Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B
Online ISSN : 1349-2896
Print ISSN : 0386-2208
ISSN-L : 0386-2208
Special Issue
Volume 87, Issue 8
Displaying 1-9 of 9 articles from this issue
Reviews
  • Kazuo KONAGAI
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 433-449
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    A large earthquake can trigger long lasting geotechnical problems, which pose serious issues on both rehabilitations and land conservations. Therefore one of what required of us is to deduce as much hidden signs as possible from observable changes of landforms. Though serious, damage caused by the October 23rd 2004, Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake has given us a rare opportunity to study the landform changes in mountainous terrain hit by this earthquake. An attempt was made to convert changes in elevation in Eulerian description for images obtained from remote-sensing technologies to Lagrangian displacements, because Lagrangian displacements can directly describe behaviors of soils, which are typically history-dependent. This paper documents some big pictures of earthquake-inflicted landform changes obtained through this attempt.

    (Communicated by Kiyoshi HORIKAWA, M.J.A.)
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  • Yoshinori NOZAWA
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 450-462
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The free-living eukaryotic protozoan Tetrahymena is a potentially useful model for the thermoadaptive membrane regulation because of easy growth in the axenic culture, systematic isolation of subcellular organelles, and quick response to temperature stress. Exposure of Tetrahymena cells to the cold temperature induces marked alterations in the lipid composition and the physical properties (fluidity) of various membranes. The increase in fatty acid unsaturation of membrane phospholipids is required to preserve the proper fluidity. In this homeoviscous adaptive response, acyl-CoA desaturase plays a pivotal role and its activity is regulated by induction of the enzyme via transcriptional activation.

    (Communicated by Teruhiko Beppu, M.J.A.)
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  • Kiyoshi TAKATSU
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 463-485
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    While interleukin-5 (IL-5) is initially identified by its ability to support the growth and terminal differentiation of mouse B cells in vitro into antibody-secreting cells, recombinant IL-5 exerts pleiotropic activities on various target cells including B cells, eosinophils, and basophils. IL-5 is produced by both hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells including T cells, granulocytes, and natural helper cells. IL-5 exerts its effects for proliferation and differentiation via receptors that comprise an IL-5-specific α and common β-subunit. IL-5Rα expression in activated B cells is regulated by a complex of transcription factors including E12, E47, Sp1, c/EBPβ, and Oct2. IL-5 signals are transduced through JAK–STAT, Btk, and Ras/Raf-ERK signaling pathways and lead to maintenance of survival and functions of B cells and eosinophils. Overexpression of IL-5 in vivo significantly increases eosinophils and B cells in number, while mice lacking a functional gene for IL-5 or IL-5 receptor display a number of developmental and functional impairments in B cells and eosinophil lineages. In humans, the biologic effects of IL-5 are best characterized for eosinophils. The recent expansion in our understanding of eosinophil development and activation and pathogenesis of eosinophil-dependent inflammatory diseases has led to advance in therapeutic options. Intravenous administration of humanized anti-IL-5 monoclonal antibody reduces baseline bronchial mucosal eosinophils in mild asthma; providing important implications for strategies that inhibit the actions of IL-5 to treat asthma and other allergic diseases.

    (Communicated by Tadamitsu KISHIMOTO, M.J.A.)
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  • Eijiro OZAWA
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 486-508
    Published: November 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    It had long been one of the crucial questions in muscle physiology how glycogenolysis is regulated in connection with muscle contraction, when we found the answer to this question in the last half of the 1960s. By that time, the two principal currents of muscle physiology, namely, the metabolic flow starting from glycogen and the mechanisms of muscle contraction, had already been clarified at the molecular level thanks to our senior researchers. Thus, the final question we had to answer was how to connect these two currents. We found that low concentrations of Ca ions (10−7–10−4 M) released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum for the regulation of muscle contraction simultaneously reversibly activate phosphorylase kinase, the enzyme regulating glycogenolysis. Moreover, we found that adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cyclic AMP), which is already known to activate muscle phosphorylase kinase, is not effective in the absence of such concentrations of Ca ions. Thus, cyclic AMP is not effective by itself alone and only modifies the activation process in the presence of Ca ions (at that time, cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase had not yet been identified). After a while, it turned out that our works have not only provided the solution to the above problem on muscle physiology, but have also been considered as the first report of Ca-dependent protein phosphorylation, which is one of the central problems in current cell biology. Phosphorylase kinase is the first protein kinase to phosphorylate a protein resulting in the change in the function of the phosphorylated protein, as shown by Krebs and Fischer. Our works further showed that this protein kinase is regulated in a Ca-dependent manner. Accordingly, our works introduced the concept of low concentrations of Ca ions, which were first identified as the regulatory substance of muscle contraction, to the vast field of Ca biology including signal transduction.

    (Communicated by Masanori OTSUKA, M.J.A.)
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Original Articles
  • Sinya AOKI, Noriyoshi ISHII, Takumi DOI, Tetsuo HATSUDA, Yoichi IKEDA, ...
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 509-517
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We propose a new method to extract hadron interactions above inelastic threshold from the Nambu–Bethe–Salpeter amplitude in lattice QCD. We consider the scattering such as A + BC + D, where A, B, C, D are names of different 1-particle states. An extension to cases where particle productions occur during scatterings is also discussed.

