Fault lubrication during earthquakes.

The determination of rock friction at seismic slip rates (about 1 m s(-1)) is of paramount importance in earthquake mechanics, as fault friction controls the stress drop, the mechanical work and the frictional heat generated during slip. Given the difficulty in determining friction by seismological methods, elucidating constraints are derived from experimental studies. Here we review a large set of published and unpublished experiments (∼300) performed in rotary shear apparatus at slip rates of 0.1-2.6 m s(-1). The experiments indicate a significant decrease in friction (of up to one order of magnitude), which we term fault lubrication, both for cohesive (silicate-built, quartz-built and carbonate-built) rocks and non-cohesive rocks (clay-rich, anhydrite, gypsum and dolomite gouges) typical of crustal seismogenic sources. The available mechanical work and the associated temperature rise in the slipping zone trigger a number of physicochemical processes (gelification, decarbonation and dehydration reactions, melting and so on) whose products are responsible for fault lubrication. The similarity between (1) experimental and natural fault products and (2) mechanical work measures resulting from these laboratory experiments and seismological estimates suggests that it is reasonable to extrapolate experimental data to conditions typical of earthquake nucleation depths (7-15 km). It seems that faults are lubricated during earthquakes, irrespective of the fault rock composition and of the specific weakening mechanism involved.

Dynamical Fano-Like Interference between Rabi Oscillations and Coherent Phonons in a Semiconductor Microcavity System.

We report on dynamical interference between short-lived Rabi oscillations and long-lived coherent phonons in CuCl semiconductor microcavities resulting from the coupling between the two oscillations. The Fourier-transformed spectra of the time-domain signals obtained from semiconductor microcavities by using a pump-probe technique show that the intensity of the coherent longitudinal optical phonon of CuCl is enhanced by increasing that of the Rabi oscillation, which indicates that the coherent phonon is driven by the Rabi oscillation through the Fröhlich interaction. Moreover, as the Rabi oscillation frequency decreases upon crossing the phonon frequency, the spectral profile of the coherent phonon changes from a peak to a dip with an asymmetric structure. The continuous wavelet transformation reveals that these peak and dip structures originate from constructive and destructive interference between Rabi oscillations and coherent phonons, respectively. We demonstrate that the asymmetric spectral structures in relation to the frequency detuning are well reproduced by using a classical coupled oscillator model on the basis of dynamical Fano-like interference.

Generation of coherent phonons in a CdTe single crystal using an ultrafast two-phonon laser-excitation process.

The detection-energy dependence of a coherent phonon in a (001) CdTe crystal, generated by ultrashort laser pulses with the center energy transparent or opaque to the sample, is investigated using a spectrally resolved pump-probe method. At the excitation in the transparent region, the detection-energy dependence of the phonon amplitude has two peaks at the energy shifted by one times the phonon energy of CdTe from the center energy of the probe pulses. On the other hand, the amplitude in the opaque region shows two peaks at the energy shifted by about two times the phonon energy. This difference occurs even though the observed energies of the coherent phonons in both regions are the same as that of the longitudinal optical phonon of CdTe. The energy shifts in the detection-energy dependence imply that the emission and absorption of one phonon and two phonons in the transparent and opaque regions, respectively, are implicated in coherent phonon generation. In this study, the detection-energy dependence is examined from the viewpoint of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility based on the impulsive stimulated Raman scattering process under nonresonant and resonant conditions.

Less protease-resistant PrP in a patient with sporadic CJD treated with intraventricular pentosan polysulphate.

Treatment with intraventricular pentosan polysulphate (PPS) might be beneficial in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. We report a 68-year-old woman with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease who received continuous intraventricular PPS infusion (1-120 microg/kg/day) for 17 months starting 10 months after the onset of clinical symptoms. Treatment with PPS was well tolerated but was associated with a minor, transient intraventricular hemorrhage and a non-progressive collection of subdural fluid. The patient's overall survival time was well above the mean time expected for the illness but still within the normal range. Post-mortem examination revealed that the level of abnormal protease-resistant prion protein in the brain was markedly decreased compared with levels in brains without PPS treatment. These findings suggest that intraventricular PPS infusion might modify the accumulation of abnormal prion proteins in the brains of patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Aging attenuates glucocorticoid negative feedback in rat brain.

