Presence of sibling during the learning phase of imprinting affects escape behavior from a new object in chicks.

Imprinting is a crucial learning behavior by the hatchlings of precocious birds. In nature, hatchlings in a group environment imprint on a hen, but the effect of siblings on the imprinting process remains largely unknown. To investigate this issue, we examined how the social context modulated visual imprinting in domestic chicks. One-day-old postnatal chicks in isolation (RS chicks) or with siblings (RD chicks), were first exposed to an imprinting stimulus, and subsequently the responses to the imprinting stimulus as well as a new stimulus were examined and compared. The experiment constituted three types of siblings: a 20-min pre-trained tutor, a 60-min pre-trained tutor, and a naïve chick. A multiple comparison test revealed that the preference score (PS) to the new stimulus of RD chicks trained with a 60-min pre-trained tutor was significantly lower than that of RS chicks. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the length of the tutor's pre-training significantly correlated negatively with the PS to the new stimulus, but this variable did not correlate with the PS to the imprinting stimulus. These results revealed that the presence of highly imprinted siblings could enhance the escape response to the new stimulus. We discussed the possible involvement of the chick's medial amygdala in the social aspect of imprinting.

Why do a wide variety of animals retain multiple isoforms of cyclooxygenase?

Cyclooxygenase (COX) has been cloned from the phyla Cnidaria, Mollusca, Arthropoda, and Chordata of the animal kingdom. Many organisms have multiple COX isoforms that have arisen from gene duplication. It is not well understood why there are multiple COX isoforms in the same organism, or when duplication of the COX gene occurred. Here, we summarize the current knowledge of the evolutionary history of COX in the animal kingdom and discuss the reasons why the multiple COX system has been retained so widely. The phylogenetic analysis suggests that all COX genes in animals may descend from a common ancestor and that the duplication of an ancestral COX gene might occur within each lineage after the divergence of the animal. In most instances, the expressions of multiple COX isoforms are separately regulated and these isoforms play different and important pathophysiological roles in each organism. This may be the reason why multiple COX isoforms are widely retained.

Temporal change in IL-6 mRNA and protein expression produced by cyclic stretching of human pulmonary artery endothelial cells.

The time courses of interleukin (IL)-6 gene expression and protein production were examined in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs) subjected to cyclic stretching. IL-6 protein was increased even in cells without stretching. Fold changes determined by dividing the level of IL-6 protein in stretched cells by that in unstretched cells at the same sampling times indicated that IL-6 protein was increased by stretching. At least 1 h of stretching was necessary to elicit an increase of IL-6 protein, and the levels peaked at 3 h after the start of stretching. After withdrawal of stretching, there was no further increase of IL-6 protein. The expression levels of the IL-6 gene were significantly increased by stretching and peaked at 30 min after the start of stretching. The difference in the peak times of IL-6 gene and protein expression likely reflects the process of protein synthesis after the appearance of IL-6 mRNA.

Adaptive thresholds to detect differentially expressed genes in microarray data.

To detect changes in gene expression data from microarrays, a fixed threshold for fold difference is used widely. However, it is not always guaranteed that a threshold value which is appropriate for highly expressed genes is suitable for lowly expressed genes. In this study, aiming at detecting truly differentially expressed genes from a wide expression range, we proposed an adaptive threshold method (AT). The adaptive thresholds, which have different values for different expression levels, are calculated based on two measurements under the same condition. The sensitivity, specificity and false discovery rate (FDR) of AT were investigated by simulations. The sensitivity and specificity under various noise conditions were greater than 89.7% and 99.32%, respectively. The FDR was smaller than 0.27. These results demonstrated the reliability of the method.

Prevalence of topoisomerase I genetic mutations and UGT1A1 polymorphisms associated with irinotecan in individuals of Asian descent.

Topoisomerase I (TOP-I) mutations have been shown to be correlated to irinotecan resistance in vitro. However, the prevalence of TOP-I germline mutations has yet to be systematically elucidated. On the other hand, polymorphisms of UGT1A1 have been shown to be associated with CPT-11 toxicity in clinical situations. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of mutations in the TOP-I exons associated with CPT-11 resistance, including untreated cancer tissue. A secondary aim was to confirm the less frequent UGT1A1*28 and more frequent UGT1A1*6 in individuals of Asian descent compared to Caucasians and individuals of African descent. The prevalence of 5 reported TOP-I mutations in exons was investigated in volunteers (n=236) using DNA sequencing of the PCR products. The prevalence of TOP-I mutations in untreated lung cancer tissues (n=16) was also investigated. Additionally, 3 UGT1A1 polymorphisms, UGT1A1*6, *27 and *28, were investigated in volunteers (n=126). There were no mutations of TOP-I in any of the 236 subjects or in the untreated lung tissues. Among 128 subjects, the distribution of homozygous polymorphisms of UGT1A1 was: UGT1A1*28 in 3 (2.4%) and UGT1A1*6 in 4 (3.2%) subjects, and co-occurrence of heterozygous polymorphisms for both UGT1A1*6 and UGT1A1*28 in 4 (3.2%) subjects, and for UGT1A1*27 and UGT1A1*28 in 1 subject (0.8%). The Hardy-Weinberg deviation test showed there was no significant deviation from the equilibrium, and the association analysis indicated no significant linkage between UGT1A1*6 and UGT1A1*28. In conclusion, TOP-I genetic mutations correlated to CPT-11 resistance were not detected in any of the subjects and untreated lung cancer tissues. Less frequent UGT1A1*28 and more frequent UGT1A1*6 were confirmed in East Asian individuals compared to Caucasians and individuals of African descent. Linkage disequilibrium was not detected between UGT1A1*6 and UGT1A1*28.

