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Volume 33 (2008)
- Issue 6 Pages 266-
- Issue 5 Pages 194-
- Issue 4 Pages 130-
- Issue 3 Pages 88-
- Issue 2 Pages 46-
- Issue 1 Pages 2-
Volume 33, Issue 5
Displaying 1-11 of 11 articles from this issue
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Special Issue : Plenary Lecture in 30th Annual Meeting
Review Article
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Akihiro Kusumi, Kenichi Suzuki2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 194-200
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSIn recent years, “raft hypothesis”, in which hypothetical membrane domains, called lipid raft domains, might act as platforms where signaling molecules are assembled for their interactions and functions in/on the plasma membrane. Using single–molecule tracking, we have found such domains are only formed on–demand upon stimulation–induced clustering of receptors that can be associated with raft domains. Furthermore, signaling molecules are recruited to such induced rafts transiently (of the order of 0.1 s). Therefore, in this review, we propose that raft–related bulk intracellular signals that tend to last over 1000 s might be pulse coded or frequency modulated by the pulse–like digital activation of individual molecules, and that the intensity of the bulk signal might mainly be determined by the number of pulses at a given time. Such on–demand rafts are considered to be involved in bovine spongiform encephalopathy development, HIV infection, and Alzheimer disease pathogenesis, and this finding sheds new light on these processes.View full abstractDownload PDF (986K)
Special Issue : Progress in Biological Membrane Research from Technical Aspects
Review Article
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Ken-ichi Inui, Tomohiro Terada2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 201-207
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSCurrently, it is widely recognized that drug transporters play important roles as major determinants for pharmaco-kinetic properties of drugs. During about 30 years, we have investigated membrane transport of drugs via carriers,with taking various novel techniques such as membrane vesicles and molecular biology into this research field, andreported some important novel findings on the intestinal absorption and renal excretion of drugs. Furthermore, wehave developed clinical research of drug transporters to accomplish our motto “From Bench to Bedside”. In thisreview, we would like to look back on the history of drug transporter research, mainly focusing on our studies, anddescribe the future perspectives.View full abstractDownload PDF (860K) -
Nobuhiro Uyesaka2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 208-214
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSWe reviewed scientific methods for measuring erythrocyte deformability such as micro pipette aspiration tech-nique, ektacytometry and nickel mesh filtration technique, from a quantitative and sensitive point of view. Then werepresented deformability of sickle cells and hereditary spherocytes including effects of medical treatments.Moreover, we showed a strong correlation between blood flow in vivoand erythrocyte deformability. Thus, we clari-fied physiological and medical significances of erythrocyte deformability.View full abstractDownload PDF (863K) -
Kazuo Ohki2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 215-220
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSThe spin labeling method has greatly contributed in the research of the biomembrane. Especially, it has beenwidely used in the research of the membrane fluidity. And it gave an important knowledge for the construction of thefluid mosaic biomembrane model proposed by Singer and Nicolson. Extended spin labeling methods, TEMPO andspin–spin exchange, were applied to the studies of phase transition and phase separation, respectively, and manyremarkable results were obtained. In the field of cell biology, introduction of green fluorescence protein (GFP) anddevelopment of confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) have elucidated important biological function by CLSMimaging. The author and colleagues have developed microscopic imaging instrument using environment sensitivefluorescence dye, laurdan, and have applied it to study of ‘raft’.View full abstractDownload PDF (920K) -
Yukichi Hara2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 221-226
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSActive ion–transport is the pivotal mechanism to maintain ion gradients across the biological membranes.Elucidation on its mechanism has started just after the discovery of Na+/K+–ATPase on the club nerve plasma mem-brane at 1957. Many ion–transporting ATPases including Ca2+–ATPase, H+/K+–ATPase and H+–ATPase, have beendiscovered and the membrane is now recognized asthe site of energy transduction. Studies on the mechanism of ionpump require wide-ranging methods, i.e. biochemical, molecular biological, electrophysiological and biophysicaltechniques. This review summarizes advances in the mechanism of Na+/K+–ATPase and the research methodsemployed.View full abstractDownload PDF (792K) -
Mutusmi Inaba2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 227-232
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSRed cell membranes from ruminant animals contain a considerable amount of a 155-kDa glycoprotein (gp155) withmultiple membrane spans. A series of traditional biochemical experiments showed that the gp155 was linked to band3, anion exchanger 1 (AE1), and this gp155–band 3 complex in turn was associated to ankyrin through the binding ofband 3 to ankyrin. The gp155 is now identified as a member of the ABC transporter superfamily, ABCC4, based onthe result of the genome database searching and cloning of the gp155 cDNA. On the other hand, we examined themechanism for the endoplasmic reticulum–associated degradation of the mutant band 3 causative of the dominanthereditary spherocytosis in cattle, utilizing the artificial expression and detection of the proteins in HEK293 cells, anddemonstrated that the band 3 was associated with the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, CFTR(=ABCC7) in the endoplasmic reticulum. These findings indicate that band 3 may form hetero–oligomers with someisoforms of the ABC transporters.View full abstractDownload PDF (875K)
