Antihyperlipidemic and body fat-lowering effects of silk proteins with different fibroin/sericin compositions in mice fed with high fat diet

The effect of silk protein with different fibroin/sericin compositions on body weight and lipid metabolism in high fat-fed mice was investigated. The animals were given experimental diets for 6 weeks: normal control (NC), high fat (HF) and high fat diet supplemented with F100 (pure fibroin, HF-F100), F81 (81:19 fibroin/sericin, w/w, HF-F81) or F50 (50:50 fibroin/sericin, w/w, HF-F50). The silk protein-fed mice showed markedly reduced body weight and enhanced lipid profile relative to the HF group. In general, the amount of body fat, triglyceride and total plasma cholesterol levels, atherogenic index and free fatty acid level tended to decrease, while the HDL-cholesterol level increased, with increased amount of sericin in the diet. This hypolipidemic effect was partly due to increased fecal lipid excretion, inhibition of lipogenesis and regulation of adipokine production. These findings illustrate that silk protein, particularly sericin, may be beneficial in the prevention of high fat diet-induced hyperlipidemia and obesity.     

Thermographic evaluation for the efficacy of acupuncture on induced chronic arthritis in the dog

This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture on induced chronic arthritis of the dog by thermography. Complete Freund's adjuvant was injected into the left knee joint of 8 dogs to induce arthritis. Acupuncture was applied to BL-40, GB-33, GB-34, and LIV-8 once a week for 4 consecutive weeks, from 3 weeks after induction of chronic arthritis, in treatment group. At 3 weeks of acupuncture treatment, skin temperature difference (DeltaT) of treatment group returned to normal range (< 0.3 degrees C), while DeltaT remained high in non-treatment group. Infrared thermography (IRT) is useful to evaluate the treatment of acupuncture for induced canine chronic arthritis. Therefore, it is considered that clinical application of IRT in arthritis treatment would be also valuable.     

Miscibility, structural characteristics, and thermal behavior of wet spun regenerated silk fibroin/nylon 6 blend filaments

In this study, the regenerated silk fibroin (SF)/nylon 6 blend filaments were fabricated by the wet spinning and miscibility, structural characteristics, and thermal behavior of blend filaments were elucidated. The XRD results implied that the amount of crystalline region of each polymer did not change linearly with the blend ratio suggesting that there are some changes in the miscibility depending on the mixing ratio. The SEM observation revealed that the miscibility of blend decreased with an increase of nylon 6 resulting in a severe phase separation in 50/50 SF/nylon 6 filament. The miscibility governed the thermal behavior of blend filaments. The melting point of nylon 6 remained constant until 50 % nylon 6 content, whereas the melting point depression appeared in 30 % nylon 6 implying miscibility. Interestingly, the thermal decomposition of the nylon 6 component was accelerated by the presence of SF and the acceleration action of SF became stronger as the miscibility increased.     

A new dicaffeoylquinic acid butyl ester from Isertia pittieri

A new 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid butyl ester (1) was isolated from an ethyl acetate soluble fraction of Isertia pittieri stems, along with three known compounds, 1,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (2), 3,4-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3) and 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (4).     

Control of Algal Scum Using Top-Down Biomanipulation Approaches and Ecosystem Health Assessments for Efficient Reservoir Management

The objectives of this study were algal control and health assessments in a temperate eutrophic reservoir. Laboratory and mesocosm-scale in situ top-down biomanipulation experiments using planktivorous fishes and filter-feeding macroinvertebrates were conducted along with identification of the limiting nutrient using nutrient enrichment bioassays (NEBs), and ecosystem health evaluation based on the modified index of biological integrity model (Reservoir Ecosystem Health Assessment; REHA). Nutrients and N/P ratio analyses during 5 years revealed that the reservoir was in a eutrophic–hypertrophic state and that the key limiting nutrients, based on the NEBs, varied among seasons. Reservoir trophic guilds indicated declines in sensitive and endemic fish species and dominance of tolerant omnivores. Model values from multimetric REHAs averaged 25.8, indicating that the ecological health was in “fair to poor” condition. Overall microcosm biomanipulation tests suggested that macroinvertebrates, specifically Palaemon paucidens and Caridina denticulata, were effective candidates for phytoplankton control, compared to fishes. In situ mesocosm experiments revealed the highest removal rates with bluegreen algae and a phytoplankton size fraction of 2–19 μm (R _e?>?90%, Mann–Whitney U?=?64.5–74.0, p?<?0.01), the dominant fractions in the reservoir. Our biomanipulation technique may provide a key tool for efficient management and restoration of eutrophied reservoirs.     

cDNA microarray gene expression analysis and toxicological phenotype for anticancer drug

Toxicogenomics, the subdiscipline that merges genomics with toxicology, hold the promise to contributing toward the goal of elucidating mechanism by studying genomic profiling related with various drugs. The application of gene expression profiling technology to examine multiple genes and signaling pathways promises a significant advance in understanding the toxic mechanisms of various drugs and prediction of new drug candidate. Toxicogenomics is emerging field combining genomics and bioinformatics to identify and characterize mechanisms of toxicity of drug and various compounds. The principal hypothesis underlying on this field is that chemical-specific pattern of altered gene expression is related with each chemicals properties, especially toxicological property, and it will be revealed using high-density microarray analysis of sample from exposed organisms. So, in this study we compare the gene expression pattern of two anticancer drugs paclitaxel and orally absorbable paclitaxel, using the cDNA microarray. And from the result of this study, it is possible to provide the new possibility for genome-wide insight into mechanism of their anticancer activity and toxicological phenotype.     

The effect of ultrasonication on the micro-splitting of wool fiber

In this study, normal and dichlorodicyanuric acid (DCCA)-treated wool slivers were ultrasonicated in formic acid aqueous solutions. The effect of the ultrasonication condition on the wool fiber splitting was examined and the mechanism of the splitting by ultrasonication in formic acid was elucidated. No wool fiber splitting occurred at formic acid content up to 70 %, but the fiber splitting accelerated as the formic acid content increased from 75 %. Although no fiber splitting occurred up to 450W ultrasonic power, the degree of splitting increased significantly with increasing ultrasonic power above 450W. The wool fiber splitting by ultrasonication was heterogeneous and FE-SEM observations revealed a three-step splitting process: 1) full removal of scale, 2) removal of cell membrane complex (CMC), and 3) fiber splitting. A comparison of the fiber splitting of normal and DCCA-treated wool revealed that the scale of the ultrasonication-treated wool was removed by peeling off rather than by dissolution.     

The intelligent data management system for toxicogenomics

Toxicogenomics is now emerging as one of the most important genomic application because the toxicity test based on gene expression profiles is expected to be more precise and efficient than current histopathological approaches in a pre-clinical phase. One of the challenging issues in toxicogenomics is the construction of intelligent database management system which can deal with heterogeneous and complex data from many different experimental and information sources. TEST(Toxicogenomics for Efficient Safety Test) database is especially focused on the connectivity of heterogeneous data and the intelligent query system which enable users to obtain relevant useful information from the complex data sets. The database deals with four kinds of information; compound, histopathology, gene expression, and annotation information. Currently, TEST database maintains toxicogenomics information for 16 compounds, 45 microarrays, 190 animal experiments, and customized 4.8 K rat clone set. Our presented system is expected to be a good information source for studying of toxicology mechanism in the genome-wide level and can also be applied to the designing toxicity test chip.