Identification of human-induced changes in atmospheric moisture content

Data from the satellite-based Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) show that the total atmospheric moisture content over oceans has increased by 0.41 kg/m(2) per decade since 1988. Results from current climate models indicate that water vapor increases of this magnitude cannot be explained by climate noise alone. In a formal detection and attribution analysis using the pooled results from 22 different climate models, the simulated "fingerprint" pattern of anthropogenically caused changes in water vapor is identifiable with high statistical confidence in the SSM/I data. Experiments in which forcing factors are varied individually suggest that this fingerprint "match" is primarily due to human-caused increases in greenhouse gases and not to solar forcing or recovery from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Our findings provide preliminary evidence of an emerging anthropogenic signal in the moisture content of earth's atmosphere.

Application of chemical selective cleavage methods to analyze post-translational modification in proteins

Three chemical specific cleavage reactions, one for the carboxyl side of aspartyl peptide bonds, one for the carboxyl side of asparaginyl peptide bonds and another for the amino side of seryl/threonyl peptide bonds have been recently established. Additionally, these reactions simultaneously react on several post-translationally modified groups in peptides or proteins. The modified groups cover the external modifications N-formyl, N-acetyl, N-pyroglutamyi residues and C-terminal-alpha amide, as well as the internal modifications such as O-acetyl serine, phosphorylated serine/tyrosine, sulfonylated tyrosine, glycosylated serine/threonine and glycosylated asparagine. These three cleavage reactions relate to key amino acids for modifications, deamidation for asparagine, phosphorylation and acetylation for serine, and glycosylation for asparagine, serine and threonine. The chemical reactions on these modifications change the peptide mapping pattern, and information from these reactions may contribute characterization and location of post-translational modified groups in the protein.

Functional characterization of human organic anion transporting polypeptide B (OATP-B) in comparison with liver-specific OATP-C

PURPOSE

To assess the functional characteristics of human organic anion transporter B (OATP-B) in comparison with those of the known, liver-specific OATP-C.

METHODS

OATP-B or -C was expressed in HEK293 cells or Xenopus oocytes, and uptakes of estradiol-17beta-glucuronide and estrone-3-sulfate were measured using radiolabeled compounds.

RESULTS

OATP-C transported both estrone-3-sulfate and estradiol-17beta-glucuronide, whereas OATP-B transported only the former. OATP-C-mediated uptake of estrone-3-sulfate exhibited biphasic saturation kinetics, whereas transports of estradiol-17beta-glucuronide by OATP-C and estrone-3-sulfate by OATP-B followed single-saturation kinetics. Inhibition kinetics showed that only the high-affinity site for estrone-3-sulfate on OATP-C was shared with glucuronide conjugates. Uptake of [3H]estrone-3-sulfate by OATP-B was inhibited by sulfate conjugates but not by glucuronide conjugates, whereas its uptake by OATP-C was inhibited by both types of conjugates.

CONCLUSIONS

OATP-B accepted sulfate conjugates of steroids but not glucuronide conjugates, whereas OATP-C transported both types of steroid conjugates. Transport of estrone-3-sulfate by OATP-B and -C followed single- and biphasic-saturation kinetics, respectively, and the high-affinity site on OATP-C was the same as that for estradiol-17beta-glucuronide. Other OATPs, OATP-A and OATP-8, reportedly exhibit different preferences for steroid conjugates, and the specific recognition of sulfate conjugates seems to be unique to OATP-B.

[Lymphedema after radical prostatectomy: a case report]

We report a case of intractable lymphedema of the left leg following radical prostatectomy. The 69-year-old male patient complained of difficulty walking, caused by severe lymphedema. Intraarterial autologous lymphocyte transfusion therapy was performed because of failure of conventional conservative therapy, and the leg edema resolved almost completely. However, the treatment did not improve the penoscrotal edema necessitating excision of the edema and skin graft in a separate procedure. The post-operative course was excellent and the patient's performance status improved to 1 from 3.

