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Autophagy is a cellular mechanism involved in the bulk degradation of proteins and turnover of organelle. Several studies have shown the significance of autophagy of the renal tubular epithelium in rodent models of tubulointerstitial disorder. However, the role of autophagy in the regulation of human glomerular diseases is largely unknown. The current study aimed to demonstrate morphological evidence of autophagy and its association with the ultrastructural changes of podocytes and clinical data in patients with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, a disease in which patients exhibit podocyte injury. The study population included 95 patients, including patients with glomerular disease (minimal change nephrotic syndrome [MCNS], n = 41; idiopathic membranous nephropathy [IMN], n = 37) and 17 control subjects who underwent percutaneous renal biopsy. The number of autophagic vacuoles and the grade of foot process effacement (FPE) in podocytes were examined by electron microscopy (EM). The relationships among the expression of autophagic vacuoles, the grade of FPE, and the clinical data were determined. Autophagic vacuoles were mainly detected in podocytes by EM. The microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3)-positive area was co-localized with the Wilms tumor 1 (WT1)-positive area on immunofluorescence microscopy, which suggested that autophagy occurred in the podocytes of patients with MCNS. The number of autophagic vacuoles in the podocytes was significantly correlated with the podocyte FPE score (r = -0.443, p = 0.004), the amount of proteinuria (r = 0.334, p = 0.033), and the level of serum albumin (r = -0.317, p = 0.043) in patients with MCNS. The FPE score was a significant determinant for autophagy after adjusting for the age in a multiple regression analysis in MCNS patients (p = 0.0456). However, such correlations were not observed in patients with IMN or in control subjects. In conclusion, the results indicated that the autophagy of podocytes is associated with FPE and severe proteinuria in patients with MCNS. The mechanisms underlying the activation of autophagy in association with FPE in podocytes should be further investigated in order to elucidate the pathophysiology of MCNS.

The authors experienced a case (Mr. T) with right hemisphere infarction. After he came to understand his disease, he changed his behavior; he reflected on his past conduct, had the consciousness to face his disease, improved his daily life. He talked about his past behavior as the cause of cognitive impairment. Mr. T reviewed his past behaviors before the hospital visit, saying “I can fully understand the way I am by considering my disease and myself separately.” Furthermore, as his living activities changed, the right frontal cerebral blood flow also improved. Early diagnosis is not necessarily accepted negatively by patients and their family. When an early diagnosis is made with an explanation of the disease, the patient may reflect on their past conduct, leading to changes in their living activities. In our case, it was fortunate that there were no problems.

3D printing technologies with cementitious materials have advanced dramatically in recent years. Likewise, we have also developed suitable materials with high thixotropy for layered extrusion and the gantry 3D-printing system, dealing with discontinuous geometry and multi-productions simultaneously. In this way, there have been a lot of studies particularly on material properties and printing processes so far. However, few studies have conducted structural performance testing on a large scale in a systematic manner. Hence, this structural concern is focused on and tackled in this study. The developed materials and printing system are used for the following experiments. As a preliminary test, specific characteristics such as anisotropy and creep of a layer-by-layer component are investigated for a structural design in addition to basic fresh and hardened properties. After the rational geometry is determined by topology optimization analysis, in which a practical scale pedestrian bridge under sidewalk loading is designed, its structural performance is evaluated for safety based on FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis, while considering the preliminary tests. The designed bridge structure consists of 44 segments with different complex shapes, which are printed separately, and all the segments are unified as a compression loaded structure through prestressed external reinforcement. Finally, it is confirmed whether the inherent behavior due to the laminar structure is observable in the full-scale bending test.

PR6-1 Study on Efficient Use of Positron Moderation Materials /A. Kinomura et al. (29P6-1) [25], PR6-2 Electron-Irradiation Effects on Diffusion Coefficient of Cu in Fe Studied by Three Dimensional Atom Probe /T. Toyama et al. (29P6-2) [26], PR6-3 Change in Positron Annihilation Lifetime of Vacancies by Hydrogen Charging in Tungsten /K. Sato et al. (29P6-3) [27], PR6-4 Gamma-ray Irradiation Effect on ZnO Bulk Single Crystal /K. Kuriyama et al. (29P6-4) [28], PR6-5 Establishment of Technique for Thermal Diffusivity Measurement using TEM Disk Size Miniature Test Specimens for Post-irradiation Experiments /M. Akiyoshi et al. (29P6-5) [29], PR6-6 Positron Annihilation Study of Fe-Cr binary alloy after Electron Irradiation /T. Onitsuka et al. (29P6-6) [30], PR6-7 Study on Free Volume in Diamond-like Carbon Thin Films by Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy /K. Kanda et al. (29P6-7) [31], PR6-8 Thermal Stability of Diamond-like Carbon Films /S. Nakao et al. (29P6-8) [32], In case that corrections are made, an errata will be provided in the following webpage: https://www.rri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/PUB/report/PR/ProgRep2017/ProgRep2017.html

