Human Leukocyte Elastase-Like Proteinase Purified by Affinity Chromatography with Suc-L-Tyr-D-Leu-D-Val-pNA, and Its Identification with Human Spleen Fibrinolytic Proteinase

Elastase-like proteinase (ELP) extracted with 2 M NaClO4 from human leukocytes was purified by a new affinity chromatography technique with Suc-L-Tyr-D-Leu-D-Val-pNA, following delipidation, salting out and Sephadex gel chromatography. The purified preparation contained practically no chymotrypsin-like proteinase activity, and it was homogeneous on SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The enzyme so purified readily degraded fibrin, fibrinogen, elastin and -Val type synthetic peptide substrates, such as Suc-L-Ala-L-Tyr-L-Leu-L-Val-pNA and Suc-L-Tyr-L-Leu-L-Val-pNA. A special increase in ELP activity by adding chaotropic ions was observed. The enzymatic properties of the ELP were very similar to those of spleen fibrinolytic proteinase (SFP). ELP and SFP were identified immunologically using mice antisera against purified ELP.

A multi-emitter fitting algorithm for potential live cell super-resolution imaging over a wide range of molecular densities

Multi-emitter fitting algorithms have been developed to improve the temporal resolution of single-molecule switching nanoscopy, but the molecular density range they can analyse is narrow and the computation required is intensive, significantly limiting their practical application. Here, we propose a computationally fast method, wedged template matching (WTM), an algorithm that uses a template matching technique to localise molecules at any overlapping molecular density from sparse to ultrahigh density with subdiffraction resolution. WTM achieves the localization of overlapping molecules at densities up to 600 molecules μm^-2 with a high detection sensitivity and fast computational speed. WTM also shows localization precision comparable with that of DAOSTORM (an algorithm for high-density super-resolution microscopy), at densities up to 20 molecules μm^-2 , and better than DAOSTORM at higher molecular densities. The application of WTM to a high-density biological sample image demonstrated that it resolved protein dynamics from live cell images with subdiffraction resolution and a temporal resolution of several hundred milliseconds or less through a significant reduction in the number of camera images required for a high-density reconstruction. WTM algorithm is a computationally fast, multi-emitter fitting algorithm that can analyse over a wide range of molecular densities. The algorithm is available through the website. https://doi.org/10.17632/bf3z6xpn5j.1.

Reduction of hyaluronan and increased expression of HYBID (alias CEMIP and KIAA1199) correlate with clinical symptoms in photoaged skin

BACKGROUND

Hyaluronan (HA) metabolism in skin fibroblasts is mediated by HYBID (hyaluronan binding protein involved in hyaluronan depolymerization, alias CEMIP and KIAA1199) and the HA synthases HAS1 and HAS2. However, photoageing-dependent changes in HA and their molecular mechanisms, and the relationship between HA metabolism and clinical symptoms in photoaged skin remain elusive.

OBJECTIVES

We examined the amount, size and tissue distribution of HA and expression levels of HYBID, HAS1 and HAS2 in photoaged skin, and analysed their relationship with the degree of photoageing.

METHODS

Photoageing-dependent changes of HA were investigated by studying skin biopsies isolated from photoprotected and photoexposed areas of the same donors, and the relationships between HA and photoageing symptoms such as skin wrinkling and sagging were examined.

RESULTS

Skin biopsy specimens showed that the amount and size of HA are decreased in photoexposed skin compared with photoprotected skin, and this was accompanied by increased expression of HYBID and decreased expression of HAS1 and HAS2. Histologically, HA staining in the papillary dermis was decreased in photoexposed skin, showing reverse correlation with HYBID expression. HYBID expression in the photoexposed skin directly correlated with skin roughness and sagging parameters, and the reduced HA staining in the papillary dermis in the photoexposed skin positively correlated with these symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

These data demonstrate that imbalance between HYBID-mediated HA degradation and HAS-mediated HA synthesis may contribute to enhanced HA catabolism in photoaged skin, and suggest that HYBID-mediated HA reduction in the papillary dermis is related to skin wrinkling and sagging of photoaged skin.

Relationship of hyaluronan and HYBID (KIAA1199) expression with roughness parameters of photoaged skin in Caucasian women

BACKGROUND

Hyaluronan (HA) is an important constituent of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the skin, and HA degradation mediated by HYBID (KIAA1199) is suggested to be implicated in facial skin wrinkling in Japanese women. Ethnic difference in skin wrinkle formation is known between Caucasian and Japanese women, but no information is available for the relations of HA and HYBID expression levels with skin wrinkling in Caucasian women.

METHODS

The skin surface roughness at the eye corner of the Caucasian female subjects was measured, and the skin specimens biopsied from the same areas were subjected to microarray gene analysis, HA staining, and immunohistochemistry for HYBID.

