Replication errors in hematological neoplasias: genomic instability in progression of disease is different among different types of leukemia

Genetic alteration, including genomic instability, is an ultimate step toward the malignant process. One approach to delineating replication errors in cancer cells is to determine the alterations of microsatellites, which are short, repeated nucleotide sequences existing throughout the genomes. We used a fluorescent system to assess microsatellite changes in seven loci (D2S123, D3S643, D5S107, LPL, D17S261, TP53, and D18S34) of 73 consecutive patients with various hematological neoplasias. De novo acute leukemia patients had a low frequency (<1%) of microsatellite alterations at each locus, and none of them demonstrated multiple microsatellite changes. In chronic myeloid leukemia patients, no microsatellite instability was detected in the chronic phase, whereas a relatively high frequency (25%) of multiple microsatellite changes was evident in the blastic phase, and half of these patients had multiple microsatellite changes. About 50% of the patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and post-MDS acute myeloid leukemia (post-MDS AML) had microsatellite alterations. We next compared microsatellite alterations in two different hematological phases (MDS and post-MDS AML phases); 5 of 11 patients with post-MDS AML had de novo appearance of microsatellite instability during disease progression. This indicates that genomic instability at multiple microsatellite loci could occur either before or after leukemic transformation in MDS patients. We concluded that genomic instability in chronic myeloid leukemia might be linked to blastic transformation in combination with cytogenetic changes. In contrast, MDS patients had replication errors as a relatively early genetic event as well as a late genetic event. These results suggest that the involvement of genomic instability in the progression of disease is different among various types of leukemia.     

An optical chemical sensor using a fluorophor- embedded Langmuir-Blodgett film

An optical sensor with a Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) film was developed for simultaneous recognition of amino acids in an aqueous solution. Anthroyloxy- stearate-containing stearate LB films and perylene-containing arachidate LB films were deposited on a quartz glass. The fluorescence of these LB films in an aqueous solution was quenched in response to amino acids. Amino acids were classified into five groups by the pattern of fluorescence quenching of anthroyloxy stearate and perylene LB films.     

Chemical vapour deposition of Ca(Ti,Fe)O3 thin film by thermal decomposition of organocomplexes

A thin film of Ca(Ti, Fe)O₃, which is a mixed conductor of oxide ions and electrons, was prepared on various substrates by chemical vapour deposition using organocomplexes Ca(C₁₁H₁₉O₂)₂, Ti(O-ⁱC₃H₇)₄ and Fe(C₅H₇O₂)₃ as starting materials. These complexes were evaporated at temperatures of 250, 115 and 45 °C, respectively, and transported to the substrate surface at an almost steady state. Homogeneous films of single-phase Ca(Ti, Fe)O₃ were obtained at deposition temperatures of 750–800 °C under the total pressure of 30 torr for the reaction time of 60–90 min on silica glass substrate. The amount of Ca(Ti, Fe)₃ films formed and their microstructure were found to be greatly affected by the compositions and surface structures of substrate materials.     

An MHC-compatible allogeneic bone marrow donor with a distinct role of T cell subsets in graft-versus-leukemia effect and lethal graft-versus-host disease

Our previous results in a murine model indicated that the GVL effect against radiation-induced leukemias could be induced in not only MHC-incompatible but also MHC-compatible allogeneic BMT, and that the intensity of the GVL effect induced in MHC-compatible allogeneic BMT varied among different leukemias and the donor/host strain combinations used. With the use of a radiation-induced T cell leukemia which followed the induction of the GVL effect in both MHC-compatible and -incompatible, allogeneic BMT, the role of T cell subsets in the development of the GVL effect and GVHD was studied. The results indicated that Lyt2+ T cells contaminating donor BM were consistently critical for the induction of the GVL effect in MHC-incompatible (B10) and -compatible (B10.BR and AKR) allogeneic BMT of leukemia-bearing C3H mice, but the depletion of L3T4+ T cells had no effect. In contrast, lethal GVHD induced by AKR donor lymph node cells was totally dependent on L3T4+ T cells, but the depletion of Lyt2+ T cells had no effect. On the other hand, both T cell subsets could cause lethal GVHD induced by MHC-incompatible (B10) and -compatible (B10.BR) allogeneic donors. The distinct roles of T cell subsets of AKR donors were confirmed by the preferential induction of the GVL effect with the AKR donor bone marrow mixed with lymph node cells which had been depleted of L3T4+ T cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Positive excimer laser resists prepared with aliphatic diazoketones