Deficiency of X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 3 (XRCC3), a DNA-damage repair molecule, and the 241Met variant of XRCC3 have been reported to increase endoreduplication, which induces polyploidy. The aims of this study were to determine the impact of the XRCC3 polymorphism on the incidence of hypertension-induced left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and to investigate the mechanisms underlying any potential relationship. Patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis (n = 77) were genotyped to assess for the XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism. The XRCC3 241Thr/Met genotype was more frequent in the LVH (+) group than in the LVH (-) group (42.3 vs. 13.7%, χ2 = 7.85, p = 0.0051). To investigate possible mechanisms underlying these observations, human XRCC3 cDNA of 241Thr or that of 241Met was introduced into cultured CHO cells. The surface area of CHO cells expressing XRCC3 241Met was larger than that expressing 241Thr. Spontaneous DNA double-strand breaks accumulated to a greater degree in NIH3T3 cells expressing 241Met (3T3-241Met) than in those expressing 241Thr (3T3-241Thr). DNA damage caused by radiation induced cell senescence more frequently in 3T3-241Met. The levels of basal and TNF-α-stimulated MCP-1 mRNA and protein secretion were higher in 3T3-241Met. Finally, FACS analysis revealed that the cell percentage in G2/M phase including polyploidy was significantly higher in 3T3-241Met than in 3T3-241Thr. Furthermore, the basal level of MCP-1 mRNA positively correlated with the cell percentage in G2/M phase and polyploidy. These data suggest that the XRCC3 241Met increases the risk of LVH via accumulation of DNA damage, thereby altering cell cycle progression and inducing cell senescence and a proinflammatory phenotype.

We report the origin of low resistivity in ZnO bulk single crystals with thicknesses of 500 μm caused by gamma-ray irradiation. The crystals are irradiated at room temperature with gamma-rays of 1.17–1.33 MeV from a cobalt-60 source. The gamma-ray dose is 170 kGy. The resistivity at room temperature decreases from 4.1 × 104 Ω cm to 3.1 × 102 Ω cm by the irradiation. After the irradiation, slight increase in green luminescence at around 530 nm is observed, suggesting that zinc vacancy (VZn), oxygen vacancy (VO) and oxygen interstitial (Oi) are induced by Compton electrons emitted by the gamma-ray irradiation because this PL peak is a superposition consisting of the emissions relating to the VZn (∼490 nm), VO (∼530 nm), and Oi (∼580 nm). The PL intensity of VO is eight times larger than that of VZn. The existence of VO+ (g value is 1.996) is also observed by the electron paramagnetic resonance. This signal disappears by illuminating red LED with a wavelength of 654 nm, indicating VO+ to VO2+ transition. The existence of VZn would suggest the formation of zinc interstitial (Zni). In analogy with the low resistivity after Al-implanted ZnO, the origin of the low resistivity in gamma-ray irradiated ZnO is attributed to the Zni located at ∼30 meV below the conduction band.

Gamma-ray induced photo emission from ZnO is investigated for as-grown single crystal wafers at room temperature. The ZnO crystals are irradiated with gamma-ray of 1.17 and 1.33 MeV from a cobalt-60 source. The gamma-ray induced photo emission is analyzed by a charge coupled device equipped spectrometer using the optical fiber cable placed in front of ZnO. In the gamma-ray induced photo emission from as-grown ZnO wafers, the green luminescence (GL) is observed with a peak at around 580 nm in the spectrum around 420 nm–900 nm. The main GL peak is attributed to the singly ionized oxygen vacancy in the as-grown crystal. The emission intensity increases almost in proportion to the wafer thickness when the thickness of the single crystal wafer increases from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm, suggesting that the gamma-ray induced photo emission is generated in all parts of the crystal due to the strong penetration of gamma-rays. The emission intensity is about 1/60 of gamma-ray induced yellow luminescence from GaN single crystal wafers observed in our previous study [Appl. Phys. Lett. 118 (2021) 032106]. It is suggested that a part of the electrons in the singly ionized oxygen vacancies in ZnO are excited to the conduction band by the Compton electrons generated by the gamma-ray irradiation and oxygen vacancies become the doubly ionized states, reducing their contribution to GL.