[Prognostic factors of renal pelvic and ureteral cancer: a multivariate analysis]

We clinicopathologically reviewed 54 cases (40 males and 14 females) of renal pelvic and ureteral cancer examined between 1983 and 1998, in order to determine the impact of prognostic factors. Follow-up ranged from 2 to 173 months (mean, 45.6 months). The age of the patients ranged from 39 to 88 years (mean, 68.9 years). The 1, 3 and 5-year cause-specific survival rates (Kaplan-Meier's method) for all of the patients were 74.6%, 58.4% and 54.5%, respectively. According to univariate analysis, a high grade and high stage of tumor, the presence of lymphatic invasion and positive regional lymph nodes indicated a significantly poor prognosis. On the other hand, multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression revealed the presence of lymphatic invasion as the most significant predictor of survival. Therefore, patients with lymphatic invasion have a poor prognosis, and the development of effective adjuvant therapy is needed to improve the outcome in these patients.

Respiratory modulation of muscle sympathetic nerve activity in patients with chronic heart failure

BACKGROUND

Sympathoexcitation and respiratory instability are closely related to worsening of chronic heart failure. To elucidate the dynamic nature of respiratory modulation of sympathetic activity in patients with heart failure, we studied within-breath variation of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) under various ventilatory volumes.

METHODS AND RESULTS

MSNA, blood pressure, and respiratory flow were recorded in 23 patients with left ventricular ejection fraction </=45%. Within-breath suppression of MSNA (neural silence) was found in 11 patients (MSNA bursts: 71+/-10/100 heartbeats) but not in the remaining 12 patients (MSNA bursts: 88+/-8/100 heartbeats). Patients without neural silence had a smaller tidal volume (391+/-70 versus 267+/-75 mL/m(2), P<0.01) and a higher respiratory rate (15+/-2 versus 19+/-4 breaths/min, P<0.01) during spontaneous respiration than those with neural silence. The relationship between tidal volume and minimal amplitude of MSNA bursts in each breath was obtained during random-interval breathing and fitted by an exponential function. The curve of patients without neural silence was shifted to the right and upward, which suggests that a greater tidal volume was required to suppress MSNA (227+/-70 versus 437+/-195 mL/m(2), P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Sympathoexcitation in patients with chronic heart failure is closely related to both a decrease in resting tidal volume and an attenuated sympathoinhibitory effect of lung inflation reflex.

[Bowel perforation after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy: a case report]

A case of intestinal perforation caused by ESWL for left ureteral calculus is reported. A 69-year-old male underwent the graft replacement for bilateral iliac aneurysm in March, 1996. In February, 1999, there appeared left flank pain, and a diagnosis of left ureterolithiasis was made by radiological examination. On March 29 he was admitted to our department for ESWL. On March 30, ESWL for calculus in the pelvic region was performed with the patient in the prone position. The patient complained of the left lower abdominal pain immediately after ESWL, but no muscular defense was observed. Since the pain was not relieved, CT was performed on March 31, but no evident abnormal finding was found. Thereafter the pain continued and on April 2 muscular defense was also noted. On CT performed a second time, free air and evidence of ileus were found, so emergency operation was performed. Two perforations about 2 mm in size were found in the jejunum 130 cm from the Treitz' ligament, which led to diagnosis of intestinal perforation due to ESWL. The patient followed a satisfactory postoperative course and was discharged on April 23. There has been only one reported case of intestinal perforation due to ESWL. It is a very rare complication. However, this complication should be taken into consideration where the patient has the history of abdominal surgery and where ESWL was performed with the patient in the prone position.

