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A characteristic feature of cellulose is crystal polymorphism. Among the cellulose allomorphs, cellulose IVII has been the most time-consuming and energy-intensive one to prepare from native cellulose with a cellulose I structure. In this work, we report a facile preparation method of cellulose IVII by regeneration from an ionic liquid (IL) solution. Although regeneration from arbitrary IL solutions is known to produce only cellulose II and amorphous cellulose, we found that appropriate selections of regeneration temperature (373 K), IL structure (dimethylphosphate anion paired with imidazolium cation), and cellulose concentration (5 mol%) induced the formation of cellulose IVII. With the optimal conditions, cellulose IV with crystallinity of 31% was obtained without contamination of other cellulose allomorphs. Wide angle X-ray scattering and 13C solid-state NMR measurements on cellulose/IL mixtures demonstrated that the cations and anions were rather ordered and the gt conformer of cellulose was preferred at a high temperature, which would be relevant for the formation of cellulose IVII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The genetic variants of NUDT15 have been verified to induce adverse events (AEs) of thiopurines. Codon 139 variants are frequently observed in Asians, while multiple variants are seen in codon 18 which also cause AEs including the European ancestry. The purpose of this study is to establish a technique capable of the simple genotyping of NUDT15 codon 18 and to evaluate its efficacy.Methods: A high-resolution melt (HRM) technique is performed to simply determine genotypes. The accuracy of HRM analysis was evaluated with DNAs from 1245 Japanese patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. Subsequently, another group of 572 patients was analyzed to verify the method. The diplotypes and the frequency of their AEs were estimated on the basis of codon 18 and 139 genotypes.Results: The HRM analysis enabled the correct identification of the three main genotypes, ref/ref, ref/ins, and ref/V18I, in 1236 of 1241 cases. All rare genotypes including ref/del were identified as the impossible-to-determine group, the proper diagnosis rate was 99.6%. In the verification test using other samples, the diagnosis rate was 99.7%. By estimating diplotypes using both codon 18 and 139 genotypes, 2.74% and 2.13% of Japanese patients with Arg/Arg and Arg/Cys of codon 139 have a lower enzymatic activity of NUDT15 and a higher risk for adverse responses than those estimated by codon 139 genotypes alone.Conclusions: Our study showed that HRM method enables simple genotyping of complicated codon 18 variants essential to haplotype estimation of the NUDT15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Genome-wide association studies [GWASs] of European populations have identified numerous susceptibility loci for Crohn's disease [CD]. Susceptibility genes differ by ethnicity, however, so GWASs specific for Asian populations are required. This study aimed to clarify the Japanese-specific genetic background for CD by a GWAS using the Japonica array [JPA] and subsequent imputation with the 1KJPN reference panel. Methods Two independent Japanese case/control sets (Tohoku region [379 CD patients, 1621 controls] and Kyushu region [334 CD patients, 462 controls]) were included. GWASs were performed separately for each population, followed by a meta-analysis. Two additional replication sets [254 + 516 CD patients and 287 + 565 controls] were analysed for top hit single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] from novel genomic regions. Results Genotype data of 4 335 144 SNPs from 713 Japanese CD patients and 2083 controls were analysed. SNPs located in TNFSF15 (rs78898421, Pmeta = 2.59 × 10−26, odds ratio [OR] = 2.10), HLA-DQB1 [rs184950714, p meta = 3.56 × 10−19, OR = 2.05], ZNF365, and 4p14 loci were significantly associated with CD in Japanese individuals. Replication analyses were performed for four novel candidate loci [ p <1 × 10−6], and rs488200 located upstream of RAP1A was significantly associated with CD [ p combined = 4.36 × 10−8, OR = 1.31]. Transcriptome analysis of CD4+ effector memory T cells from lamina propria mononuclear cells of CD patients revealed a significant association of rs488200 with RAP1A expression. Conclusions RAP1A is a novel susceptibility locus for CD in the Japanese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This was a case of a woman in her 60s with the chief complaint of an abnormal stomach X-ray at the screening. Although suspected to be scirrhous gastric cancer, gastric biopsy revealed Group 1, and cytology in accumulated ascites and open surgery was initially Class II, but cancer cells in the ascites were confirmed for the first time by subsequent immunostaining using the cell transfer technique. Undifferentiated advanced gastric cancer, peritoneal dissemination, and lymphatic metastasis were pathologically observed. This case suggests the effectiveness of immunostaining when the results of ascites cytology are different from the clinical picture.

Backgrounds and Aims: Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) have been widely used as a blood access route for total parenteral nutrition (TPN) in recent years. However, there have been few reports that evaluated the usefulness of PICC for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this study, we compared the clinical courses in patients with IBD who received TPN during their hospitalization by conventional central venous catheters (CVC) and PICC., Patients and Methods: A total of 137 IBD patients were enrolled. The CVC group and the PICC group included 56 and 81 patients, respectively. The clinical courses in both groups were compared retrospectively., Results: As a complication of the puncture, pneumothorax occurred in two patients (3.6%) in the CVC group, but in none (0%) in the PICC group. The PICC group had significantly higher rates of achieving the scheduled TPN without removing the catheter, lower rates of catheter-related blood stream infection (CRBSI) and longer periods without CRBSI than the CVC group., Conclusion: PICC might be more useful than CVC in terms of safety and the ability to deliver scheduled TPN for IBD patients.