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Objective: This study aimed to determine the effects of different energy loads on the gut microbiota composition and the rates of energy and nutrient excretion via feces and urine. Method s : A randomized crossover dietary intervention study was conducted with three dietary conditions: overfeeding (OF), control (CON), and underfeeding (UF). Ten healthy men were subjected to each condition for 8 days (4 days and 3 nights in nonlaboratory and laboratory settings each). The effects of dietary conditions on energy excretion rates via feces and urine were assessed using a bomb calorimeter. Results: Short‐term energy loads dynamically altered the gut microbiota at the α‐diversity (Shannon index), phylum, and genus levels (p < 0.05). Energy excretion rates via urine and urine plus feces decreased under OF more than under CON (urine −0.7%; p < 0.001, urine plus feces −1.9%; p = 0.049) and UF (urine −1.0%; p < 0.001, urine plus feces −2.1%; p = 0.031). However, energy excretion rates via feces did not differ between conditions. Conclusions: Although short‐term overfeeding dynamically altered the gut microbiota composition, the energy excretion rate via feces was unaffected. Energy excretion rates via urine and urine plus feces were lower under OF than under CON and UF conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a pivotal role in cancer metastasis and treatment resistance, which worsens prognosis. In phase III trials, eribulin improved overall survival in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients. In preclinical studies, eribulin suppressed EMT. However, clinical data on the use of eribulin for MBC patients are limited. In this exploratory, prospective study, we examined the effect of eribulin on EMT in MBC patients. Twenty‐two patients aged 44–82 years with recurrent breast cancer or MBC were treated with eribulin. Breast cancer tissue samples were obtained before treatment and on Day 15 ± 5 of the first cycle of eribulin treatment. EMT markers (E‐cadherin, claudin‐3, vimentin, and N‐cadherin) were analyzed using western blotting. EMT changes were evaluated based on the ratio of epithelial to mesenchymal markers before and after treatment in individual tumors. E‐cadherin/vimentin, claudin‐3/vimentin, E‐cadherin/N‐cadherin, and claudin‐3/N‐cadherin ratios were significantly higher after treatment (p =.007, p =.005, p =.006, and p =.011, respectively). Based on E‐cadherin/vimentin, 65.0% of tumors shifted to an epithelial phenotype, as compared to 66.7% based on claudin‐3/vimentin, 84.6% based on E‐cadherin/N‐cadherin, and 71.4% based on claudin‐3/N‐cadherin ratios. Thus, our results showed that eribulin suppressed EMT in breast cancer tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/Introduction: To prevent diabetic complications, strict glucose control and frequent monitoring of blood glucose levels with invasive methods are necessary. We considered the monitoring of tear glucose levels might be a possible method for non‐invasive glucose monitoring. To develop tear glucose monitoring for clinical application, we investigated the precise correlation between the blood and tear glucose concentrations. Materials and Methods: A total of 10 participants and 20 participants with diabetes were admitted, and blood and tear samples were collected. Before statistical analysis, we eliminated tear samples contaminated with blood. We observed the daily blood and tear glucose dynamics, and carried out a random intercept model analysis to examine the association between the blood and tear glucose concentrations. Results: Tear occult blood tests showed that the tear glucose concentrations and their variation increased in both participants with and without diabetes as contamination of blood increased. In both participants with and without diabetes, fluctuations of the plasma glucose concentrations were observed depending on the timing of collection of the samples, and the dynamics of the tear glucose concentrations paralleled those of the plasma glucose concentrations. The random intercept model analysis showed a significant association between the plasma and tear glucose concentrations in participants with diabetes (P < 0.001). This association still existed even after adjusting for the glycated hemoglobin levels and the prandial state (P < 0.001). Conclusions: It is important to eliminate the tear samples contaminated with blood. Tear glucose monitoring might be a reliable and non‐invasive substitute method for monitoring the blood glucose concentrations for diabetes patients, irrespective of glycated hemoglobin levels and timing of sample collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metastatic progression remains the major cause of death in human breast cancer. Cancer cells with cancer stem cell (CSC) properties drive initiation and growth of metastases at distant sites. We have previously established the breast cancer patient‐derived tumor xenograft (PDX) mouse model in which CSC marker CD44+ cancer cells formed spontaneous microscopic metastases in the liver. In this PDX mouse, the expression levels of S100A10 and its family proteins were much higher in the CD44+ cancer cells metastasized to the liver than those at the primary site. Knockdown of S100A10 in breast cancer cells suppressed and overexpression of S100A10 in breast cancer PDX cells enhanced their invasion abilities and 3D organoid formation capacities in vitro. Mechanistically, S100A10 regulated the matrix metalloproteinase activity and the expression levels of stem cell–related genes. Finally, constitutive knockdown of S100A10 significantly reduced their metastatic ability to the liver in vivo. These findings suggest that S100A10 functions as a metastasis promoter of breast CSCs by conferring both invasion ability and CSC properties in breast cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everolimus (EVE), an inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin, is