A new class of alkali-developable positive excimer laser (KrF) resists is described. Novel α-diazoacetoacetates derived from aliphatic polyfunctional alcohols were synthesized. These compounds undergo photolysis upon deep UV exposure to yield carboxylic acids, and exhibit excellent bleaching effects. Some of them, especially those having steroid skeletons, act as effective dissolution inhibitors. The composites prepared from these compounds and poly(p-hydroxybenzylsilsesquioxane) were used as alkali-developable positive deep UV resists, whose sensitivities depend on the number of photoactive groups in one photoactive molecule. Imaging results of KrF excimer laser projection printing are presented.     

Downregulation of the Klotho gene in the kidney under sustained circulatory stress in rats

We recently reported the isolation of the klotho gene, which in predominantly expressed in the kidney and involved in human aging phenotypes. In our previous studies, we demonstrated that the Klotho protein or its metabolites may possibly function as humoral factor(s) and protect against endothelial dysfunction because acetylcholine-mediated NO production in arteries was impaired in heterozygous klotho deficient mice (kl/+). However, the pathophysiological significance of the Klotho protein has not been clarified yet. In the present study, we examined expression of the klotho gene in the kidney of the following rat models for human diseases: (1) spontaneously hypertensive rat, (2) deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertensive rat, (3) 5/6 nephrectomized rat, (4) non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus rat (the Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty rat), and (5) rat with acute myocardial infarction. The expression levels of klotho mRNA in the kidney in these models were significantly lower than controls except for MI rats. This is the first report showing the expression of the klotho gene in the kidney is regulated under sustained circulatory stress such as long-term hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and chronic renal failure.     

Formation of porous calcium phosphate films on partially stabilized zirconia substrates by the spray-pyrolysis technique

Porous calcium phosphate films could be formed on partially stabilized zirconia (3YZ) substrates by a spray-pyrolysis technique. The use of calcium metaphosphate as a binder was effective to enhance the binding strengths of these films to the substrates. The crystalline phase in the resulting films was mainly -calcium orthophosphate. This phase was thermally stabilized by solid solution with Y³⁺. The thickness of the film (30–150 m) was dependent upon the spraying time; the pore size was about 15 m. The films were still present on the substrate after Scotch tape (810) was adhered to the film side and then taken off from the substrate. The films prepared in this study were found to bind strongly to the substrate.     

Photo aesthetic quality estimation using visual complexity features

The amount of visual data available on the Web is growing explosively and it is becoming increasingly important to explore methods for automatically estimating the quality of this content in a manner that is consistent with the aesthetic perceptions of humans. The key to this challenging problem is to design an appropriate set of features to extract the aesthetic properties from content. Most previous studies designed a set of aesthetic features based on photographic criteria, which were unavoidably limited to specific examples and they lacked an interpretation based on the mechanism of human aesthetic perception. According to psychological theory, visual complexity is an important property of the stimuli, because it directly influences the viewer’s arousal level, which is believed to be closely related to aesthetic perception. In this study, we propose an alternative set of features for aesthetic estimation based on a visual complexity principle. We extracted the visual complexity properties from an input image in terms of their composition, shape, and distribution. In addition, we demonstrated that the proposed features are consistent with human perception on the complexity in our visual complexity dataset. Next, we employed these features for photo-aesthetic quality estimation using a large-scale dataset. Various experiments were conducted under different conditions and comparisons with state-of-the-art methods shows that the proposed visual complexity feature outperforms photography rule-based features and even better than deep features.