditions. We determined our protocol by confirming that plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 levels remained acceptable when combining pre-analytical parameters. We established an appropriate sample-handling protocol that ensures reliable measurement of plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 levels using HISCL analyzer. We believe the Aβ assay, with our protocol, shows promise for aiding AD diagnosis in clinical settings.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Amid rising health awareness, natural products which has milder effects than medical drugs are becoming popular. However, only few systems can quantitatively assess their impact on living organisms. Therefore, we developed a deep-learning system to automate the counting of cells in a gerbil model, aiming to assess a natural product’s effectiveness against ischemia. Methods: The image acquired from paraffin blocks containing gerbil brains was analyzed by a deep-learning model (fine-tuned Detectron2). Results: The counting system achieved a 79%-positive predictive value and 85%-sensitivity when visual judgment by an expert was used as ground truth. Conclusions: Our system evaluated hydrogen water’s potential against ischemia and found it potentially useful, which is consistent with expert assessment. Due to natural product’s milder effects, large data sets are needed for evaluation, making manual measurement labor-intensive. Hence, our system offers a promising new approach for evaluating natural products.

Introduction: The comprehensive complication index (CCI), which weights all postoperative complications according to severity and integrates them into a single formula, has been reported as a new evaluation system. We aimed to compare the CCI with the Clavien‒Dindo Classification (CDC) to patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods: Patients who underwent initial surgery for UC from April 2012 to March 2020 were included. The patients were classified into a length of stay (LOS) >30 days group or an LOS ≤30 days group. We performed a multivariate analysis of risk factors for LOS >30 days in the model with the factors identified in the univariate analysis plus the CCI (the CCI model) and plus CDC (the CDC model). An ROC curve was used to test the difference in the area under the curve (AUC) between the CCI model and the CDC model. Results: The median LOS was 21 days (IQR: 16-29 days), and the rate of LOS >30 days was 119/588 (20.2%). In the CCI model, age at the time of surgery (OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.07-1.45, p=0.01), ASA score ≥3 (OR=1.94, 95% CI 1.00-3.76, p=0.04), and CCI (OR=1.07, 95% CI 1.05-1.09; p30 days. The AUC value of the CCI model (0.86) was significantly better in relation to LOS > 30 days than that of the CDC model (0.82) (p =0.02). Conclusion: The CCI was a better measure of LOS than was the CDC and was found to be a useful indicator in UC.

Passive dynamic locomotion occurs through the interaction of an object’s dynamics and the ground, using no actuators, sensors, or controls. Passive dynamics is important for exploring the principles of human and animal locomotion. An important characteristic is that there might be a stable limit cycle for passive dynamic locomotion. Expression of stable limit cycles in passive bipedal walking, bipedal running, and quadrupedal running has been confirmed. However, studies conducted to date have characterized passive monopedal hopping as unstable. We investigated the dynamic stability of the passive monopedal hopping without torso pitch. Numerical simulation revealed that the passive monopedal hopping examined in this study has a stable limit cycle. Moreover, both theoretical analysis and simulation results suggest that asymptotically stable fixed points of the 1-PDH model are related closely to the leg spring damping ratio and the hopping period. Results show that the 1-PDH model has high stability with respect to steps. Additionally, findings indicate that changes in leg spring stiffness cause changes in forward velocity during stable hopping with no feedback control.

In this paper, we propose a double air chambers artificial muscle to eliminate the hysteresis in the extension and contraction movement of pneumatic artificial muscles. In this paper, the basic structure of the double air chambers artificial muscle is a rubberless artificial muscle with a particularly large hysteresis loop. The double air chambers artificial muscle aims to eliminate hysteresis by directly pressurizing the inside and outside of the air chamber and actively deforming the air chamber. The hysteresis is reduced by the pressure outside of the air chamber (external pressure). Since the appropriate external pressure varies depending on the contraction force and amount of contraction, we proposed a method to regulate the appropriate external pressure by feedback control. The experimental results show that hysteresis was eliminated in the static characteristics. It was also found that the output gain decreased, and the phase lag increased as the target frequency increased. The output gain did not change with increasing load. The phase lag tended to improve with the PID controller compared to the PI controller. These results suggest that the combination of double air chambers artificial muscle and external pressure-regulated feedback control can achieve non-hysteresis position control, and it is useful as an actuator in mechatronic systems.

Ants are known to show diverse mating behaviors across different species, but detailed reports on such behaviors are limited to only 0.7% of ant species. Therefore, we report on the mating behavior of the alate females and males in the small carpenter ant, Camponotus yamaokai. Its process was classified into two phases: mating attempt, and copulation. Out of 53 pairs we observed, 23 pairs engaged in a total of 36 mating attempts. The mating attempt durations in cases where copulation failed were significantly longer than those leading to copulation. Among these attempts, copulation was observed 10 times in 9 pairs, including multiple mating in one pair. The copulation lasted for 24.0 ± 5.1 seconds (mean ± SD). At the end of copulation, males pulled out their genitalia quickly to avoid potential attacks from the females. This behavior might be a strategy of males to minimize the risk of mortality during a single mating and support them to engage in multiple mating.