an emerging second‐line therapeutic option for hormone therapy‐resistant breast cancers. However, some patients do not respond to EVE, whereas in others it exacerbates the disease. Cellular inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A) is a human oncoprotein that can promote cancer cell growth and apoptosis resistance. Although CIP2A is upregulated in hormone‐related cancers, such as breast cancer, little is known about potential anti‐tumor effects of downregulating CIP2A. As a model to study the resistance of breast cancer cells to hormone treatment, we previously established clones of long‐term estrogen depletion‐resistant MCF‐7 (LTED) cells. Here, we selected three clones highly responsive to EVE and three clones poorly responsive to EVE. When cells were treated with EVE, CIP2A mRNA expression was decreased in highly responsive EVE clones (DC‐cells) whereas it was increased in poorly responsive EVE clones (IC‐cells). Using Kaplan–Meier survival plots, we report that high expression of CIP2A was associated with significantly reduced overall survival in patients with luminal A breast cancer. In IC‐cells, cell growth was enhanced upon EVE treatment whereas an EVE range of 0.1–100 nm decreased growth in DC‐cells. The mRNA expression of genes involved in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) such as CDH1, CLDN3, and CK19 was significantly decreased in IC‐cells, but remained unchanged in DC‐cells. These findings highlight a relationship between CIP2A and EMT in the intrinsic resistance of hormone therapy‐resistant breast cancers to EVE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-translational regulation of aromatase has not been well characterized as compared with transcriptional regulation. Several studies of post-translational regulation have focused on decreases in catalytic activity following phosphorylation. We report here dual post-translational regulation of aromatase, at the catalytic activity and protein levels. Microsomal aromatase prepared from JEG-3 cells was rapidly inactivated and subsequently degraded in the presence of a cytosolic fraction with calcium, magnesium, and ATP. In a reconstituted system consisting of microsomal and cytosolic fractions, aromatase was protected from protein degradation by treatment with alkaline phosphatase, whereas degradation was enhanced by treatment with calcineurin inhibitors ( FK506 and cyclosporin A). Furthermore, aromatase was protected from degradation by treatment with kinase inhibitors, especially the calcium/calmodulin kinase inhibitors KN62 and KN93. Similarly to the reconstituted system, aromatase in cultured JEG-3 cells was protected from degradation by KN93, whereas FK503 increased degradation in the presence of cycloheximide, although cellular aromatase m RNA levels were unchanged by these reagents. Knockdown of calcineurin and calcium/calmodulin kinase II (Ca MKII) with small interfering RNAs resulted in a dose-dependent increase in aromatase degradation and protection from degradation, respectively. The cytosol fraction-dependent phosphorylation of microsomal aromatase was inhibited by calcineurin, KN62, and KN93, and promoted by Ca MKII and FK506. These results indicate that aromatase is regulated acutely at the catalytic activity level and subsequently at the enzyme content level by Ca MKII/calcineurin-dependent phosphorylation/dephosphorylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the proliferation of high-speed IP connection service, video communication service has been attracting attention. In order to realize high-quality video communication service, it is important to carry out appropriate quality design prior to providing service and to adequately monitor and administer the service. To this end, it is necessary to establish a quality evaluation technique that appropriately expresses the quality enjoyed by the user and evaluates the video quality appropriately and rapidly. In this paper, a video quality assessment method is proposed for coding distortions at a wide range of bit rates, assuming use in a PC vision environment. The proposed method performs evaluation with weighting that takes account of blurring of the edge portion, generation of new edges, and deterioration in the time axis direction. The estimation accuracy of the present objective quality evaluation method is confirmed by adding coding distortions to the input video of 36 standard video scenes. Accuracy similar to the fluctuations of the subjective quality assessment is obtained, indicating that the method is sufficient for objective video quality assessment. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 89(12): 97– 108, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.20265 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examined a data transfer scheme that distributes packets to multiple routes over the Internet and evaluated this scheme by simulating the packet distribution method in the routes and the effect of resequencing the packet order. The simulation examined file transfers over two routes having the same transmission rate. The fixed transfer delay time, delay variations, and packet losses indicated the network quality. When distributing packets to the route having a short send buffer time on the data transfer side and resequencing packets on the data receiving side, the most stable throughput was obtained by a scheme that released the queue when given a packet loss decision when the sequencing of the data was not updated even if packets were received from two routes. In addition, if the scheme alternately routes the packets between two routes when the difference in the delay times of the two routes falls within four packet times, the same performance as the previous scheme is obtained even without resequencing the packets. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 85(12): 89–99, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.1144 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]