Adaptive threshold for detecting differentially expressed genes in microarray data - a simulation study to investigate its performance.

To detect changes in gene expression data from DNA microarrays, a fixed threshold value is used in various studies. However, it is not always guaranteed that a threshold value which is appropriate for highly expressed genes is suitable for genes with low expression. To address this issue, we have proposed adaptive threshold, which has different values for different expression levels. In this study, the performance of the adaptive threshold method was investigated through simulations. The sensitivity in various noise conditions was in a range between 72.7 and 100% while the specificity was better than 99% for all noise conditions. These results demonstrated the good performance of the proposed method.

Stability of the human upright stance depending on the frequency of external disturbances.

During an upright stance of humans, it is usually assumed that a stiffer ankle joint contributes to stabilize the stance. To show that under certain conditions a stiffer ankle joint can reduce the stability, the frequency responses of the moment and the angle of the ankle joint against external disturbances caused by random horizontal translations of the support surface were evaluated in ten healthy adult subjects by varying the difficulty of the task at four levels. When it was difficult to keep the upright stance, the subject tended to make the ankle joint stiffer. The transfer function relating the external disturbance moment to the ankle joint moment showed a larger gain in the high frequency range (>0.3 Hz) compared with the gains obtained under easier conditions. A simulation analysis based on a simple inverted pendulum model also reproduced this tendency. These results indicate that the stiffer ankle joint and the resulting higher ankle moment for high frequency external disturbances enhance the possibility that the center of pressure exceeds the limit arising from the size of the feet and can make the upright stance unstable.

Adaptive threshold to detect biologically meaningful changes in microarray data.

To detect changes in gene expression data from DNA microarrays, a fixed threshold value is widely used. However, it is not always guaranteed that a threshold value which is appropriate for highly expressed genes is suitable for genes with low expression. In this study, aiming at detecting biologically meaningful changes from a wide range of expression levels, we proposed an adaptive threshold method. The performance of the proposed method was investigated using publicly available expression data.

Range of motion measurement of an artificial hip joint using CT images.

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most effective treatments for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Dislocation of the femoral head from the acetabular socket is a major problem of THA. To prevent dislocation, it is important to know the range of motion (ROM) after THA. Although various studies on the ROM were carried out, there exist only a few reports on ROM evaluation in individual patients. This is because in clinical cases, bone-to-bone and bone-to-component contacts must be considered besides the impingement of components. In this study, a new method for evaluating ROM of internal/external rotation, which takes into account all combinations of contacts between the bones and components, was proposed. A computer simulation demonstrated that the RMS error of the proposed method was approximately 3 degrees . The method was applied to 33 THAs under various conditions of flexion and adduction angles. The method was able to detect any type of impingement. The evaluated ROM was in good agreement with that measured during the THA operation (correlation coefficient = 0.91).

Cross-coupling in a body-translating reaction: interaural optokinetic stimulation reflects a gravitational cue.

CONCLUSION: The velocity storage integrator does not play a dominant role in the postural response to vertical visual cues; more likely, retinal slip provides the main driving force. By contrast, sideways eye movement can drive the velocity storage integrator and preserve a gravitational cue, which would be observed as a cross-coupling effect on the postural response. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the mechanism by which optokinetic stimulation causes the body to translate and to determine whether the optokinetic information is accompanied by a gravitational cue, which would appear as a cross-coupling effect. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Directionally diverse optokinetic stimuli were presented to seven healthy subjects, with and without a fixation target, and the body-translation of the subjects was recorded. RESULTS: Horizontal optokinetic stimulation with a fixation target caused the body to translate in the same direction as the optic flow. Upward or downward vertical optokinetic stimulation caused the body to translate backward or forward, respectively, only when a fixation target was present. When the subject's interaural axis was parallel to the optokinetic flow, diagonal optokinetic stimulation in the absence of a fixation target elicited responses in the pitch plane similar to those elicited by vertical stimulation in the presence of a fixation target.

Evidence of spatially bound gene regulation in Mus musculus: decreased gene expression proximal to microRNA genomic location.

The extent, spatially and in time, of the phenomenon of localized decreased expression in the chromosomal vicinity of microRNA (miRNA) previously described in Caenorhabditis elegans is reproduced in Mus musculus across a wide range of tissues in several independent experiments. Computationally predicted miRNA targets are enriched in the vicinity of miRNAs, and transcription factors are identified as the class of genes that systematically exhibit this localized decrease. Also, those mRNA with AT-rich UTRs, particularly those that are not in the vicinity of CpG islands, most often exhibit this localized decrease. This localization broadens with the shift from developing to mature/differentiated tissues and suggests a developmentally controlled and spatially bound regulation.

