[Effects of global climate change on Japanese cedar pollen concentration in air--estimated results obtained from Yamagata City and its surrounding area]

The effects of global warming on Japanese cedar pollen concentration in air were examined. There was a significant increase in total pollen count in years where small or average values of pollen dispersion were observed and where summertime temperatures were postulated to have risen from 2 to 5 degrees C. There were no remarkable differences in total pollen count in years where large values of pollen dispersion were observed. On the other hand, a drastic decrease in total pollen count was expected when summertime temperatures were postulated to have dropped from 2 to 5 degrees C. A major factor controlled the value of total pollen count was examined by use of a simulation method of airborne Cryptomeria japonica pollen. The values of total pollen count mainly controlled by the amount of male flower at basins and in Japanese cedar forested areas, and the manner in which plains isolated from pollen sources are considered in part to be subjected to meteorological conditions. The difference of initiation time of the pollen season has no great influence on the values of total pollen count.

[Pollen information of airborne Japanese cedar pollen using a simulation method]

We have developed a simulation method of airborne Cryptomeria japonica pollen distribution on a map displayed visually on a TV screen. Each patient can be available the information where the place he or she lives. The pollen season in 1995, we served the information about airborne pollen distribution on a map and C. japonica flowering areas on a map to a local resident through TV broadcasting. To verify the simulation method, comparison was made between the result from actual pollen counting and from simulation. It was clarified that both results were comparatively agreed on daily basis. Problem about compatibility among personal computers were solved to rewrite the program of displaying the image using Visual Basic for MS-Windows and create image files. The files can be read continuously by animation software. We think the information can be offered to local resident, local clinicians and patients waiting at the clinics by use of computer networks.

Actin-actin contact: chemical cross-linking between actin and the 2.6-kDa peptide from subdomain 4 of actin

Previously, we demonstrated that the 2.6-kDa peptide extending from Arg177 to Tyr198 in subdomain 4 of rabbit skeletal actin bound to actin itself, inhibited the elongation of actin filament, and severed F-actin. The corresponding segment in actin, therefore, is thought to contain the most critical actin-actin contact [Hori, K. and Morita, F. (1992) J. Biochem. 112, 401-408; Hori, K., Itoh, T., Takahashi, K., and Morita, F. (1994) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1186, 35-42]. In this paper, we report on the binding site in actin for the 2.6-kDa peptide studied by using a zero-length cross-linker, 1-ethyl-3(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC). We conducted limited digestion of actin cross-linked with the 125I-labeled 2.6-kDa peptide with various proteases, and developed peptide maps. The cross-linked region of the 2.6-kDa peptide was found to be within the region of Ala114 to Glu167 in actin by identifying the radioactive peptide fragments. The region was further restricted by isolation of radioactive peptide from alpha-chymotryptic digest of the cross-linked actin. The binding site of the 2.6-kDa peptide was finally assigned to be within the 24 amino acid segment from Ala144 to Glu167, which lies in subdomain 3 of actin. Using computer graphics, actin-actin contact provided by the two segments was suggested to be along the left-handed genetic helix of actin filament.

[An attempt of applying the image processing for the automatic estimation of sampled airborne pollen]

Development of techniques to rapidly and easily estimate an airborne pollen quantity is necessitated in order to make out a appropriate prescription for an allergy patient from medical clinical viewpoints, and in order to research a movement of allergen from medical basic viewpoint. The measurement of airborne pollen quantity required a large labour and time, because the amount of pollen grains is visually measured by naked eye. This paper, as a first step to estimate an airborne pollen quantity full-automatically, discuss techniques to measure the quantity of sampled airborne cedar pollen automatically and rapidly using the image processing techniques. As a result, the following facts are cleared. Automatic measurement is possible to some degree without any special image processing. It is important to eliminate a noise on image as blurs on basefilm for high accuracy measurement. The precision has improved fairly with level correction for image. Sharpening filter is the most appropriate process to improve the accuracy of automatic measurement of sampled airborne pollen. This filtering process has a merit that the operativeness is easy.

Diverse incidences of individual oligopeptides (dipeptidic to hexapeptidic) in proteins of human, bakers' yeast, and Escherichia coli origin registered in the Swiss-Prot data base

Oligopeptidic permutations of the 20 amino acid residues give rise to proteins of diverse functions. Our long-term goal is to produce a lexicon of oligopeptides, classifying them into at least five categories: (i) ubiquitous, (ii) function specific, (iii) group specific, (iv) species specific, and (v) nonexistent. To begin with, we report on the varying frequencies of individual oligopeptides (dipeptidic to hexapeptidic in length) found among 2862 human proteins, 1942 Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteins, and 2672 Escherichia coli proteins registered in the Swiss-Prot data base (version 29.0, released in June 1994). At all lengths (dipeptides to hexapeptides), homooligopeptides were very prominent among the most frequently occurring varieties in proteins of human and bakers' yeast origins. However, this was not the case with E. coli. While all of the expected 20(3) varieties of tripeptides were found among human proteins, three tripeptides (Cys-Cys-Trp, Trp-Trp-Cys, and Trp-Trp-His) were missing from the bakers' yeast proteins. Three tripeptides (Cys-Ile-Trp, Cys-Met-Tyr, and Cys-Trp-Trp) were also absent from E. coli proteins. Inasmuch as the Swiss-Prot data base already contained 67% of the expected total of 4000 E. coli proteins, it is virtually certain that 96,000 varieties of hexapeptides containing at least one or another of the three missing tripeptides noted above shall be nonexistent in E. coli. Furthermore, the observation of missing tripeptides in the bakers' yeast proteins suggests that nonexistent hexapeptides shall be highly phylum specific. Because of the sample size, only a small fraction of the 20(6) varieties of hexapeptides were expected to be encountered in the present survey. Indeed, only 1.2-1.5% of the possible hexapeptides were found, and the average copy number of observed hexapeptides varied between 1.06 and 1.25. Nevertheless, 33 varieties of hexapeptides occurred in 102-169 copies among human proteins. Furthermore, 15 of the 33 varieties contained such rarely used residues as Tyr, His, Cys, and Trp.