Methionine oxidation and its effect on the stability of a reconstituted subunit of the light-harvesting complex from Rhodospirillum rubrum

An additional component in the purified core light-harvesting complex (LH1) from wild-type purple photosynthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum has been identified as an oxidized species of alpha-polypeptide by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. This component appears as a slightly earlier-eluting peak in the RP-HPLC chromatogram compared with the authentic alpha-polypeptide. The oxidation site has been determined to be the N-terminal methionine residue by high-resolution NMR spectroscopy, where the methionine is oxidized to methionine sulfoxide in a diastereoisomeric form. Interconversion between the oxidized and authentic alpha-polypeptides has been confirmed by selective oxidation and reduction. The oxidative modification of methionine is shown to have discernible effects on the ability to form B820 subunit with beta-polypeptide and bacteriochlorophyll a, and on the stability of the reconstituted B820 subunit. Both the ability and the stability for the samples using the oxidized alpha-polypeptide are moderately reduced, indicating that the oxidation-induced conformational change in the N-terminal domain of alpha-polypeptide may affect the pigment-binding environment through a long-range interaction. The MALDI-TOF mass results also reveal that the N-terminus of alpha-polypeptide is formylated and no phosphorylation has occurred in this polypeptide.

Structure of the H subunit of the photosynthetic reaction center from the thermophilic purple sulfur bacterium, Thermochromatium tepidum Implications for the specific binding of the lipid molecule to the membrane protein complex

The photosynthetic reaction center (RC) is a transmembrane protein complex that catalyzes light-driven electron transport across the photosynthetic membrane. The complete amino-acid sequence of the H subunit of the RC from a thermophilic purple sulfur bacterium, Thermochromatium tepidum, has been determined for the first time among purple sulfur bacteria. The H subunit consists of 259 amino acids and has a molecular mass of 28 187. The deduced amino-acid sequences of this H subunit showed a significant (40%) degree of identity with those from mesophilic purple nonsulfur bacteria. The determined primary structure of the H subunit was compared with the structures of mesophilic B. viridis and R. sphaeroides based on the three-dimensional structure of the H subunit from T. tepidum, which has been recently determined by X-ray crystallography. One lipid molecule was found in the crystal structure of the T. tepidum RC, and the head group of the lipid appears to be stabilized by the electrostatic interactions with the conserved basic residues in the H subunit. The above comparison has suggested the existence of a lipid-binding site on the molecular surface at which a lipid molecule can interact with the RC in a specific manner.

The dimerization of folded monomers of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase

Spontaneous refolding and reconstitution processes of dimeric ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) from Rhodospirillum rubrum have been investigated using size-exclusion high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), spectroscopic, and activity measurements. When the unfolded Rubisco in guanidine hydrochloride is diluted at 4 degrees C, a folding intermediate (Rubisco-I) is rapidly formed, which remains in an unstable monomeric state and gradually develops into folded monomer (Rubisco-M) at 4 degrees C but undergoes irreversible aggregation at 25 degrees C. Refolding of Rubisco-I to Rubisco-M is a very slow process, taking about 20 h for 70% conversion at 4 degrees C. Rubisco-M is stable at 4 degrees C and is capable of forming an active dimer spontaneously when incubated at a temperature higher than 10 degrees C. The dynamic dimerization process has been measured in a temperature range of 4-35 degrees C by HPLC, and the results demonstrate that the dimerization is strongly facilitated by the temperature. It is found that dithiothreitol is essential for the spontaneous reconstitution of Rubisco.

Instability of Anticoagulation Intensity Contributes to Occurrence of Ischemic Stroke in Patients With Non-Rheumatic Atrial Fibrillation

The efficacy of anticoagulation in reducing the risk of cardiogenic embolism has been demonstrated in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), but there are few prospective studies assessing the influence of anticoagulation stability on ischemic stroke in such patients. Accordingly, the present study investigated prospectively whether an instability of the anticoagulation intensity would affect the efficacy of the therapy in a total of 156 patients with non-rheumatic AF (NRAF) who received oral anticoagulation with warfarin. During a 2-year follow-up period, the annual event rate of ischemic stroke was 2.1%. In patients without a history of prior stroke, no ischemic stroke occurred at a higher international normalized ratio (INR> or =2.0). In contrast, patients who had had a prior stroke had no INR-dependent reduction of incidence. The coefficient of variation (CV) of measured INRs was significantly greater in patients with ischemic stroke than in those without. By multivariate analysis, only greater CV (> or =0.3) of INRs was an independent risk for ischemic stroke, although New York Heart Association functional class > or =II and treatment with diuretics were of borderline significance by univariate analysis. The present results suggest that stability of anticoagulation intensity is important to protect thromboembolic events in patients with NRAF.

