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K-134, a phosphodiesterase 3 (PDE3) inhibitor with anti-thrombotic and anti-hyperplastic activity, is being developed for the treatment of intermittent claudication. We assessed the efficacy of K-134 against gait disturbance in two rat experimental peripheral arterial disease (PAD) models: the bilateral laurate-induced PAD model and femoral artery ligation model. In the laurate-induced peripheral arterial disease model, 1 week of repeated oral administration of K-134 significantly improved gait disturbance. Cilostazol and clopidogrel did not significantly improve gait disturbance. Repeated oral administration of K-134 and cilostazol significantly improved gait disturbance in the femoral artery ligation model. We evaluated the effects of K-134 and cilostazol treatment on hindlimb blood flow pre- and post-treadmill exercise in this model by laser Doppler perfusion imaging. Both drugs increased hindlimb blood flow both pre- and post-treadmill exercise after 1 week of treatment. After 4 weeks of drug treatment, without preceding drug administration which is supposed to exert acute effects on vessel walls, both drugs significantly increased hindlimb blood flow after exercise. Moreover, K-134 at 30 mg/kg significantly prolonged walking distance. These results suggest that K-134 may be useful for treating intermittent claudication.

Objective Cilostazol is a phosphodiesterase (PDE)3 inhibitor used to treat peripheral arterial disease with intermittent claudication, as there is clinical evidence that it improves treadmill exercise capacity. However, details of the mechanism underlying this enhanced walking capacity remain to be elucidated. Methods Based on the hypothesis that PDE3 inhibitors improve peripheral microcirculation in the hindlimbs via vascular smooth muscle relaxation and antiplatelet effects, we examined the effects of a more potent and selective PDE3 inhibitor, K-134, in rat models of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Results In a hindlimb ischemia model established by bilateral femoral artery occlusion, oral administration of K-134 for 27 days significantly increased blood flow in hindlimb skeletal muscle after exercise induced by electrical stimulation of the sciatic nerve. Moreover, K-134 enlarged the luminal area of intramuscular arteries and prevented rarefaction of capillary density in the gastrocnemius muscle. These effects were observed without pre-administration on the day following the last administration, suggesting that vasodilatory, antiplatelet and angiogenic activities of K-134 were indirectly responsible for the long-term beneficial effects. In fact, K-134 dose-dependently induced relaxation of rat femoral arteries in vitro , and inhibited rat platelet aggregation ex vivo . Interestingly, in a laurate-induced peripheral vascular injury model, oral administration of K-134 for 6 days prevented progression of hindlimb necrosis. Conclusion These findings suggest that the beneficial effects of PDE3 inhibitors on walking capacity are due to increased hindlimb skeletal muscle blood flow via intramuscular artery enlargement, and that K-134 is a promising drug for PAD associated with platelet hyperaggregability.

Shroud head in a steam separator of ABWR is connected to more than 300 pipes, which are attached by fillet welds. Although the welding causes welding deformation, it is impossible to correct this deformation to the shroud head because the shroud head material is very thick; more than 50 mm. Thus, it is necessary to clarify the mechanism of welding deformation so that it can be quantitatively predicted and controlled. SCC prevention is also essential by residual stress control in reactor internals. The objective of this paper is to predict welding deformation and residual stress for a shroud head, and to investigate the influence of factors such as the inclination angle of the base plate, to which the pipes are connected, on welding deformation and residual stress. Million-finite-element-order large-scale computational method of residual stress and weld distortion has been developed in order to apply directy to complicated weld structures. Details of algorithm and some applications are introduced.Copyright © 2010 by ASME

Adiponectin has been proposed to act as an antidiabetic adipokine, suppressing gluconeogenesis and stimulating fatty acid oxidation in the liver and skeletal muscle. Although adiponectin-knockout (adipo(-/-)) mice are known to exhibit insulin resistance, the degrees of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance are unexpectedly only moderate. In this study, the adipo(-/-) mice showed hepatic, but not muscle, insulin resistance. insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2 was impaired, the IRS-2 protein level was decreased, and insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of Akt was decreased in the liver of the adipo(-/-) mice. However, the triglyceride content in the liver was not increased in these mice, despite the decrease in the PPARalpha expression involved in lipid combustion, since the expressions of lipogenic genes such as SREBP-1 and SCD-1 were decreased in association with the increased leptin sensitivity. Consistent with this, the down-regulation SREBP-1 and SCD-1 observed in the adipo(-/-) mice was no longer observed, and the hepatic triglyceride content was significantly increased in the adiponectin leptin double-knockout (adipo(-/-)ob/ob) mice. On the other hand, the triglyceride content in the skeletal muscle was significantly decreased in the adipo(-/-) mice, probably due to up-regulated AMPK activity associated with the increased leptin sensitivity. In fact, these phenotypes in the skeletal muscle of these mice were no longer observed in the adipo(-/-)ob/ob mice. In conclusion, adipo(-/-) mice showed impaired insulin signaling in the liver to cause hepatic insulin resistance, however, no increase in the triglyceride content was observed in either the liver or the skeletal muscle, presumably on account of the increased leptin sensitivity.