Aging is thought to be a risk factor to develop vulnerability of the neuroendocrine system, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and dysregulation of this axis characterized by dexamethasone (DEX)-mediated negative feedback resistance is sometimes observed in elderly humans and animals. However, the influence of aging on the feedback system including an involvement of the brain is not fully understood. In the present study, we examined the suppressive effects of DEX by the systemic injection or the intracranial infusion into the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, and hypothalamus on circulating corticosterone levels, and compared between young (3-month-old) and aged (24-month-old) rats. Moreover, we examined expression levels of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and their translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus using immunohistochemical and Western immunoblot techniques in the pituitary in addition to three brain regions. When DEX was injected systemically, the suppressive response was significantly enhanced in aged rats, compared with young rats. When DEX was infused into three brain regions, the suppressive response to DEX was abolished in aged rats. The immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the number of GR positive cells in the PFC, hippocampus, and hypothalamus was decreased, but that in the pituitary was increased, in aged rats, compared with young rats. The Western immunoblot analysis confirmed these results. Thus, basal expression levels of GRs in three brain regions were decreased, but those in the pituitary were increased, in aged rats. After the injection or infusion of DEX, the translocation of GRs in three brain regions was reduced, but that in the pituitary was enhanced, in aged rats. These results suggest that aging in rats enhances the feedback ability at the systemic level, which mainly involves the pituitary, but it attenuates the ability in the brain. These mechanisms may underlie the vulnerable neuroendocrine systems associated with aging.

Endovascular stent-graft repair for spontaneous rupture of the nonaneurysmal thoracic aorta in a patient with Takayasu's arteritis.

Takayasu's arteritis is a disease of unknown etiology with a constellation of clinical findings primarily resulting from stenotic lesions on the aorta and its branches. Although aneurysmal degeneration is observed frequently in patients with Takayasu's arteritis, non-aneurysmal spontaneous aortic rupture is extremely rare. We report a case of endovascular stent grafting for spontaneous rupture of a non-aneurysmal thoracic aorta in Takayasu's arteritis.

Intestinal ischemia induces late preconditioning against myocardial infarction: a role for inducible nitric oxide synthase.

OBJECTIVE: We tested the hypothesis that occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery induces late preconditioning against myocardial infarction and examined the effects of pharmacological modifiers of inducible nitric oxide synthase activity on the late preconditioning in anesthetized rats. METHODS: Rats underwent an intestinal ischemia preconditioning protocol (30 min occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery) or were sham-operated. They were subjected to a sustained 30 min of coronary occlusion and 180 min of reperfusion 24 h later. RESULTS: In rats receiving no pharmacological intervention, the percentage of myocardial infarct within the area at risk and left ventricle was 72+/-4% and 31+/-2%, respectively, in sham-operated rats, and these were significantly reduced to 44+/-4% and 23+/-2% (P<0.01) 24 h after intestinal ischemia preconditioning. Myeloperoxidase activity was significantly reduced by intestinal ischemia preconditioning. Administration of aminoguanidine (300 mg/kg, s.c.) or S-methylisothiourea sulfate (3 mg/kg, i.v.), both relative inducible NO synthase inhibitors, 60 or 30 min before sustained myocardial ischemia not only abolished the late preconditioning afforded by intestinal ischemia, but also inhibited the ability of intestinal ischemia preconditioning to significantly reduce neutrophil infiltration. A change in inducible NO synthase activity was not observed in normal myocardium 24 h after intestinal ischemia, but 30 min of coronary occlusion significantly increased the inducible NO synthase activity in the preconditioned group, which was abolished by aminoguanidine or S-methylisothiourea sulfate. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide pharmacological evidence that induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase, following intestinal ischemia, is associated with increased myocardial tolerance to infarction 24 h later.

Expression cloning of a sheep adreno-ferredoxin using the polymerase chain reaction.

In addition to the selective amplification of cDNA from total RNA by the PCR method, the distinctive properties of ferredoxin-expressing colonies can be used for cloning a ferredoxin cDNA. This strategy for cloning and expressing cDNA in E. coli was applied to a sheep adreno-ferredoxin. The expressed sheep ferredoxin showed a spectral pattern typical of [2Fe-2S] proteins. The amino acid sequence deduced from the DNA sequence showed that the mature form of sheep ferredoxin consists of 128 amino acid residues. This rapid and simple method for cloning and expressing cDNA can be applied to other ferredoxins.