Crystal structures of photosynthetic reaction center and high-potential iron-sulfur protein from Thermochromatium tepidum: thermostability and electron transfer

The reaction center (RC) of photosynthetic bacteria is a membrane protein complex that promotes a light-induced charge separation during the primary process of photosynthesis. In the photosynthetic electron transfer chain, the soluble electron carrier proteins transport electrons to the RC and reduce the photo-oxidized special-pair of bacteriochlorophyll. The high-potential iron-sulfur protein (HiPIP) is known to serve as an electron donor to the RC in some species, where the c-type cytochrome subunit, the peripheral subunit of the RC, directly accepts electrons from the HiPIP. Here we report the crystal structures of the RC and the HiPIP from Thermochromatium (Tch.) tepidum, at 2.2-A and 1.5-A resolution, respectively. Tch. tepidum can grow at the highest temperature of all known purple bacteria, and the Tch. tepidum RC shows some degree of stability to high temperature. Comparison with the RCs of mesophiles, such as Blastochloris viridis, has shown that the Tch. tepidum RC possesses more Arg residues at the membrane surface, which might contribute to the stability of this membrane protein. The RC and the HiPIP both possess hydrophobic patches on their respective surfaces, and the HiPIP is expected to interact with the cytochrome subunit by hydrophobic interactions near the heme-1, the most distal heme to the special-pair.

Different laterality between the thumb and index finger in human SII activities

We compared the ipsilateral and contralateral evoked activities in the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII) of four human subjects. Magnetic cortical fields, evoked by electrical stimulation of the distal interphalangeal joint of either the thumb or the index finger, were recorded by an 80-channel whole head type magnetoencephalography system (MEG). We calculated the ratio of the equivalent current dipole (ECD) moment of the ipsilateral area to that of the contralateral area. The mean ratio for the thumb across the subjects was 0.43 +/- 0.13, while that for the index finger was 0.77 +/- 0.20 (mean +/- s.d). The ratio for the index finger was significantly higher than that for the thumb (p = 0.039, two tailed t-test). These results show that the cortical index finger area is activated more bilaterally than the thumb area.

[Consideration on neuroimaging and functional diagnosis in cerebrovascular disorder]

The electroencephalogram(EEG) has been one of the important clinical examination in cerebrovascular disorder(CVD). Since X-ray computed tomography(CT) was introduced in the 1970's, the numbers of EEG examination decreased in Japan. In the present, the diagnosis of acute CVD is done by neuroimaging examinations which generally are CT, magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) and at times, single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT). But EEG examination is necessary for estimate of brain function in acute and/or chronic CVD. Only EEG examination is able to confirm epileptic seizure, sleep-wake disorder and disturbance of consciousness. alpha-coma and spindle coma are peculiar disturbance of consciousness and appear in acute CVD. REM sleep behavior disorder(RBD) sometimes appear in chronic CVD. The characteristic of RBD is violent or injurious behavior during REM sleep. Polysomnography demonstrates abnormal REM sleep without loss of atonia. Both neuroimaging and functional diagnosis have been to perform to estimate in CVD same as in the other central nervous disorders.

[Automatic analysis of sleep EEG]

Since a manual of standardized scoring system for sleep stage was reported by APSS, the sleep researches remarkable advanced. But it took sleep researchers many times and effort to analysis of numerous data. The digital and computer technique were advanced about 10 years, so that, paper polysomnography(PSG) has been replaced with computerized polysomnography(PSG). The computerized PSG is useful for sleep stage scoring and storage of data. It is pointed out that the correctness of computerized analysis unfortunately is less than visual. Generally, computerized analysis is performed to apply the manual of APSS. This manual is not able to computerized analysis. Because this manual was developed for visual. In 1999, Japanese sleep research society was reported a manual of sleep stage scoring for computerized analysis which was modified the manual of APSS. It is expected to development of computerized PSG system which is able to yield the result similar to that obtained with visual.

