Volume 3 Issue 2
Authors: Masato Ohmi; Mitsuo Kuwabara; Masamitsu Haruna
Abstract: OCT is a powerful tool for detection of physiological functions of micro organs underneath the human skin surface, besides the clinical application to ophthalmology, as recently demonstrated by the authors’ group. In particular, dynamics of peripheral vessels can be observed clearly in the time-sequential OCT images. Among the vascular system, only the small artery has two physiological functions both for the elastic artery and for muscle-controlled one. It, therefore, is important for dynamic analysis of blood flow and circulation. In the time-sequential OCT images obtained with 25 frames/s, it is found that the small artery makes a sharp response to sound stress for contraction and expansion while it continues pulsation in synchronization with the heartbeats. This result indicates that the small artery exhibits clearly the two physiological functions for blood flow and circulation. In response to sound stress, blood flow is controlled effectively by thickness change of the tunica media which consists of five to six layers of smooth muscles. It is thus found that the thickness of the tunica media changes remarkably in response to external stress, which shows theactivity of the sympathetic nerve. The dynamic analysis of the small artery presented here will allow us not only to understand the mechanism of blood flow control and also to detect abnormal physiological functions in the whole vascular system.
Keywords: OCT; Dynamic Analysis; Peripheral Vessels; Small Artery; Sympathetic Nerve
Authors: Sailakshmi G.; Tapas Mitra; Suvro Chatterjee; A. Gnanamani
Abstract: This is the time to search an alternative cross-linker which will provide a non-toxic and mechanically stable biopolymer material. In order to achieve the requisite property, in the present study, we have chosen glutaric acid and studied its interaction with chitosan. A 3D scaffold biopolymer material prepared using chitosan and glutaric acid, displayed requisite mechanical strength and in addition found biocompatible for NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells. The interaction chemistry and the characteristics of the biopolymer material obtained upon cross-linking suggest non-covalent interactions play the major role in deciding the property of the said materials and its suitability for biomedical applications.
Keywords: Ionic Cross-Linking; Glutaric Acid; Glutaraldehyde; Chitosan; Bioinformatics
Authors: Tadahiro Sunagawa; Yutaka Ohta; Manabu Sami; Tomomasa Kanda; Kyoichi Osada
Abstract: Apple polyphenol (AP) mainly consists of procyanidins and has been reported to improve blood cholesterol levels and promote excretion of cholesterol in rats fed high-cholesterol diets. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of AP, we investigated whether dietary AP changed the hepatic expression of genes related to cholesterol metabolism and steroid transport. Four-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were pair-fed with diets containing 0.5% cholesterol together with 0% (control), 0.2%, and 0.5% AP, respectively, for 30 days. Administration of 0.5% AP was found to improve serum total cholesterol levels (0.69-fold vs. control, p < 0.05), and increase hepatic LDL receptor (LDLR) mRNA (1.59-fold vs. control, p < 0.0001). There was a negative correlation between serum non-HDL cholesterol and LDLR mRNA (p < 0.001). Administration of 0.5% AP increased excretion of primary bile acids (2.96-fold vs. control, p < 0.0001) and up-regulated the expression of steroid catabolism genes such as sterol 12α-hydroxylase (CYP8B1). However, improvements in cholesterol levels were not associated with the hepatic expression of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1), the rate-limiting enzyme in bile acid biosynthesis. Expression of farnesoid X receptor (FXR), which is involved in the regulation of bile acid biosynthesis, was up-regulated by 0.5% AP (1.56-fold vs. control, p < 0.01), and FXR mRNA levels correlated positively with bile acid excretion (p < 0.01). These results show that dietary AP improved blood cholesterol levels with adequate intake of LDL from blood by increasing hepatic LDLR expression and promoting production of bile acid with an up-regulation of genes related to steroid catabolism.
Keywords: Apple Polyphenol; Procyanidin; Cholesterol Metabolism; LDL Receptor
Authors: Usha Sarma; Jagadish Mahanta; Biswajyoti Borkakoty; Kunja L. Talukdar
Abstract: Background: Persistent infection of uterine cervix by human papilloma virus (HPV) among which high risk HPV (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 52, and 58 collectively) are associated with cervical carcinogenesis. Cervical cancer precedes a precursor stage termed as cervical dysplasia or intraepithelial neoplasia which takes long years for development of invasive cancer. Aim: To studythe prevalence of HPV infection in uterine cervix and to correlate the HPV status of the cervical scrapping with the routine method of cervical cytology by Papanicolaou stain. Methodology: The studyincluded 226 no ofcervical scrapping from married non pregnant women attending gynecology OPD for both Pap smear and PCR testing to detect HPV DNA. The Nested PCR using primers for L1 consensus gene with My09/My11 & GP6+/GP5+ used for screening HPV followed by multiplex PCR which was carried out to detect HPV 16 & HPV18 by respective primers. Result: One hundred and ninety nine Papsmears were reported as NILM and 27 smears showed presence of SIL and invasive cervical carcinoma. PCR results detected9.7% of the patientsto be HPV positive out of which 5.3% cases were HR HPV 16 positive, 2.6 % cases were HPV 18 positive and 1.8% cases were HPV positive other than HPV 16 & 18.The sensitivity and specificity of the study were0.8182 (95%CI 0.5974-0.9481) and 0.9559 (95% CI 0.9178-0.9796) with positive predictive value being 0.6667(95% CI 0.4600-0.8349).
Keywords: Human Papiloma Virus; Pap Smear; Nested PCR; Dysplasia; SIL
Authors: Yoshihiro Izawa; Yasuhisa Omura
Abstract: The authors already proposed an advanced and reliable alcoholic-intake detection method by analysing the photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals, where the specific spectral-intensity ratio zone (specific SIRZ) to characterize the alcohol intake was demonstrated. However, the zone definition is not ensured from the point of view of statistics. This paper statistically examines the reliability of specific SIRZ definition.
Keywords: Photoplethysmogram; Alcohol Intake Detection; Specific Spectral-Intensity Ratio; Statistical Examination
Authors: Yuichi Kurita; Toshio Tsuji; Tomohiro Kawahara; Masazumi Okajima; Hiroyuki Egi; Hideki Ohdan; Tsukasa Ogasawara
Abstract: Haptic information is crucial for the execution of precise and dexterous manipulations. During minimally invasive surgery, doctors are required to indirectly sense force-related information from body organs and tissues via a surgical instrument because they cannot directly touch the tissue. Against such a background, skill evaluation based on force measurement is useful for judging whether a person has adequate manipulation skills. This paper addresses the challenge of automatically classifying basic manipulations performed with surgical grasping forceps. First, manipulations performed with forceps during laparoscopic surgery were categorized into four basic types from video observation. Grasping forceps with force-sensing capability were developed to support identification of these types, which were automatically classified by monitoring information on the force applied to the forceps. An experiment to investigate the efficacy of the proposed method produced manipulation logs showing that doctors are capable of conducting tasks with less force than novices. It was also confirmed that the prototype forceps are suitable for practical use in animal experiments.
Keywords: Minimally Invasive Surgery; Forceps Manipulation; Automatic Classification