Inter-clonal competition over queen succession imposes a cost of parthenogenesis on termite colonies.

In social insect colonies, selfish behaviour due to intracolonial conflict among members can result in colony-level costs despite close relatedness. In certain termite species, queens use asexual reproduction for within-colony queen succession but rely on sexual reproduction for worker and alate production, resulting in multiple half-clones of a single primary queen competing for personal reproduction. Our study demonstrates that competition over asexual queen succession among different clone types leads to the overproduction of parthenogenetic offspring, resulting in the production of dysfunctional parthenogenetic alates. By genotyping the queens of 23 field colonies of Reticulitermes speratus, we found that clone variation in the queen population reduces as colonies develop. Field sampling of alates and primary reproductives of incipient colonies showed that overproduced parthenogenetic offspring develop into alates that have significantly smaller body sizes and much lower survivorship than sexually produced alates. Our results indicate that while the production of earlier and more parthenogenetic eggs is advantageous for winning the competition for personal reproduction, it comes at a great cost to the colony. Thus, this study highlights the evolutionary interplay between individual-level and colony-level selection on parthenogenesis by queens.

Differences in extracellular fluid volume between acute heart failure patients with and without high systolic blood pressure.

AIMS: Some reports have suggested that hypertensive acute heart failure (AHF) is caused by intravascular congestion, not interstitial congestion. We evaluated the differences in extracellular fluid volume assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) between AHF patients with and without high systolic blood pressure (sBP). METHODS: This prospective single-centre study (UMIN000030266) included 178 patients hospitalized due to AHF between September 2017 and August 2018. We calculated extracellular water (ECW), intracellular water (ICW), total body water (TBW), and ECW-to-TBW ratio (oedema index: EI) by BIA and evaluated conventional parameters as follows: weight, N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide values, and echocardiography parameters on admission and before discharge. One-year outcomes included all-cause death and re-admission due to heart failure. We compared patients with sBP > 140 mmHg on admission [clinical scenario 1 (CS1) group] and with sBP of ≤140 mmHg on admission (non-CS1 group). RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 79.5 ± 11.1 years, and 48.9% of the patients were female. EI on admission of 83 patients in the CS1 group was lower than that of 95 patients in the non-CS1 group. The change in EI from admission to before discharge was no significant in the CS1 group but was significant in the non-CS1 group. Comparing the changes from admission to before discharge between the CS1 and the non-CS1 group, delta ECW, delta ICW, delta TBW, and delta EI of the CS1 group were significantly smaller than those of the non-CS1 group. During the 1-year follow-up period after discharge of the 178 patients, the numbers of deaths and re-admissions due to acute HF were 26 (15%) and 49 (28%), respectively. Patients with high EI before discharge [>0.408 (median)] had significantly more cardiac events than patients with low EI [hazard ratio (HR): 2.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.30-3.55]. Cox regression analysis revealed that higher EI as a continuous variable was significantly associated with worse outcome in non-CS1 group (HR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.13-1.87), but not significantly associated with worse outcome in CS1 group (HR: 1.29, 95% CI: 0.98-1.69). CONCLUSIONS: EI on admission in patients with high sBP was not elevated, and changes in ECW, ICW, TBW, and EI in patients with high sBP were smaller than those in patients without high sBP. EI measured by BIA could distinguish AHF with interstitial or intravascular congestion.

Pathophysiology and Treatment of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus.

There is a close relationship between diabetes mellitus and heart failure, and diabetes is an independent risk factor for heart failure. Diabetes and heart failure are linked by not only the complication of ischemic heart disease, but also by metabolic disorders such as glucose toxicity and lipotoxicity based on insulin resistance. Cardiac dysfunction in the absence of coronary artery disease, hypertension, and valvular disease is called diabetic cardiomyopathy. Diabetes-induced hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia lead to capillary damage, myocardial fibrosis, and myocardial hypertrophy with mitochondrial dysfunction. Lipotoxicity with extensive fat deposits or lipid droplets is observed on cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, increased oxidative stress and inflammation cause cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy. Treatment with a sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor is currently one of the most effective treatments for heart failure associated with diabetes. However, an effective treatment for lipotoxicity of the myocardium has not yet been established, and the establishment of an effective treatment is needed in the future. This review provides an overview of heart failure in diabetic patients for the clinical practice of clinicians.

Loss of males from mixed-sex societies in termites.

