Early osteoarthritis diagnosis based on near-infrared spectroscopy combined with aquaphotomics.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease and the leading cause of disability in elderly individuals. Despite rapid advances in imaging techniques, early OA diagnosis remains a clinical challenge. In the present study, the feasibility of early OA diagnosis was explored via near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) combined with aquaphotomics. Synovial fluid samples from 65 cases of OA categorized as mild, moderate, and severe according to theKellgrenandLawrence classification criteria were analyzed via NIRS. The 1st overtone of water (1300-1600 nm) was considered as the research object for an aquaphotomics model, and aquagrams of the mild, moderate, and severe OA cases were generated using 12 water absorption patterns for early OA diagnosis.The aquaphotomics results exhibited clear differences in the region of 1300-1500 nm, and the number of hydrogen bonds of different water species (1412,1424, 1482, and 1496 nm) evidently correlated with OA occurrence and development. With OA progression, the absorption intensity of water molecules without hydrogen bonds (1412 nm/1424 nm) became stronger, while the absorption intensity of water molecules with four hydrogen bonds (1482 nm/1496 nm) decreased.These results together reveal that the established accurate and rapid early OA diagnosis model based on NIRS combined with aquaphotomics is effective and feasible, and that the number of hydrogen bonds can be used as a biomarker for early OA diagnosis.

Nuclear DNA, chloroplast DNA, and ploidy analysis clarified biological complexity of the Vandenboschia radicans complex (Hymenophyllaceae) in Japan and adjacent areas.

Species complexes consisting of ill-defined "species" are widely known among ferns, and their involvement with reticulate evolution is expected. Nevertheless approaches to reticulation history with DNA markers are not yet commonly adopted. We have successfully elucidated the biological status of the Vandenboschia radicans complex in East Asian islands by combining analyses of ploidy level, a cpDNA marker (rbcL), and a nuclear DNA marker (GapCp). The results based on 266 individuals collected from 174 localities throughout Japan and Taiwan suggest that complicated hybridizations have occurred involving at least three parental diploid species from within the V. radicans complex and Vandenboschia liukiuensis, which was formerly considered to be distinct from this complex. Triploids are the most common cytotype, but they show no evidence of apogamous reproduction, while all nonhybrid diploids are rare and have very limited distribution. Possible accounts of this phenomenon will be briefly discussed including the possibility of relict distribution and occasional apogamous reproduction.