Associations among preoperative transthoracic echocardiography variables and cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy values at baseline before anesthesia in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: a retrospective observational study.

Cerebral tissue oximetry with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is used to monitor cerebral oxygenation during cardiac surgery. To date, reduced baseline cerebral NIRS values have been attributed to reduced cerebral blood flow primarily based on a significant positive correlation between left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and baseline rSO2 measured with the INVOS 5100C oximeter. Reportedly, however, rSO2, but not StO2 measured with the FORESIGHT Elite oximeter, correlated with LVEF. We, thus, investigated associations among baseline NIRS values measured with three different oximeters before anesthesia for cardiac surgery and preoperative transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) variables, including LVEF, to examine whether there are inter-device differences in associations among baseline NIRS values and TTE variables. Using Spearman's correlation coefficient, we retrospectively investigated associations among 15 preoperative TTE variables, including LVEF, and baseline NIRS values, including rSO2, StO2, and TOI with the NIRO-200NX oximeter in 1346, 515, and 301 patients, respectively. Only rSO2 (p < 0.00001), but not TOI or StO2 (p > 0.05), positively correlated with LVEF. On the other hand, baseline rSO2, TOI, and StO2 consistently, negatively correlated with the left atrial diameter index (LADI), early diastolic transmitral flow velocity (E), E-to-early diastolic mitral annular velocity ratio (E/e'), estimated right ventricular systolic pressure (eRVP), and inferior vena cava diameter index (IVCDI) (p < 0.0005 to p < 0.00001). Because all of these five TTE variables could be positively associated with right as well as left ventricular filling pressure, our results indicated that reduced baseline NIRS values were consistently associated not with reduced LVEF but with TTE findings indicative of elevated biventricular filling pressure. Our data suggest that regional venous congestion greatly contributes to reduced baseline NIRS values in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

High-performance affinity purification for identification of 15-deoxy-Δ 12,14 -PGJ2 interacting factors using magnetic nanobeads.

Prostaglandin J2 (PGJ2) family have been reported to show various kinds of biological activities. Considerable progress has been made toward understanding the mechanism of adipogenesis, however, the mechanisms of other actions of PGJ2 family remain controversial. The 15-deoxy-Δ(12,14) -PGJ2 (15d-PGJ2) is one of the members of PGJ2 family, and is known as a ligand for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), which promotes the expression of the crucial genes for adipogenesis. In this study, we found that 15d-PGJ2 did not stimulate PPARγ-mediated gene expression in HEK293 cells whereas 15d-PGJ2 transactivated PPARγ-dependent transcription in other cell lines. Moreover, we confirmed that 15d-PGJ2 suppressed the growth of HEK293 cells. These observations suggest that 15d-PGJ2 shows another biological activity e.g. growth inhibition in HEK293 cells via unknown receptor for 15d-PGJ2. The aim of this study is to develop and validate effective purification system for PGJ2 interacting factors (PGJIFs). We have recently developed high performance magnetic nanobeads. In this study, we have newly developed 15d-PGJ2-immobilized beads by conjugating 15d-PGJ2 to the surface of these nanobeads. Firstly, we showed that PPARγ specifically bound to 15d-PGJ2-immobilized beads. Secondly, we newly identified voltage dependent anionic channel 1 (VDAC1) as new PGJIF from crude extracts of HEK293 cells using this affinity purification system. These data presented here demonstrate that 15d-PGJ2-immobilized beads are effective tool for purification of PGJIFs directly from crude cell extracts.