Analgesia induced by manual acupuncture: its potency and implication

In urethan-anesthetized rats, unitary discharges of wide dynamic range (WDR) neurons were extracellularly recorded from the lumber cord. Repetitive electrical shocks were delivered through needle electrodes in the receptive field with sufficient strength to activate C fibers. The number of evoked discharges was compared before and after application of manual acupuncture to the LI 4 Hegu [symbol: see text] or ST 36 Zusanli [symbol: see text] for 30 seconds. The effects of acupuncture were followed up to 5 minutes after removal of the acupuncture needle. Two different analgesic effects were observed: acupuncture to the LI 4 Hegu resulted in long-lasting inhibition following insertion of the needles and stimulation of the ST36 Zusanli produced short-term and long-lasting inhibition similar to that seen in acupuncture to the LI 4 Hegu.

[Three-dimensional analysis of maxillary alveolar process in bilateral cleft lip and palate patients]

The collapsed maxillary alveolar arch in bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP) patients was quantitatively evaluated by three dimensional analysis. Materials were consisted of alveolar models taken from 15 Japanese boys (11 years old) with BCLP. The findings obtained were as follows: 1. Examination of the alveolar displacement in individual BCLP patients disclosed a marked tendency of inward and upward displacement of the lateral segments. On the other hand, premaxilla showed an upward displacement in the vertical dimension with a great deal of variation in the amount and direction of horizontal displacement. 2. Concerning the average amount of horizontal displacement, the premaxilla showed relatively little, but the lateral segment, especially the left one, showed a considerably large amount. In the vertical dimension, both the premaxilla and lateral segment were displaced markedly upward. 3. Patterns of collapsed alveolar arch in BCLP patients were classified according to the amount of horizontal displacement of the premaxilla into the following 4 types; type A (larger displacement towards the inside), type B (moderate or smaller displacement towards the inside), type C (moderate or smaller displacement towards the outside) and type D (larger displacement towards the outside). The order of prevalence of these 4 types was B,C,A,D in order. On the other hand, in the vertical dimension, the direction of displacement of the premaxilla was upward in all patients. 4. The anterior edge of the lateral segments showed the largest amount of displacement both in the horizontal and vertical dimensions. In a comparison of these results with those of Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate (UCLP), the total amount of horizontal displacement of the maxillary alveolar process was larger in UCLP, while the vertical one was larger in BCLP. A remarkable difference between BCLP and UCLP was found in the displacement of the anterior region due to the premaxilla in BCLP.

Subcellular fate of protein antibiotic neocarzinostatin in culture of a lymphoid cell line from Burkitt's lymphoma

14C-LABELED PROTEIN ANTIBIOTIC NEOCARZINOSTATIN (NCS) was prepared efficiently by chemical modification. With the use of lymphoma-derived cell line P3HR-1, the subcellular behavior of this antitumor antibiotic was studied by the uptake a. nd autoradiography of isolated nuclei of radioactive NCS. The antibiotic was taken up by the cells, reaching the maximum value at 1.5 hr and decreasing in value at 4.0 hr to the level at 0.5 hr. The silver grains in the autoradiograms were also found in the isolated nuclei. The grain count in the nuclei showed a tendency similar to the uptake of NCS by the whole cells, i.e., a gradual increase at 0.5 hr, reaching the maximum value at 1.5 hr, and then decreasing after 4.0 hr to the level at 0.5 hr. These facts indicated that NCS reached not only to cytosol but also into the nucleus, and/or at least to the nuclear membrane of the lymphoid cell. The number of NCS molecules incorporated into the cells at 1.5 hr was calculated to be about 1 x 10-6/cells at a concentration of 3 mug NCS per ml of medium, which can be extrapolated to 1 x 10-4 molecules per cell at the minimum inhibitory concentration. The number of molecules should be even less within the nucleus. In cell-free systems, the interaction of DNA and NCS, which is an inhibitor of DNA synthesis, was investigated with use of a Sephadex G-100 column, with negative results. In the cell culture system, NCS molecules were degraded into smaller polypeptides of certain sizes by proteolysis either by serum component(s) or by cells themselves. An inactive isomer, pre-NCS, which is an antagonist of NCS and a partially denatured homologous molecule, behaved similarly to NCS in all of these experiments. Because the chemically modified NCS used in this study retained biological activity essentially similar to that of parental NCS, the results obtained here could be interpreted as similar to those of parental NCS in vitro.