Lower expression of genes near microRNA in C. elegans germline.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are recently discovered short non-protein-coding RNA molecules. miRNAs are increasingly implicated in tissue-specific transcriptional control and particularly in development. Because there is mounting evidence for the localized component of transcriptional control, we investigated if there is a distance-dependent effect of miRNA. RESULTS: We analyzed gene expression levels around the 84 of 113 know miRNAs for which there are nearby gene that were measured in the data in two independent C. elegans expression data sets. The expression levels are lower for genes in the vicinity of 59 of 84 (71%) miRNAs as compared to genes far from such miRNAs. Analysis of the genes with lower expression in proximity to the miRNAs reveals increased frequency matching of the 7 nucleotide "seed"s of these miRNAs. CONCLUSION: We found decreased messenger RNA (mRNA) abundance, localized within a 10 kb of chromosomal distance of some miRNAs, in C. elegans germline. The increased frequency of seed matching near miRNA can explain, in part, the localized effects.

Time course analysis of angular control of the body and head while rising from a chair.

OBJECTIVE: To use time course information to improve understanding of the vestibular contribution to postural control as one rises from a chair. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 24 healthy controls and 42 patients with varying degrees of vestibular dysfunction were studied. The time course of the angular motion of the body and head when rising from a chair with eyes open and closed was evaluated. The delay between the onset of the motions of the body and head was compared between subject groups. We also investigated transition points from forward lean of the body to backward reversion and from backward tilt of the head to forward reversion. RESULTS: With regard to the onset of chair rise, we found a significant difference in the delay between head and body motion between healthy controls and subjects with bilaterally impaired vestibular deficiency only when the eyes were closed. The time between the transition points of the head and body was stable between these groups. CONCLUSION: The mechanisms controlling the onset of head and body movements differ between normal subjects and those with bilateral vestibular deficits. In the latter, the loss of a reference of gravity causes a decrease in feed-forward postural control, which is compensated for by a somato-sensory feedback mechanism. Visual input seems to provide an alternative reference of gravity.

Inter-species differences of co-expression of neighboring genes in eukaryotic genomes.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that gene order within the eukaryotic genome is not random. In yeast and worm, adjacent or neighboring genes tend to be co-expressed. Clustering of co-expressed genes has been found in humans, worm and fruit flies. However, in mice and rats, an effect of chromosomal distance (CD) on co-expression has not been investigated yet. Also, no cross-species comparison has been made so far. We analyzed the effect of CD as well as normalized distance (ND) using expression data in six eukaryotic species: yeast, fruit fly, worm, rat, mouse and human. RESULTS: We analyzed 24 sets of expression data from the six species. Highly co-expressed pairs were sorted into bins of equal sized intervals of CD, and a co-expression rate (CoER) in each bin was calculated. In all datasets, a higher CoER was obtained in a short CD range than a long distance range. These results show that across all studied species, there was a consistent effect of CD on co-expression. However, the results using the ND show more diversity. Intra- and inter-species comparisons of CoER reveal that there are significant differences in the co-expression rates of neighboring genes among the species. A pair-wise BLAST analysis finds 8-30 % of the highly co-expressed pairs are duplicated genes. CONCLUSION: We confirmed that in the six eukaryotic species, there was a consistent tendency that neighboring genes are likely to be co-expressed. Results of pair-wised BLAST indicate a significant effect of non-duplicated pairs on co-expression. A comparison of CD and ND suggests the dominant effect of CD.

Contribution of the vestibular apparatus to postural control when rising from a chair.

OBJECTIVE: The everyday act of rising from a chair is known to require the combined angular control of a number of the body's joints, especially those within the pitch plane. Precisely how this control is exerted, however, remains controversial. The aim of this study was to obtain a better understanding of the contribution made by the vestibular apparatus to postural control of the body and head when an individual rises from a chair. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 24 healthy controls and 38 patients with varying degrees of vestibular dysfunction were examined. Electromagnetic motion sensors were used to analyze the angular control of the head and body as subjects rose from a chair with their eyes open or closed. RESULTS: We found that unilateral vestibular dysfunction caused fixation of the head with respect to the body, resulting in a loss of spatial stability of the head which was not compensated for by visual input. Visual input did appear to compensate for bilateral vestibular loss, enabling patients with bilateral vestibular apparatus impairment or central disorders to fix the position of their head in space. CONCLUSION: The act of rising from a chair is normally controlled by vestibular and proprioceptive input; the head is aligned according to the gravitational reference so as to obtain stable visual information. In patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction, posture is still controlled by these two inputs, although the ability to align the head is diminished. In patients with bilateral vestibular hypofunction or a central disorder, head alignment is maintained using visual input, although it may not be the sole or predominant stabilizing force.