BACKGROUND: Sexual reproduction is the norm in almost all animal species, and in many advanced animal societies, both males and females participate in social activities. To date, the complete loss of males from advanced social animal lineages has been reported only in ants and honey bees (Hymenoptera), whose workers are always female and whose males display no helping behaviors even in normal sexual species. Asexuality has not previously been observed in colonies of another major group of social insects, the termites, where the ubiquitous presence of both male and female workers and soldiers indicate that males play a critical role beyond that of reproduction. RESULTS: Here, we report asexual societies in a lineage of the termite Glyptotermes nakajimai. We investigated the composition of mature colonies from ten distinct populations in Japan, finding six asexual populations characterized by a lack of any males in the reproductive, soldier, and worker castes of their colonies, an absence of sperm in the spermathecae of their queens, and the development of unfertilized eggs at a level comparable to that for the development of fertilized eggs in sexual populations of this species. Phylogenetic analyses indicated a single evolutionary origin of the asexual populations, with divergence from sampled sexual populations occurring about 14 million years ago. Asexual colonies differ from sexual colonies in having a more uniform head size in their all-female soldier caste, and fewer soldiers in proportion to other individuals, suggesting increased defensive efficiencies arising from uniform soldier morphology. Such efficiencies may have contributed to the persistence and spread of the asexual lineage. Cooperative colony foundation by multiple queens, the single-site nesting life history common to both the asexual and sexual lineages, and the occasional development of eggs without fertilization even in the sexual lineage are traits likely to have been present in the ancestors of the asexual lineage that may have facilitated the transition to asexuality. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that completely asexual social lineages can evolve from mixed-sex termite societies, providing evidence that males are dispensable for the maintenance of advanced animal societies in which they previously played an active social role.

Implantation of multiple polytetrafluoroethylene covered stent inside drug eluting stent to rescue purulent coronary artery ectasia with giant saccular aneurysm.

A 79-year-old male with diabetes mellitus and old cerebral infarction was admitted to hospital due to fever and palpitation. Diagnosis of purulent pericarditis was established by pericardial effusion examination. The patient's general condition improved temporarily after drainage of the pericardial effusion. However, computed tomography demonstrated a saccular aneurysm arising from RCA have rapidly grown even larger, up to 63 × 51 mm on 7th hospital day. This indicated that the risk of rupture of the aneurysm was high. Percutaneous coronary intervention was applied to prevent rupture of the aneurysm. Several polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-covered stents were required to cover the extended aneurysm lesion. A long drug-eluting stent (DES), which was initially implanted through the aneurysm, was itself implanted with 3 PTFE-covered stents located inside the DES. This procedure provided protection against endoleak of the aneurysm. To our knowledge, the present case shows for the first time that PTFE-covered stents located within DES are useful in treatment of a giant coronary aneurysm.

Clinical significance of platelet reactivity during prasugrel therapy in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Although some studies have examined platelet reactivity (PR) during prasugrel treatment, little is known about PR during the early treatment period and its clinical significance in Japan. METHODS: We investigated the early and medium-term efficacy and safety of prasugrel in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Seventy-eight patients were enrolled and PR was measured (in P2Y12 reaction units; PRU) by the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay (Accumetrics, San Diego, CA, USA). RESULTS: In 44 patients, serial measurement revealed that PR was significantly higher at 2h after administration of the 20-mg loading dose of prasugrel than on the morning of the second day at 17.6±6.6h after administration (191.6±75.5 vs. 138.5±68.9PRU). During the 8-month follow-up period, bleeding events occurred in 18 patients (23.1%) (GUSTO minor: 15 patients). Multivariate regression analysis identified oral anticoagulant use as a significant predictor of bleeding events during admission [odds ratio (OR): 4.214, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.005-17.669, p=0.049]. Administration of prasugrel via a nasogastric tube was a significant predictor of high on-treatment platelet reactivity (HTPR) (PRU≥230) (OR: 43.100, 95% CI: 4.517-411.251, p=0.001). In addition, HTPR was a significant predictor of major adverse cardiac events (cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, stroke, and sustained ventricular tachycardia) during the 8-month follow-up period (OR: 4.911, 95% CI: 1.164-20.722, p=0.030). CONCLUSIONS: It is feasible to treat AMI patients with prasugrel. HTPR is a significant independent risk factor for adverse events in AMI patients receiving prasugrel after primary PCI.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Three Different Protocols for 3.0T Coronary Magnetic Resonance Angiography.

The usefulness of coronary magnetic resonance angiography (cMRA) has been reported, although the difference in the diagnostic accuracy of different protocols has not been established.We compared conventional coronary angiography (CAG) and cMRA, conducted within 6 months in 24 consecutive patients between September 2012 and July 2014. Three cMRA protocols were examined, cMRA1, free-breathing wholeheart coronary angiography (WHCA) without contrast; cMRA2, free-breathing WHCA with contrast; and cMRA3, breath-hold steady-state free precession with contrast using a 3.0 T scanner. Image quality was graded on a 4-point scale: 1) nonassessable; 2) assessable, fair vessel contrast; 3) assessable, good vessel contrast; and 4) assessable, excellent vessel contrast. Significant narrowing of the coronary arteries was visually assessed.Stenosis was observed in 34 segments, with a prevalence of 10.3%. For cMRA1, cMRA2, and cMRA3, the numbers of assessable segments were 245 (74.2%), 287 (87.0%), and 164 (49.7%), respectively (P < 0.001 by the McNemar test). For assessable segments, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 89.3%, 99.1%, 92.6%, and 98.6% for cMRA1, 90.0%, 98.1%, 84.4%, and 98.8% for cMRA2, and 76.5%, 93.9%, 59.1%, and 97.1% for cMRA3, respectively. For the assessable segments, the image quality score was better with cMRA2 than with the other two protocols.cMRA is a useful modality to rule out coronary artery disease, especially the cMRA2 protocol, which performed better than the other two protocols.