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Background: Severe aortic valve stenosis is relatively more prevalent in patients with repeated bleeding episodes. The goal of the present study was to determine the effect of aortic valve replacement on von Willebrand factor levels in patients with aortic stenosis. Methods: Von Willebrand factor levels were assessed by using immunoblotting electrophoresis techniques before and 1 month after surgery in 29 consecutive patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. Results: Eight of 29 patients reported episodes of bleeding, including three episodes of major bleeding, in the 6 months before surgery. None of the patients were receiving anticoagulation therapy. Although there was no difference in platelet count before and after surgery, von Willebrand factor levels were significantly greater at 1 month after surgery (p = 0.05) when compared with preoperative values. Further, von Willebrand factor levels were significantly lower in patients with aortic valve prosthesis mismatch than in those patients without this phenomenon (p < 0.05). Electrophoresis experiments showed a deficit in large multimers of von Willebrand factor preoperatively but not postoperatively, except for in those patients with aortic valve prosthesis mismatch. Conclusions: In conclusion, valve replacement can result in increases in von Willebrand factor in patients with aortic valve stenosis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The authors report the case of a 72-year-old woman with severe aortic stenosis who had a bleeding tendency develop due to type IIA acquired von Willebrand disease. She underwent aortic valve replacement with a 19-mm Freestyle stentless valve (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, MN). The postoperative course was uneventful and the bleeding tendency resolved. A review of this operative case from our institution demonstrated that aortic valve replacement was one of the most effective treatments of this disease, which can be potentially lifesaving. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Aortobronchial fistula (ABF) is a rare condition that is almost always fatal in the absence of prompt and proper treatment. However, treatment remains challenging, particularly in the aortic arch. We present six operations for 5 such patients, in which no in-hospital deaths occurred. One patient with mycotic aneurysm died suddenly 10 months postoperatively. Another patient required reoperation 5-months after operation due to additional ABF. No pseudoaneurysms or graft-related complications were observed in the remaining patients. In patients with ABF, performance of operations as soon as possible after onset and minimal dissection of adherent lung tissue appear to improve outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To evaluate the long-term outcomes of heart valve replacement with mechanical prosthesis (MP) versus bioprosthesis (BP) in patients on dialysis. A retrospective review was performed at 7 hospitals. Patients on dialysis who underwent valve replacement were included. Survival, reoperation, bleeding, and embolic events were compared across the MP and BP groups. Between April 2000 and April 2016, 312 patients on dialysis were enrolled in our study (MP: 94 patients [30.1%], BP: 218 patients [69.9%]). Mean follow-up was 3.4 ± 3.6 years. Five-year and 10-year survival rates were similar in both groups (MP: 57.4 ± 5.5% at 5 years and 46.3 ± 6.4% at 10 years, BP: 50.2 ± 4.1% at 5 years and 38.8 ± 4.5% at 10 years, P =.305). Multivariate Cox hazard analysis demonstrated that diabetic nephropathy (hazard ratio [HR], 1.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31-2.73, P <.001), New York Heart Association functional classification ≥III (HR, 2.16; 95% CI, 1.37-3.35, P =.001), and mitral valve replacement (HR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.58-3.49, P <.001) were significant risk factors for late death. Valve selection was not a significant risk factor. Freedom from valve-related embolic event at 5 years was significantly lower in the MP group (MP: 88.3 ± 4.3% at 5 years, BP: 97.2 ± 1.6% at 5 years, P =.007). Freedom from valve-related reoperation or hemorrhagic events was similar across both groups. Valve selection was not associated with late survival outcomes in patients on dialysis. However, BP may have an advantage in preventing embolic events without increasing the incidence of valve-related reoperation when compared with MP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benedenia disease is a parasitic disease occurring in cultured marine fish which is caused by the ectoparasite, Benedenia seriolae. This parasitic disease causes serious damage to yellowtail culture due to secondary infections, however prevention methods for the ectoparasite have limited efficacy. Thus, we attempted to initiate a marker-assisted selection (MAS) program to produce a yellowtail strain that has resistance to Benedenia disease. In this study, we conducted a genome scan for quantitative trait loci (QTL) that affect Benedenia disease resistance in five full-sib families using 7910 SNP markers. Sex-specific linkage maps was constructed for the