Prevalence and Burden of Physical Problems in Female College Basketball Athletes: A 135-Day Prospective Cohort Study.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to investigate the prevalence and burden of "any physical complaint" in college female basketball athletes using a daily questionnaire. METHODS: Fifty-four female college basketball players were recruited and followed up for 135 days using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre questionnaire. RESULTS: The questionnaire response rate was 96.4% (95% confidence interval: 95.7-97.1). The average daily prevalence of any problem was 44.4%, whereas that of substantial problems was 16.0%. The anatomical areas found to be most frequently affected by physical problems were the ankle (average daily prevalence: 14.5%, 95% confidence interval: 13.4-15.7), lower back (14.4%, 95% confidence interval: 13.7-15.2), and knee (9.6%, 95% confidence interval: 9.0-10.2). The cumulative severity score, calculated by summing severity scores and dividing by number of respondents, showed that ankle, knee, and lower back problems exhibited greater relative burden. DISCUSSION: Injuries common in basketball athletes, such as ankle sprain, anterior cruciate ligament injury, overuse knee pain, and low-back pain, are reflected in the present data.

High-Impact Details of Play and Movements in Female Basketball Game.

This study aimed to identify the high-impact details of play and movements with higher acceleration and their frequency during a female basketball match. Trunk acceleration was measured during a simulated basketball game with eight female players. The extracted instance was categorized, which generated at > 6 and 8 G resultant accelerations using a video recording and an accelerometer attached to the players' trunk, as details of play and movements. The frequency and ratio of the details of play and movements regarding all detected movements were calculated. A total of 1062 and 223 play actions were detected for the resultant acceleration thresholds of > 6 and 8 G, respectively. For these acceleration thresholds, in terms of details of play, positioning on the half-court was the most frequently observed (29.6 and 23.8%, respectively). In terms of movements, deceleration was the most frequently detected movement (21.5 and 23.3%, respectively), followed by landing (7.6 and 15.7%, respectively). Deceleration during positioning on the half-court and defense as well as landing mostly after a shot were detected as high-impact frequent basketball-specific movements. The results also showed that characteristics of movements or playing style and playing position may have an effect on acceleration patterns during a basketball game.

De Novo DNA Methylation at Imprinted Loci during Reprogramming into Naive and Primed Pluripotency.

CpG islands (CGIs) including those at imprinting control regions (ICRs) are protected from de novo methylation in somatic cells. However, many cancers often exhibit CGI hypermethylation, implying that the machinery is impaired in cancer cells. Here, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of CGI methylation during somatic cell reprogramming. Although most CGIs remain hypomethylated, a small subset of CGIs, particularly at several ICRs, was often de novo methylated in reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). Such de novo ICR methylation was linked with the silencing of reprogramming factors, which occurs at a late stage of reprogramming. The ICR-preferred CGI hypermethylation was similarly observed in human PSCs. Mechanistically, ablation of Dnmt3a prevented PSCs from de novo ICR methylation. Notably, the ICR-preferred CGI hypermethylation was observed in pediatric cancers, while adult cancers exhibit genome-wide CGI hypermethylation. These results may have important implications in the pathogenesis of pediatric cancers and the application of PSCs.

TFE3 is a bHLH-ZIP-type transcription factor that regulates the mammalian Golgi stress response.

The Golgi stress response is a mechanism by which, under conditions of insufficient Golgi function (Golgi stress), the transcription of Golgi-related genes is upregulated through an enhancer, the Golgi apparatus stress response element (GASE), in order to maintain homeostasis in the Golgi. The molecular mechanisms associated with GASE remain to be clarified. Here, we identified TFE3 as a GASE-binding transcription factor. TFE3 was phosphorylated and retained in the cytoplasm in normal growth conditions, whereas it was dephosphorylated, translocated to the nucleus and activated Golgi-related genes through GASE under conditions of Golgi stress, e.g. in response to inhibition of oligosaccharide processing in the Golgi apparatus. From these observations, we concluded that the TFE3-GASE pathway is one of the regulatory pathways of the mammalian Golgi stress response, which regulates the expression of glycosylation-related proteins in response to insufficiency of glycosylation in the Golgi apparatus.