[Abnormal Q wave in the right precordial leads unmasked during right bundle branch block in a patient with anteroseptal myocardial infarction: a case report]

Electrocardiography in a 77-year-old woman showed small R waves in leads V1-V3 3 hours after the onset of acute anteroseptal myocardial infarction. Abnormal Q waves appeared in leads V1-V3 only during intermittent right bundle branch block. The normal septal force disappeared after transmural septal infarction and a small force of right ventricle origin became apparent as a small R wave in V1. Right bundle branch block delayed activation of right ventricle, and thereby deleted the initial R wave and unmasked the Q wave of the septal infarction. Appearance of a Q wave in leads V1-V3 with right bundle branch block should not be assumed to reflect the extension of myocardial infarction.

[A case report of skeletal muscle metastasis of renal cell carcinoma effectively treated with interferon-alpha]

The skeletal muscle is a very rare site of metastasis in renal cell carcinoma. We report the third case of skeletal muscle metastasis of renal cell carcinoma effectively treated with interferon-alpha. The patient was a 74-year-old woman who had undergone radical nephrectomy on the left side for renal cell carcinoma on April 23, 1990, and had been observed as an outpatient. In June 1997, she was admitted with a diagnosis of metastasis in the left great adductor muscle and right sixth rib, as well as multiple lung metastasis. The metastatic lesion in the great adductor muscle decreased in size by more than 50% following concomitant intramuscular administration of natural interferon-alpha (nIFN-alpha). In the other metastatic lesions, nIFN-alpha-sensitive and resistant metastatic foci were intermingled. Thus, the primary focus in the present study was presumably composed of several clones with different sensitivities to nIFN-alpha.

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the high-potential iron-sulfur protein from Thermochromatium tepidum

The high-potential iron-sulfur protein (HiPIP) is an electron carrier between the photosynthetic reaction centre and the cytochrome bc(1) complex in the electron-transfer chain of photosynthesis. The purified HiPIP from Thermochromatium tepidum (formerly Chromatium tepidum) was crystallized in a solution of 1.4 M ammonium sulfate and 0.1 M sodium citrate pH 3.5. The crystals diffract X-rays beyond 1.4 A resolution and belong to the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 47.12 (6), b = 59.59 (10), c = 23.62 (3) A. The structure was preliminarily solved by the molecular-replacement method. The crystal structure of HiPIP from T. tepidum showed that the proteins exist as monomers, although HiPIPs from several other species can form dimers.

Interaction of photosynthetic pigments with various organic solvents 2. Application of magnetic circular dichroism to bacteriochlorophyll a and light-harvesting complex 1

Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) and absorption spectra of metal bacteriochlorin complexes have been measured on bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) a in various solvents and different forms of light-harvesting complexes 1 (LH1 complexes). In hydrophilic organic solvents, the MCD intensity of the Q(y)(0-0) transition of BChl a was sensitive to the wavelength of absorption maximum of Q(x)(0-0), and the ratio of MCD Q(y)(0-0) intensity to the dipole strength (B/D) was inversely proportional to the difference in energy between the Q(x)(0-0) and Q(y)(0-0). The similar correlation has been observed in metal chlorin derivatives as previously reported. The correlation depends on the coordination number of the Mg atom in BChl a and the molecules ligating to it. In a hydrophobic solvent such as carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)), however, the correlation did not hold because of the existence of aggregates. Hence, the correlation between the values of B/D and the energy difference can be used to estimate the type and number of the molecules ligated to the Mg atom and to disclose the existence of aggregated pigments. We further apply the correlation to the LH 1 complex treated with n-octyl beta-D-glucopyranoside.