Functional analysis of antibacterial activity of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens phage endolysin against Gram-negative bacteria.

To analyze the antibacterial activity of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens phage endolysin, nine deletion derivatives of the endolysin were constructed. Each deletion mutant was overexpressed, purified and characterized. The catalytic domain was located on the N-terminal region and the C-terminus had an affinity with the bacterial envelope. The enzymatic activity remained in spite of the deletion of the C-terminal 116-amino acid region; however, the antibacterial activity was lost. These results indicate that antibacterial action requires both the C-terminal cell-binding and the N-terminal enzymatic activities.

Stimulation of cell-surface urokinase-type plasminogen activator activity and cell migration in vascular endothelial cells by a novel hexapeptide analogue of neurotensin.

To investigate if neurotensin (NT) could induce activation of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) in vascular endothelial cells, we utilized the acetyl-NT (8-13) analogue, TJN-950, in which the C-terminal leucine is reduced to leucinol. TJN-950 inhibited the binding of 125I-NT to membranes of newborn rat brains and of COS-7 cells transfected with rat NT receptor cDNA, but at 10(4) higher doses than NT (8-13). However, TJN-950 was as effective as NT in inducing the fibrinolytic activity in bovine vascular aortic and human umbilical vein endothelial cells, and enhanced the migration of vascular endothelial cells. Moreover, administration of TJN-950 induced neovascularization in the rat cornea in vivo. TJN-950 had no effect on expression of uPA, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 or uPA receptor mRNA. The binding of 125I-TJN-950 to cell membranes was blocked by unlabeled uPA and TJN-950, but not the amino-terminal or 12-32 fragment of uPA. TJN-950 may enhance uPA activity in vascular endothelial cells by interacting with the uPA receptor, resulting in induction of angiogenesis.

Familial apoceruloplasmin deficiency associated with blepharospasm and retinal degeneration.

A 52-year-old woman had a newly recognized disorder of familial hypoceruloplasminemia, blepharospasm, retinal degeneration, and high-density areas in CT of the basal ganglia and liver scan. Immunofixation electrophoresis disclosed apoceruloplasmin deficiency. Kinetic, x-ray analysis, and histochemical study showed accumulation of iron in liver and brain, but not of copper. Intestinal copper absorption was reduced, but liver uptake was increased. Ceruloplasmin is involved in iron metabolism, and the findings suggest that hypoceruloplasminemia due to lack of apoceruloplasmin was causally linked to the iron deposition in basal ganglia and other organs, leading to blepharospasm and retinal degeneration.

Paradoxical effects of LPS on the T-cell-independent type 2 anti-H-2 alloantigen antibody responses to allogeneic erythrocytes.

Murine allogeneic red blood cells (RBC) induce primary IgM antibody responses to H-2 alloantigens T-cell-independently (TI). In this study we showed that bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which should activate B lymphocytes polyclonally, could not trigger an anti-H-2d plaque-forming cell response. We then demonstrated that administration of LPS (on days 0-1) with allogeneic RBC suppressed the response of mice to H-2d, while giving LPS 4-6 days after RBC augmented the response. In contrast, LPS did not enable allogeneic spleen cells to induce an anti-H-2d response. Additional experiments showed that the allogeneic RBC behave as a TI class 2 antigen. It was concluded from these results that allogeneic RBC display a peculiar activity that exclusively triggers a TI type-2 B cell response that cannot be initiated by LPS and is modulated by LPS in an abnormal fashion. The possible significance of this finding in the mechanism of occurrence of natural H-2-specific IgM alloantibodies in aged mice is discussed.

Augmentation by Corynebacterium liquefaciens of erythrocyte surface H-2 expression and alloimmunogenicity for antibody responses.