Thiazolidinediones have been shown to up-regulate adiponectin expression in white adipose tissue and plasma adiponectin levels, and these up-regulations have been proposed to be a major mechanism of the thiazolidinedione-induced amelioration of insulin resistance linked to obesity. To test this hypothesis, we generated adiponectin knock-out (adipo-/-) ob/ob mice with a C57B/6 background. After 14 days of 10 mg/kg pioglitazone, the insulin resistance and diabetes of ob/ob mice were significantly improved in association with significant up-regulation of serum adiponectin levels. Amelioration of insulin resistance in ob/ob mice was attributed to decreased glucose production and increased AMP-activated protein kinase in the liver but not to increased glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. In contrast, insulin resistance and diabetes were not improved in adipo-/-ob/ob mice. After 14 days of 30 mg/kg pioglitazone, insulin resistance and diabetes of ob/ob mice were again significantly ameliorated, which was attributed not only to decreased glucose production in the liver but also to increased glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. Interestingly, adipo-/-ob/ob mice also displayed significant amelioration of insulin resistance and diabetes, which was attributed to increased glucose uptake in skeletal muscle but not to decreased glucose production in the liver. The serum-free fatty acid and triglyceride levels as well as adipocyte sizes in ob/ob and adipo-/-ob/ob mice were unchanged after 10 mg/kg pioglitazone but were significantly reduced to a similar degree after 30 mg/kg pioglitazone. Moreover, the expressions of TNFalpha and resistin in adipose tissues of ob/ob and adipo-/-ob/ob mice were unchanged after 10 mg/kg pioglitazone but were decreased after 30 mg/kg pioglitazone. Thus, pioglitazone-induced amelioration of insulin resistance and diabetes may occur adiponectin dependently in the liver and adiponectin independently in skeletal muscle.

Nectins are Ca2+-independent immunoglobulin-like cell-cell adhesion molecules and comprise a family of four members. At the mossy fiber terminals of hippocampus, nectin-1 and nectin-3 localize at the presynaptic and postsynaptic sides of synaptic junctions, respectively, and their trans-interactions play a role in formation of synapses in cooperation with N-cadherin. Nectins are associated with the actin cytoskeleton through afadin, a nectin- and actin-filament-binding protein. Five nectin-like molecules (Necls) which have domain structures similar to those of nectins have been identified and here we characterize Necl-1/TSLL1/SynCAM3, from now on referred to as Necl-1. Tissue distribution analysis showed that Necl-1 was specifically expressed in the neural tissue. Immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy revealed that Necl-1 localized at the contact sites among axons, their terminals, and glia cell processes that cooperatively formed synapses, axon bundles and myelinated axons. Necl-1 showed Ca2+-independent homophilic cell-cell adhesion activity. It furthermore showed Ca2+-independent heterophilic cell-cell adhesion activity with Necl-2/IGSF4/RA175/SgIGSF/TSLC1/SynCAM1 from now on referred to as Necl-2, nectin-1 and nectin-3, but not with Necl-5 or nectin-2. The C-terminal cytoplasmic region of Necl-1 did not bind afadin but bound membrane-associated guanylate kinase subfamily members that contain the L27 domain, including Dlg3, Pals2 and CASK. These results indicate that Necl-1 is a neural-tissue-specific Ca2+-independent immunoglobulin-like cell-cell adhesion molecule which potentially has membrane-associated guanylate kinase subfamily member-binding activity and localizes at the non-junctional cell-cell contact sites.