RESULTS

Among the ECM genes and those related to ECM metabolism, only HYBID expression levels positively correlated with the skin roughness parameters. When the skin sample groups with high expression of HYBID or low expression of HYBID were compared, the HA staining intensity and the ratio of HYBID-immunoreactive cells to total cells in the superficial dermis were significantly reduced and increased in the high-HYBID-expression group compared with the low-HYBID-expression group, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Our data suggest that like Japanese women, HYBID-mediated reduction of HA in the superficial dermis is involved in the formation of wrinkles in Caucasian women.

Status and Perspective of Hospital Information Systems in Japan

Questionnaire surveys were sent to hospital managers, designed to shape the policy for future hospital information systems in Japan. The answers show that many hospitals use dedicated management systems, especially for patient registration and accounting, and personnel, food control, pharmacy and financial departments. In many hospitals, order-entry systems for laboratory tests and prescriptions are well developed. Half of the hospitals have patient databases used for inquiries of basic patient information, history of outpatient care and hospital care. The most obvious benefit is the reduction of office work, due to effective hospital information system. Many hospital managers want to use the following sub systems in the future for automatic payment, waiting time display, patient records search, automatic prescription verification, drug side-effect monitoring, and graphical display of patient record data.

Cytotoxicity of Natural Killer Cells Activated Through NKG2D Contributes to the Development of Bronchiolitis Obliterans in a Murine Heterotopic Tracheal Transplant Model

Bronchiolitis obliterans after lung transplantation is a major cause of postoperative mortality in which T cell-mediated immunity is known to play an important role. However, the exact contribution of natural killer (NK) cells, which have functions similar to CD8⁺ T cells, has not been defined. Here, we assessed the role of NK cells in murine bronchiolitis obliterans through heterotopic tracheal transplantations and found a greater percentage of NK cells in allografts than in isografts. Depletion of NK cells using an anti-NK1.1 antibody attenuated bronchiolitis obliterans in transplant recipients compared with controls. In terms of NK cell effector functions, an improvement in bronchiolitis obliterans was observed in perforin-KO recipient mice compared to wild type (WT). Furthermore, we found upregulation of NKG2D-ligand in allografts and demonstrated the significance of this using grafts expressing Rae-1, a murine NKG2D-ligand, which induced severe bronchiolitis obliterans in WT and Rag-1 KO recipients. This effect was ameliorated by injection of anti-NKG2D blocking antibody. Together, these results suggest that cytotoxicity resulting from activation of NK cells through NKG2D leads to the development of murine bronchiolitis obliterans.

Cerebellar transcranial static magnetic field stimulation transiently reduces cerebellar brain inhibition

The aim of this study was to investigate whether transcranial static magnetic field stimulation (tSMS) delivered using a compact cylindrical NdFeB magnet over the cerebellum modulates the excitability of the cerebellum and contralateral primary motor cortex, as measured using cerebellar brain inhibition (CBI), motor evoked potentials (MEPs), and resting motor threshold (rMT). These parameters were measured before tSMS or sham stimulation and immediately, 5 minutes and 10 minutes after stimulation. There were no significant changes in CBI, MEPs or rMT over time in the sham stimulation condition, and no changes in MEPs or rMT in the tSMS condition. However, CBI was significantly decreased immediately after tSMS as compared to that before and 5 minutes after tSMS. Our results suggest that tSMS delivered to the cerebellar hemisphere transiently reduces cerebellar inhibitory output but does not affect the excitability of the contralateral motor cortex.

Association of NOD2 Mutations with Aggressive Periodontitis

Aggressive periodontitis (AgP) is characterized by rapid alveolar bone destruction and tooth loss early in life, and its etiology remains unclear. To explore the genetic risk factors of AgP, we performed genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping for identity-by-descent mapping and identified 32 distinct candidate loci, followed by whole exome sequencing with 2 pedigrees of AgP consisting of 3 cases and 1 control in 1 family and 2 sibling cases in the other. After variant filtering procedures and validation by targeted Sanger sequencing, we identified 2 missense mutations at 16q12 in NOD2 (p.Ala110Thr and p.Arg311Trp), which encodes nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain protein 2. We further examined 94 genetically unrelated AgP patients by targeted sequencing of NOD2 and found that 2 patients among them also carried the p.Arg311Trp variant. Furthermore, we found 3 additional missense mutations in this gene (p.His370Tyr, p.Arg459Cys, and p.Ala868Thr). These mutations either had not been previously observed or are extremely rare (frequency <0.001) in Asian populations. NOD2 plays a crucial role in innate immunity as an intracellular receptor initiating nuclear factor κB-dependent and mitogen-activated protein kinase-dependent gene transcription. These results demonstrated NOD2 as a novel gene involved in AgP.