Special Issue : Current Status and Future Challenges of Water/Gas Separation Membrane Technology
Review Article
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Tadahiro Uemura, Masahide Taniguchi2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 233-238
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSThe water shortage and pollution have been in serious situation in the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and willbe more serious in USA, China and EU in the near future. In order to solve such water problems, rseverse osmosis(RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes have been developed and applied for the production of safe water. ROmembranes were developed in 1960’sfor seawater desalination, and improved for the higher performance and thelower cost, which realized large number of RO desalination plants to produce drinking water such as in the MiddleEast, Caribbean Islands, and the Mediterranean. In addition, the new RO membranes with low fouling propertieswere developed recently, and have been applied to the wastewater reclamation plants. On the other hand, NF mem-branes have been used for softening the hard water and for removing the toxic materialssuch as organic solvent andagricultural chemicals in the environment. The RO and NF membranes are expected to improve for the higher per-formance such as selectivity, water permeability and durability, which enables the lower cost water treatment, and itwill be achieved by the advanced polymer science and processing technologies.View full abstractDownload PDF (884K) -
Noboru Kubota2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 239-246
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSIn this paper, I mention that how wide MF/UF technologies are used in many industries all over the world, the rea-son why MF/UF technologies are used in various industrial field, and future vision of MF/UF technologies in orderto contribute more strongly to the human life and the earth environment. The main reasons why MF/UF technolo-gies are expanding in many applications are follows; (1) MF/UF process is energy–saving process compared withother separation process such as distillation process, (2) by using MF/UF process, proteins does not denature withheating because MF/UF process does not require phase conversion, (3) in several cases, MF/UF technology is actu-ally the only one way at this moment to remove impurities such as micro–particles in ultra–pure water in semiconduc-tor field, and (4) MF/UF process can keep better water quality than conventional sand filtration process in the drink-ing water production. As mentioned above, I believe MF/UF technologies are useful and necessary for the earth in21stcentury. In order to reply the expectations, we must develop MF/UF technologies from the viewpoint as follows;(1) progress of economical efficiency, (2) thinking about not only membrane element but also total separation sys-tem.View full abstractDownload PDF (1235K) -
Hidetoshi Kita2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 247-253
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSThis paperreviews the recent research and development of gas separation membranes. Gas separation propertiesbased on the relationship with the structure–property ofpolymeric materials are summarized and recent advances innew materials attemptingto create a molecular sieving property in order to improve the membrane performance aredescribed.View full abstractDownload PDF (796K)
Original Contribution
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Kazuki Akamatsu, Noriko Moriya, Masahiro Fujita, Shin-ichi Nakao2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 254-260
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSTwo–dimensional simulations for elucidating the mechanism of fouling phenomena due to particulates in dead–endmembrane filtration were described in this paper. In this simulation model, both the motion of particles and the fluidflow were simultaneously computed based on a Newtonian dynamics and the fluctuating Navier–Stokes equation,accounting for a variety of particle–to–particle and particle–to–membrane interactions, and particle–to–liquid hydro-dynamic interaction. In terms of particle property, the simulation results indicated that smaller magnitude of zetapotential set off aggregation and adhesion onto the membrane surface, resulting in severe fouling. Additionally interms of membrane structure and running conditions, it was elucidated that higher velocity of the fluid relative to thewall surfaces of the pores due to curved pore structures and due to larger pressure gradient caused severe fouling.Consequently we can conclude that it is effective to employ highly–charged membranes with straight pores and tooperate under low–pressure conditions for suppressing membrane fouling due to particulates or its aggregates adhe-sion.View full abstractDownload PDF (823K)
Products Spotlight
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2008 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 261-263
Published: 2008
Released on J-STAGE: June 14, 2015
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESSIn the field of seawater desalination, the reverse osmosis (RO) method consumes less energy and has more com-pact facilities than the conventional evaporation method. Today, apart from applications relating to industry anddrinking water, it is also used for irrigation water and other agricultural uses, contributing thus to resolving watershortages. The proportion treated by the RO membrane method is also growing year by year. And the number ofseawater desalination plants equipped with boron-removal facilities is growing at a rate of over 50% a year and nowaccounts for 70% of all plants. We developed ES20B RO element that has the high boron rejection and alkali tolerance. This newly developed ele-ment can reduce the operation cost and the scale risk. In addition, the extension of the operation life can be expect-ed.View full abstractDownload PDF (602K)
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