Periostin in inflammation and allergy

We found for the first time that IL-4 and IL-13, signature type 2 cytokines, are able to induce periostin expression. We and others have subsequently shown that periostin is highly expressed in chronic inflammatory diseases―asthma, atopic dermatitis, eosinophilc chronic sinusitis/chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyp, and allergic conjunctivitis—and that periostin plays important roles in the pathogenesis of these diseases. The epithelial/mesenchymal interaction via periostin is important for the onset of allergic inflammation, in which periostin derived from fibroblasts acts on epithelial cells or fibroblasts, activating their NF-κB. Moreover, the immune cell/non-immune cell interaction via periostin may be also involved. Now the significance of periostin has been expanded into other inflammatory or fibrotic diseases such as scleroderma and pulmonary fibrosis. The cross-talk of periostin with TGF-β or pro-inflammatory cytokines is important for the underlying mechanism of these diseases. Because of its pathogenic importance and broad expression, diagnostics or therapeutic drugs can be potentially developed to target periostin as a means of treating these diseases.     

陈国达矿(Ag9FeTe2S4): 胶东地区金矿床中发现的硫碲化物新矿物

陈国达矿(Ag9FeTe₂S₄), 产于中国胶东金矿区埠南金矿的含金-银的黄铜矿-石英脉中, 呈5~70 μm的半自形-他形粒状与方铅矿、黄铜矿、碲银矿、银金矿、自然银、未定名的Ag₆TeS₂, Ag₁₆FeBiTe₃S₈共生, 并被自然银和螺状硫银矿包围交代. 其平均化学成分(16个EPMA分析值)为Ag_8.97Fe_1.00Te_1.99S_4.04, 理想化学式Ag₉FeTe₂S₄. 利用甘多菲照相及同步辐射迴摆照相技术, 获得陈国达矿的67个衍射线, 主要衍射强线的d值和相对强度(括号中)为: 6.742(69), 6.416(39), 5.951(33), 3.265(100), 2.981(24), 2.649(22), 2.25(24), 2.188(71), 2.142(22), 2.123(31), 2.044(23), 1.949(33). 该衍射数据指标化为斜方晶系, a = 12.769 (2) Å, b = 14.814(2) Å, c = 16.233 (1) Å, V = 3070.6 ų, Z = 9, d_cal = 6.85 g/cm³. 反光显微镜下, 陈国达矿的光学性质与硫银锡矿接近, 浅灰色, 无明显非均质性, 摩氏硬度2~3, 颜色指数: x = 0.3027, y = 0.3076, Y = 25.78%, λ_d = 474 nm, Pe = 3.68%. 该矿物以中国地质学家、地洼学说的创立人陈国达教授的姓名命名. 该矿物及命名经IMA-CNMMN于2004年投票通过. 2005年作者补充数据后, 由CNMMN主席正式公布, 批准号2004-042a.     

微重力条件下的InxGa1-xSb晶体生长研究

InxGa1-xSb晶体是吸收波长可以在1.7–6.8μm范围内调控的三元半导体晶体,在红外探测、热光伏电池领域具有重要的应用前景,但由于其固液相线相距很远,容易形成成分偏析和结晶缺陷,且重力对流会增加晶体生长界面处物质输送的不均匀性,使得地面环境下难于生长高质量的InxGa1-xSb晶体.微重力环境由于抑制了自然对流,为晶体生长提供了良好条件,本文综述了微重力环境对InxGa1-xSb半导体晶体成分偏析和晶体缺陷的影响,并介绍了中国返回式微重力科学卫星实践十号上的InxGa1-xSb三元晶体的空间生长实验成果.     

Fibulin-5/DANCE is essential for elastogenesis in vivo.

The elastic fibre system has a principal role in the structure and function of various types of organs that require elasticity, such as large arteries, lung and skin. Although elastic fibres are known to be composed of microfibril proteins (for example, fibrillins and latent transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta-binding proteins) and polymerized elastin, the mechanism of their assembly and development is not well understood. Here we report that fibulin-5 (also known as DANCE), a recently discovered integrin ligand, is an essential determinant of elastic fibre organization. fibulin-5-/- mice generated by gene targeting exhibit a severely disorganized elastic fibre system throughout the body. fibulin-5-/- mice survive to adulthood, but have a tortuous aorta with loss of compliance, severe emphysema, and loose skin (cutis laxa). These tissues contain fragmented elastin without an increase of elastase activity, indicating defective development of elastic fibres. Fibulin-5 interacts directly with elastic fibres in vitro, and serves as a ligand for cell surface integrins alphavbeta3, alphavbeta5 and alpha9beta1 through its amino-terminal domain. Thus, fibulin-5 may provide anchorage of elastic fibres to cells, thereby acting to stabilize and organize elastic fibres in the skin, lung and vasculature.     