Intravenous injection of killed Corynebacterium liquefaciens induced a population of red blood cells that expressed both H-2K and H-2D antigens at exceptionally high density and displayed augmented immunogenicity for H-2 alloantigen-specific B cell activation. Injection of killed Escherichia coli or E. coli lipopolysaccharide was ineffective for the generation of such RBC. RBC that express H-2 antigens at high density first appeared at 7 days after injection of C. liquefaciens. These RBC persisted for more than 50 days, although they lost H-2 antigens gradually with time. The observed phenomenon was not due to enhanced erythropoiesis and peripheral release of immature RBC (reticulocytes); populations of both mature and immature RBC of mice injected with C. liquefaciens expressed H-2 antigens at high density, whereas those from normal mice or mice injected with phenyl hydrazine did not. Appearance of RBC expressing H-2 antigens at high density was preceded by a temporal increase in H-2 expression of bone marrow cells that included precursors of RBC. It was concluded that RBC expressing H-2 antigens at high density were descendants of bone marrow cells whose H-2 expression was augmented by C. liquefaciens. The present communication would be the 1st report of the bacteria-mediated augmentation of cell surface expression and activity of major-histocompatibility-complex class I antigens on host cells in vivo.

Evidence for the erythrocyte as the principal antigenic cell type that triggers primary IgM antibody responses to H-2D alloantigens.

Antigenic requirements for the induction of T cell-independent primary splenic IgM antibody responses (plaque-forming cell responses) to H-2Dd alloantigens were studied. Results show that some functional activity or structural property of the donor cells is required for immunogenicity, because antigens are not active in subcellular forms. An unexpected finding was that allogeneic red blood cells were exceptionally highly immunogenic, and any lymphoid tissues including purified macrophages and tumor cell lines that were not contaminated with red blood cells were virtually nonimmunogenic. The definite role of red blood cells in donor tissues as immunogens was confirmed by water or ammonium chloride treatment that abolished immunogenicity, as well as by phenotyping of the immunogenic cells with antisera. Thus immunogenic cells were positive for erythrocyte-specific and H-2D antigens and negative for Thy-1, Ig, and NK-1. The possible roles of erythrocytes in induction and regulation of transplantation immunity and in B cell activation in general are discussed.

Chronic stress attenuates glucocorticoid negative feedback: involvement of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.

Disruption of the glucocorticoid negative feedback system is observed in approximate one half of human depressives, and a similar condition is induced in animals by chronic stress. This disruption is thought to involve down-regulation of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in the feedback sites of the brain. However, the responsible site of the brain has not been well elucidated. Here we examined the effects of chronic stress induced by water immersion and restraint (2 h/day) for 4 weeks followed by recovery for 10 days on the GR levels in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, and hypothalamus of rats using a Western immunoblot technique. In the PFC, the cytosolic GR levels were decreased, but the nuclear GR levels were not changed. In the hippocampus, the levels of cytosolic and nuclear GRs were increased. However, there were no marked changes in the GR levels in the hypothalamus. The changes in the cytosolic GR levels were confirmed at the mRNA level by an in situ hybridization technique. We next examined the suppressive effects of dexamethasone (DEX) infusions into these regions on the circulating corticosterone levels. When DEX was infused into the PFC or hippocampus of the chronically stressed rats, the suppressive response to DEX was abolished, but the response was normal in the hypothalamus. In addition, when DEX was injected systemically to the chronically stressed rats, the suppressive response to DEX was significantly attenuated. These results suggest that the abnormal changes in GRs in the higher centers of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis are involved in the chronic stress-induced attenuation of the feedback. Since dysfunction of the PFC or hippocampus is implicated in the pathogenesis of depression, the present findings would help to understand the mechanisms underlying the disrupted feedback system and its relation to brain dysfunction in depression.

Control of T-cell-dependent antibody responses of mice to rat antigens by donor cell types.

Administration of rat red blood cells (RBC) into mice induced a rat antigen-specific T-cell-dependent primary antibody response that was detected by a plaque assay using rat RBC as a target. This response was not induced by rat thymocytes or rat spleen cells that should share rat-specific antigens with rat RBC. We then demonstrated that rat spleen cells but not rat thymocytes, which were administered with rat RBC, partially inhibit the action of rat RBC for induction of the anti-rat response. This inhibition required live donor FcR+ cells, and seemed to be specific to rat antigens common to RBC and spleen cells. The findings supported the idea that the control by donor cell types, which was originally shown to work for T-cell-independent antibody response [3,5], should be effective for T-cell-dependent response beyond the species barrier.