five families and the total number of markers on each map was ranged from 1115 to 1427. We found four significant and five suggestive QTLs affecting Benedenia disease resistance. The phenotypic variation explained (PVE) by each QTL ranged from 8.2% to 29.6%. The QTL with a PVE of 29.6% on LG Squ6 in the family Rr1 was considered to be the major QTL. Novel Benedenia disease resistance QTLs detected in this study enhance our understanding of the genes and genomic regions related to Benedenia disease resistance in yellowtail and can serve as a basis for MAS breeding. • Benedenia disease is one of problems in yellowtail aquaculture production. • A genome scan for QTLs was conducted in five full-sib families. • New QTLs related to Benedenia disease resistance was detected in yellowtail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting antigens that would be protective is crucial for the development of recombinant vaccine using genome based vaccine development, also known as reverse vaccinology. High-throughput antigen screening is effective for identifying vaccine target genes, particularly for pathogens for which minimal antigenicity data exist. Using red sea bream iridovirus (RSIV) as a research model, we developed enzyme - linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) based RSIV-derived 72 recombinant antigen array to profile antiviral antibody responses in convalescent Japanese amberjack ( Seriola quinqueradiata ). Two and three genes for which the products were unrecognized and recognized, respectively, by antibodies in convalescent serum were selected for recombinant vaccine preparation, and the protective effect was examined in infection tests using Japanese amberjack and greater amberjack ( S. dumerili ). No protection was provided by vaccines prepared from gene products unrecognized by convalescent serum antibodies. By contrast, two vaccines prepared from gene products recognized by serum antibodies induced protective immunity in both fish species. These results indicate that ELISA array screening is effective for identifying antigens that induce protective immune responses. As this method does not require culturing of pathogens, it is also suitable for identifying protective antigens to un-culturable etiologic agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about mechanisms of resistance to parasitic diseases in marine finfish. Benedenia disease is caused by infection by the monogenean parasite Benedenia seriolae . Previous quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses have identified a major QTL associated with resistance to Benedenia disease in linkage group Squ2 of the Japanese yellowtail/amberjack Seriola quinqueradiata. To uncover the bioregulatory mechanism of Benedenia disease resistance, complete Illumina sequencing of BAC clones carrying genomic DNA for the QTL region in linkage group Squ2 was performed to reveal a novel C-type lectin in this region. Expression of the mRNA of this C-type lectin was detected in skin tissue parasitized by B. seriolae . Scanning for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) uncovered a SNP in the C-type lectin/C-type lectin-like domain that was significantly associated with B. seriolae infection levels. These results strongly suggest that the novel C-type lectin gene controls resistance to Benedenia disease in Japanese yellowtails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent improvements in next-generation sequencing technology have made it possible to do whole genome sequencing, on even non-model eukaryote species with no available reference genomes. However, de novo assembly of diploid genomes is still a big challenge because of allelic variation. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of utilizing the genome of haploid fish larvae for de novo assembly of whole-genome sequences. We compared the efficiency of assembly using the haploid genome of yellowtail ( Seriola quinqueradiata ) with that using the diploid genome obtained from the dam. De novo assembly from the haploid and the diploid sequence reads (100 million reads per each datasets) generated by the Ion Proton sequencer (200 bp) was done under two different assembly algorithms, namely overlap-layout-consensus (OLC) and de Bruijn graph (DBG). This revealed that the assembly of the haploid genome significantly reduced (approximately 22% for OLC, 9% for DBG) the total number of contigs (with longer average and N50 contig lengths) when compared to the diploid genome assembly. The haploid assembly also improved the quality of the scaffolds by reducing the number of regions with unassigned nucleotides (Ns) (total length of Ns; 45,331,916 bp for haploids and 67,724,360 bp for diploids) in OLC-based assemblies. It appears clear that the haploid genome assembly is better because the allelic variation in the diploid genome disrupts the extension of contigs during the assembly process. Our results indicate that utilizing the genome of haploid larvae leads to a significant improvement in the de novo assembly process, thus providing a novel strategy for the construction of reference genomes from non-model diploid organisms such as fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]