The medaka draft genome and insights into vertebrate genome evolution

Teleosts comprise more than half of all vertebrate species and have adapted to a variety of marine and freshwater habitats. Their genome evolution and diversification are important subjects for the understanding of vertebrate evolution. Although draft genome sequences of two pufferfishes have been published, analysis of more fish genomes is desirable. Here we report a high-quality draft genome sequence of a small egg-laying freshwater teleost, medaka (Oryzias latipes). Medaka is native to East Asia and an excellent model system for a wide range of biology, including ecotoxicology, carcinogenesis, sex determination and developmental genetics. In the assembled medaka genome (700 megabases), which is less than half of the zebrafish genome, we predicted 20,141 genes, including approximately 2,900 new genes, using 5'-end serial analysis of gene expression tag information. We found single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at an average rate of 3.42% between the two inbred strains derived from two regional populations; this is the highest SNP rate seen in any vertebrate species. Analyses based on the dense SNP information show a strict genetic separation of 4 million years (Myr) between the two populations, and suggest that differential selective pressures acted on specific gene categories. Four-way comparisons with the human, pufferfish (Tetraodon), zebrafish and medaka genomes revealed that eight major interchromosomal rearrangements took place in a remarkably short period of approximately 50 Myr after the whole-genome duplication event in the teleost ancestor and afterwards, intriguingly, the medaka genome preserved its ancestral karyotype for more than 300 Myr.     

Direct observation of Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid state in carbon nanotubes at low temperatures

The electronic transport properties of conventional three-dimensional metals are successfully described by Fermi-liquid theory. But when the dimensionality of such a system is reduced to one, the Fermi-liquid state becomes unstable to Coulomb interactions, and the conduction electrons should instead behave according to Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid (TLL) theory. Such a state reveals itself through interaction-dependent anomalous exponents in the correlation functions, density of states and momentum distribution of the electrons. Metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are considered to be ideal one-dimensional systems for realizing TLL states. Indeed, the results of transport measurements on metal-SWNT and SWNT-SWNT junctions have been attributed to the effects of tunnelling into or between TLLs, although there remains some ambiguity in these interpretations. Direct observations of the electronic states in SWNTs are therefore needed to resolve these uncertainties. Here we report angle-integrated photoemission measurements of SWNTs. Our results reveal an oscillation in the pi-electron density of states owing to one-dimensional van Hove singularities, confirming the one-dimensional nature of the valence band. The spectral function and intensities at the Fermi level both exhibit power-law behaviour (with almost identical exponents) in good agreement with theoretical predictions for the TLL state in SWNTs.     

Free fatty acids regulate insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells through GPR40

Diabetes, a disease in which carbohydrate and lipid metabolism are regulated improperly by insulin, is a serious worldwide health issue. Insulin is secreted from pancreatic beta cells in response to elevated plasma glucose, with various factors modifying its secretion. Free fatty acids (FFAs) provide an important energy source as nutrients, and they also act as signalling molecules in various cellular processes, including insulin secretion. Although FFAs are thought to promote insulin secretion in an acute phase, this mechanism is not clearly understood. Here we show that a G-protein-coupled receptor, GPR40, which is abundantly expressed in the pancreas, functions as a receptor for long-chain FFAs. Furthermore, we show that long-chain FFAs amplify glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells by activating GPR40. Our results indicate that GPR40 agonists and/or antagonists show potential for the development of new anti-diabetic drugs.     

应用高速摄像技术研究柴油机的喷雾过程

用高速ＣＣＤ摄像机在定容容器内对３种不同背压下的柴油机喷雾进行了试验研究,摄像机采集图像的速度定为４０５００ｆｒａｍｅ／ｓ。应用计算机图像处理技术对采集的喷雾图像进行了边缘提取,定量给出了喷雾贯穿度的结果。文中还就三通阀开启时间、燃油喷射时序等进行了讨论。     

Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms

Today's surface ocean is saturated with respect to calcium carbonate, but increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are reducing ocean pH and carbonate ion concentrations, and thus the level of calcium carbonate saturation. Experimental evidence suggests that if these trends continue, key marine organisms--such as corals and some plankton--will have difficulty maintaining their external calcium carbonate skeletons. Here we use 13 models of the ocean-carbon cycle to assess calcium carbonate saturation under the IS92a 'business-as-usual' scenario for future emissions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. In our projections, Southern Ocean surface waters will begin to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite, a metastable form of calcium carbonate, by the year 2050. By 2100, this undersaturation could extend throughout the entire Southern Ocean and into the subarctic Pacific Ocean. When live pteropods were exposed to our predicted level of undersaturation during a two-day shipboard experiment, their aragonite shells showed notable dissolution. Our findings indicate that conditions detrimental to high-latitude ecosystems could develop within decades, not centuries as suggested previously.     

Dodecagonal tiling in mesoporous silica

Recent advances in the fabrication of quasicrystals in soft matter systems have increased the length scales for quasicrystals into the mesoscale range (20 to 500 ?ngstr?ms). Thus far, dendritic liquid crystals, ABC-star polymers, colloids and inorganic nanoparticles have been reported to yield quasicrystals. These quasicrystals offer larger length scales than intermetallic quasicrystals (a few ?ngstr?ms), thus potentially leading to optical applications through the realization of a complete photonic bandgap induced via multiple scattering of light waves in virtually all directions. However, the materials remain far from structurally ideal, in contrast to their intermetallic counterparts, and fine control over the structure through a self-organization process has yet to be attained. Here we use the well-established self-assembly of surfactant micelles to produce a new class of mesoporous silicas, which exhibit 12-fold (dodecagonal) symmetry in both electron diffraction and morphology. Each particle reveals, in the 12-fold cross-section, an analogue of dodecagonal quasicrystals in the centre surrounded by 12 fans of crystalline domains in the peripheral part. The quasicrystallinity has been verified by selected-area electron diffraction and quantitative phason strain analyses on transmission electron microscope images obtained from the central region. We argue that the structure forms through a non-equilibrium growth process, wherein the competition between different micellar configurations has a central role in tuning the structure. A simple theoretical model successfully reproduces the observed features and thus establishes a link between the formation process and the resulting structure.