The donor cell type controls anti-hapten (fluorescein isothiocyanate) primary antibody response to hapten-modified syngeneic cells.

Hapten (fluorescein isothiocyanate, FITC)-sensitized syngeneic red blood cells (FITC-RBC) are exceptionally active for induction of anti-hapten primary antibody response, and FITC-modified syngeneic spleen cells depleted of RBC (FITC-SSC) are not immunogenic [4]. The present study has demonstrated that FITC-SSC injected simultaneously with FITC-RBC inhibit partially the anti-FITC response to the latter. Either the immunogenicity of FITC-RBC or the response-inhibiting activity of FITC-SSC was increased as the concentration of hapten-sensitizing cells was raised from 0.005 mg/ml to 2 mg/ml. The inhibition of anti-FITC response by FITC-SSC strictly required live donor cells, but was not dependent on T-cell activity of either the donor or recipient. Neither FITC-thymocytes nor the FITC-T-cell-rich fraction of SSC showed a definite activity for inhibition, whereas the FITC-B-cell-rich fraction of SSC acted very effectively. These results suggest that the primary anti-hapten antibody response to hapten-modified syngeneic cells is primarily controlled by antigen-bearing live donor cells of different cell types.

Further evidence for H-2-unrestricted induction of minor histocompatibility antigens-specific T cell immunity in vivo.

Antigenic requirements for inducing minor histocompatibility antigens (MIHA)-specific T cell immunity for second set rejection (SSR) of a MIHA-allogeneic tumor were studied. An intravenous injection of surprisingly small numbers (10(4)-10(5] of live allogenetic spleen cells (SC) effectively primed mice for SSR of the allogeneic tumor, and this immunity was developed as early as 2-3 days after injection of the SC. In contrast, sonication-disrupted allogeneic SC, which should be readily processed by host antigen presenting cells (APC), were not active as immunogens, even at a dose 1000 times higher than the minimum effective dose of live SC. The possibility that host APC preferentially receive MIHA antigens shed by live allogeneic SC for T cell activation was ruled out. These results demonstrated that antigen processing via conventional pathways is very little involved in the mechanism of T cell activation. Under such restricted experimental conditions, the induction phase but not the effector phase of the MIHA-specific T cell immunity was shown to be H-2-unrestricted.

Intact and subcellular form of thymocytes of rats are exceptionally immunogenic in mice for inducing anti-Thy-1 T cell-independent class 2 antibody responses.

Results of the present study show that the primary anti-Thy-1.1 antibody response to rat antigen in Thy-1.2 mice is induced exclusively by thymocyte antigen. Thy-1 antigens of brain and bone marrow, which expressed much Thy-1 antigen, were poorly immunogenic if at all. Brain Thy-1 antigen considerably inhibited the immunogenicity of thymocyte Thy-1. Moreover, we found that subcellular form of thymocytes induce as high antibody responses as intact thymocytes do. The subcellular thymocyte Thy-1 antigen behaved as TI-2 antigen, inducing a good response in athymic nude mice but not in CBA/N mice with a B cell defect. The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to the possible physiological activity of Thy-1 or Thy-1-linked molecules on thymocytes specifically mediating lymphocyte differentiation.

Ontogeny of the erythrocyte-dependent IgM antibody responses to cell membrane antigens.

Our previous experiments characterized the T-cell independent type 2 B-cell responses to cell membrane antigens that are controlled by two donor cell types with different antigen-presenting (AP) activities. We here report about the ontogeny of this novel type of responses with special reference to the mutual relation of the development among two AP activities and their acceptor functions. The responses of mice to H-2d antigens on allogeneic cells and hapten (fluorescein isothiocyanate) antigens on syngeneic cells were examined in parallel. The positive AP activity displayed by red blood cells (RBC) for induction of anti-hapten responses was fully developed in the fetus, although H-2d antigens on the RBC for induction of anti-H-2d responses was immature in mice under 7 days old. In contrast, the negative AP activity displayed by spleen cells (B cells) for inhibition of the RBC-dependent anti-hapten and anti-H-2d responses was first developed in mice about 3 weeks old. The B cell functions accepting the positive and negative AP activities were also matured by that time. The possible significance of these findings in the physiology and pathology of the unique responses was discussed.