    (Communicated by Toshimitsu YAMAZAKI, M.J.A.)
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  • Yoshiki MIYATA, Masayo MINAMI, Shin ONBE, Minoru SAKAMOTO, Hiroyuki MA ...
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 518-528
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) radiocarbon dates for eight potsherds from a single piece of pottery from a wetland archaeological site indicated that charred material from the inner pottery surfaces (5052 ± 12 BP; N = 5) is about 90 14C years older than that from the outer surfaces (4961 ± 22 BP; N = 7). We considered three possible causes of this difference: the old wood effect, reservoir effects, and diagenesis. We concluded that differences in the radiocarbon ages between materials from the inner and outer surfaces of the same pot were caused either by the freshwater reservoir effect or by diagenesis. Moreover, we found that the radiocarbon ages of carbonized material on outer surfaces (soot) of pottery from other wetland archaeological sites were the same as the ages of material on inner surfaces (charred food) of the same pot within error, suggesting absence of freshwater reservoir effect or diagenesis.

    (Communicated by Ikuo KUSHIRO, M.J.A.)
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  • Koichiro TSUNEWAKI
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 529-549
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    A homology search of wheat chloroplast (ct) and mitochondrial (mt) genomes identified 54 ctDNA segments that have homology with 66 mtDNA segments. The mtDNA segments were classified according to their origin: orthologs (prokaryotic origin), xenologs (interorganellar DNA transfer origin) and paralogs (intraorganellar DNA amplification origin). The 66 mtDNA sequences with homology to ctDNA segments included 14 paralogs, 18 orthologs and 34 xenologs. Analysis of the xenologs indicated that the DNA transfer occurred unidirectionally from the ct genome to the mt genome. The evolutionary timing of each interorganellar DNA transfer that generated a xenolog was estimated. This analysis showed that 2 xenologs originated early in green plant evolution, 4 in angiosperm evolution, 3 in monocotyledon evolution, 9 during cereal diversification and 8 in the evolution of wheat. Six other xenologs showed recurrent transfer from the ct to mt genomes in more than one taxon. The two remaining xenologs were uninformative on the evolutionary timing of their transfer. The wheat mt nad9 gene was found to be chimeric, consisting of the cereal nad9 gene and its 291 bp 5′-flanking region that included a 58 bp xenolog of the ct-ndhC origin.

    (Contributed by Koichiro TSUNEWAKI, M.J.A.)
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  • Osamu SUZUKI, Takao KANAI, Toshio NISHIKAWA, Yoshie YAMAMOTO, Akira NO ...
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 550-562
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Sugar chain abnormalities in glycolipids and glycoproteins are associated with various diseases. Here, we report an adult onset cardiac dilatation in a transgenic mouse line with Galβ1,3GalNAc α2,3-sialyltransferase II (ST3Gal-II) transgenes. The transgenic hearts at the end-stage, at around 7 months old, were enlarged, with enlarged cavities and thin, low-tensile walls, typical of dilated cardiomyopathy. Although no apparent change was found in heart gangliosides, glycosylation of heart proteins was altered. Interestingly, sugar moieties not directly related to the ST3Gal-II catalytic reaction were also changed. Significant increases in calreticulin and calnexin were observed in hearts of the transgenic mice. These results suggest that expression of ST3Gal-II transgenes induces abnormal protein glycosylation, which disorganizes the endoplasmic/sarcoplasmic reticulum quality control system and elevates the calreticulin/calnexin level, resulting in suppression of cardiac function. The transgenic mice showed 100% incidence of adult onset cardiac dilatation, suggesting great potential as a new model for dilated cardiomyopathy.

    (Communicated by Kunihiko SUZUKI, M.J.A.)
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  • Suyoun CHUNG, Mitsuko NAKASHIMA, Hitoshi ZEMBUTSU, Yusuke NAKAMURA
    2011 Volume 87 Issue 8 Pages 563-573
    Published: October 11, 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: October 11, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Keloid represents overgrowth of granulation tissue, which is characterized by collection of atypical fibroblasts with excessive deposition of extracellular matrix components, after skin injury, but its etiology is still largely unknown. We recently performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) of keloid and identified NEDD4 to be one of candidate molecules associated with keloid susceptibility. Here we demonstrate a possible mechanism of NEDD4 involvement in keloid formation through enhancement of the proliferation and invasiveness of fibroblasts as well as upregulation of type 1 collagen expression. Activation of NEDD4 affected subcellular localization and protein stability of p27 which was implied its critical role in contact inhibition. It also induced accumulation of β-catenin in the cytoplasm and activated the TCF/β-catenin transcriptional activity. Furthermore, NEDD4 upregulated expressions of fibronectin and type 1 collagen and contributed to the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix. Our findings provide new insights into mechanism developing keloid and can be applied for development of a novel treatment for keloid.

    (Communicated by Kumao TOYOSHIMA, M.J.A.)
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