Frabin is an actin filament (F-actin)-binding protein with GDP/GTP exchange activity specific for Cdc42 small G protein. Expression of frabin forms filopodia-like microspikes through the direct activation of Cdc42, and lamellipodia through indirect activation of Rac small G protein. Frabin consists of the F-actin-binding domain (FAB), the Dbl homology domain (DH), the first pleckstrin homology domain (PH1), the FYVE-finger domain (FYVE), the second PH domain (PH2) from the N-terminus in this order. Although DH and PH1 show exchange activity, FAB, in addition to DH and PH1, is required for the formation of microspikes, whereas FYVE and PH2, in addition to DH and PH1, are required for the formation of lamellipodia.Various truncated mutants of frabin were co-expressed with a dominant active mutant (DA) of Cdc42, Rac1DA, or full-length frabin in L fibroblasts. FAB was recruited to the Cdc42DA-formed filopodia-like microspikes. FAB and a fragment containing DH, PH1, FYVE and PH2 were recruited to the Rac1DA-formed membrane ruffles. Furthermore, each of these fragments served as a dominant negative mutant of frabin when co-expressed with full-length frabin, and inhibited the full-length frabin-formed morphological changes.These results suggest that frabin recognizes a specific actin structure(s) through FAB and a specific membrane structure(s) through FAB and the region containing DH, PH1, FYVE and PH2. It is likely that frabin associates with the specific actin and membrane structures and activates Cdc42 and Rac in the vicinity of these structures, eventually leading to morphological changes.

Frabin is a GDP/GTP exchange protein for Cdc42 small G protein with actin filament-binding activity. Frabin consists of the actin filament-binding domain, the Dbl homology domain, the first pleckstrin homology domain, the FYVE-finger domain, and the second pleckstrin homology domain in this order from the N-terminus. Frabin forms filopodia through direct activation of Cdc42 and lamellipodia through indirect activation of Rac small G protein. We isolated here two smaller splicing variants of frabin and named the original one, middle-size one, and smallest one frabin-alpha, -beta, and -gamma, respectively. Frabin-beta lacked the second pleckstrin homology domain and frabin-gamma lacked the FYVE-finger domain and the second pleckstrin homology domain. These three variants were expressed in all of the tissues examined but their expression levels are different depending on tissues. In L fibroblasts, all the three variants formed filopodia. As to lamellipodia, frabin-alpha formed them; frabin-beta formed them to a small extent; and frabin-gamma did not. In MDCK epithelial cells, frabin-alpha formed microspikes but frabin-beta or -gamma did not.

It is impossible to avoid welding deformations when steel structures such as ships are assembled. Therefore, quantitative prediction and effective control of residual welding deformation are necessary. However, the current finite element analysis requires very long computational time and memory. To solve this problem, we have developed an inherent strain analysis method using idealized explicit FEM and have applied this proposed method to a ship block model. The simulated results agree well with the measured deformation. Furthermore, the influence of various factors on the welding deformation of targeted ship block is also investigated.

Highly precise fabrication of welded materials is in great demand, and so microstructure and distortion controls are essential. Furthermore, consideration of process mechanics is important for intelligent fabrication. In this study, the microstructure and hardness distribution in multi-pass weld metal are evaluated by computational simulations under the conditions of multiple heat cycles and phase transformation. Because conventional CCT diagrams of weld metal are not available even for single-pass weld metal, new diagrams for multi-pass weld metals are created. The weld microstructure and hardness distribution are precisely predicted when using the created CCT diagram for multi-pass weld metal and calculating the weld thermal cycle. Weld distortion is also investigated by using numerical simulation with a thermal elastic-plastic analysis. In conventional evaluations of weld distortion, the average heat input has been used as the dominant parameter; however, it is difficult to consider the effect of molten pool configurations on weld distortion based only on the heat input. Thus, the effect of welding process conditions on weld distortion is studied by considering molten pool configurations, determined by temperature distribution and history.

SummaryIn obese patients with type 2 diabetes, insulin delivery to and insulin-dependent glucose uptake by skeletal muscle are delayed and impaired. The mechanisms underlying the delay and impairment are unclear. We demonstrate that impaired insulin signaling in endothelial cells, due to reduced Irs2 expression and insulin-induced eNOS phosphorylation, causes attenuation of insulin-induced capillary recruitment and insulin delivery, which in turn reduces glucose uptake by skeletal muscle. Moreover, restoration of insulin-induced eNOS phosphorylation in endothelial cells completely reverses the reduction in capillary recruitment and insulin delivery in tissue-specific knockout mice lacking Irs2 in endothelial cells and fed a high-fat diet. As a result, glucose uptake by skeletal muscle is restored in these mice. Taken together, our results show that insulin signaling in endothelial cells plays a pivotal role in the regulation of glucose uptake by skeletal muscle. Furthermore, improving endothelial insulin signaling may serve as a therapeutic strategy for ameliorating skeletal muscle insulin resistance.