Trends in the awareness of salt restriction and actual salt intake in hypertensive patients at a hypertension clinic and general clinic: A one-year follow-up study.

The aim of the present study was to investigate trends in the awareness of salt restriction and actual salt intake in hypertensive patients at a hypertension clinic and general clinic following guidance regarding salt restriction. Subjects comprised 107 patients (mean age 71 ± 12 years) who were followed at a hypertension clinic and 164 patients (mean age 68 ± 11 years) who were followed at a general clinic. Estimated salt intake using spot urine samples and awareness of salt intake using a self-description questionnaire were assessed in 2013 and one year after guidance regarding salt restriction. No significant changes were observed in office blood pressure at the two clinics. Estimated salt intake in 2013 was slightly lower at the hypertension clinic than at the general clinic (8.9 ± 2.5 vs 9.3 ± 2.5 g/day). Estimated salt intake decreased and the awareness of salt intake improved significantly after one year at both clinics; however, the reduction in estimated salt intake was larger at the general clinic than that at the hypertension clinic (-1.6 ± 3.2 vs -0.6 ± 2.9 g/day, p < 0.01). Individual guidance including data on actual salt intake appeared to be effective and important for reducing salt intake in hypertensive patients.

Awareness of salt restriction and actual salt intake in hypertensive patients at a hypertension clinic and general clinic.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate awareness of salt restriction and actual salt intake in hypertensive patients at a hypertension clinic and general clinic. Subjects included 330 patients, with a mean age of 69±12 years, who were followed at a hypertension clinic and 200 patients, with a mean age of 67±11 years, who were followed at a general clinic. We estimated 24-h salt excretion using spot urine samples and checked the awareness of salt intake using a self-description questionnaire. The number of antihypertensive drugs available at the hypertension clinic was significantly higher than that at the general clinic (2.2±1.1 versus 1.6±0.9, p<0.01); however, no significant difference was observed in office systolic blood pressure between the two groups. Urinary salt excretion was significantly lower at the hypertension clinic than at the general clinic (8.7±2.5 versus 9.3±2.5 g/d, p<0.01). The rate of achievement of salt intake<6 g/d was 15% at the hypertension clinic and 6% at the general clinic. In patients with excessive salt intake (≥10 g/d), 28% of patients at the hypertensive clinic and 23% at the general clinic thought that their salt intake was low. Urinary salt excretion in hypertensive patients was lower at a hypertensive clinic than at a general clinic. This may be due to the professional nutritional guidance at the hypertension clinic. However, most patients could not comply with the guidelines, and the awareness of salt restriction in patients with excessive salt intake was low.

Usefulness of the Reborn Soup for the Reduction of Salt Intake.

Aims: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of reborn soup on the perceptions of saltiness and palatability. Methods: Subjects comprised 103 staff working at Kokura Daiichi Hospital (22 males, 81 females, and mean age: 35 ± 12 years old). They tested soups (commercially available soup with 0.9% NaCl solutions (A), commercially available soup with 0.6% NaCl solutions (B), and reborn soup diluted to 0.6% NaCl solutions (C)). Evaluations of saltiness and palatability for each solution were conducted using a visual analog scale in a double-blinded randomized manner. We estimated 24-hour salt excretion using spot urine samples to estimate salt intake and also assessed blood pressure, the awareness of salt intake using a self-description questionnaire score, and other confounding factors including lifestyle factors. Results: In all subjects, the average estimated salt intake was 9.0 ± 2.0 g/day, and the rates at which subjects met the established salt intake targets were 15.1% in 73 females without hypertension (<6.5 g/day), 23.5% in 17 males without hypertension (<7.5 g/day), and 0.0% in 13 subjects with hypertension (<6.0 g/day). In both saltiness and palatability, B scored significantly lower than A, but C scored significantly higher than B. Salt intake levels were categorized into tertiles (Q1, lowest; Q3, highest). C scored significantly higher for palatability in the Q1 group than in the Q3 group. Conclusions: Most participants exceeded the established targets of salt intake. The high-salt-intake group might be able to feel less palatable. Our results indicate that reborn soup may be effective in reducing salt intake without loss of palatability.

Bovine cytochrome c oxidase structures enable O2 reduction with minimization of reactive oxygens and provide a proton-pumping gate.

The O(2) reduction site of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO), comprising iron (Fe(a3)) and copper (Cu(B)) ions, is probed by x-ray structural analyses of CO, NO, and CN(-) derivatives to investigate the mechanism of the complete reduction of O(2). Formation of the derivative contributes to the trigonal planar coordination of and displaces one of its three coordinated imidazole groups while a water molecule becomes hydrogen bonded to both the CN(-) ligand and the hydroxyl group of Tyr244. When O(2) is bound to Fe2+a3 , it is negatively polarized (O2- ), and expected to induce the same structural change induced by CN(-). This structural change allows to receive three electron equivalents nonsequentially from Cu1B+, Fe3+a3, and Tyr-OH, providing complete reduction of O(2) with minimization of production of active oxygen species. The proton-pumping pathway of bovine CcO comprises a hydrogen-bond network and a water channel which extend to the positive and negative side surfaces, respectively. Protons transferred through the water channel are pumped through the hydrogen-bond network electrostatically with positive charge created at the Fe(a) center by electron donation to the O(2) reduction site. Binding of CO or NO to induces significant narrowing of a section of the water channel near the hydrogen-bond network junction, which prevents access of water molecules to the network. In a similar manner, O(2) binding to is expected to prevent access of water molecules to the hydrogen-bond network. This blocks proton back-leak from the network and provides an efficient gate for proton-pumping.

New insights into the superoxide generation sites in bovine heart NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (Complex I): the significance of protein-associated ubiquinone and the dynamic shifting of generation sites between semiflavin and semiquinone radicals.

Considerable disagreement still exists concerning the superoxide generation sites in the purified bovine heart NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (complex I). Majority of investigators agree that superoxide is generated at the flavin site. Here we present a new hypothesis that the generation of superoxide reflects a dynamic balance between the flavosemiquinone (semiflavin or SF) and the semiquinone (SQ), like a "tug-of-war" through electrons. All preparations of bovine heart complex I, which have been isolated at Yoshikawa's laboratory, have one protein-bound endogenous ubiquinone per complex I (Shinzawa-Itoh et al., Biochemistry, 49 (2010) 487-492). Using these preparations, we measured (i) EPR signals of the SF, the SQ and iron-sulfur cluster N2 simultaneously with cryogenic EPR and (ii) superoxide production with both the room temperature spin-trapping technique and the partially acetylated cytochrome c method. Our experimental evidence was (1) without added decylubiquinone (DBQ), no catalytic oxidation of NADH occurs. The NADH addition produced mostly SF and it generated superoxide as reported by Kussmaul and Hirst (PNAS, 103 (2006) 7607-7612). (2) During catalytic electron transfer from NADH to DBQ, the superoxide generation site was mostly shifted to the SQ. (3) A quinone-pocket binding inhibitor (rotenone or piericidin A) inhibits the catalytic formation of the SQ, and it enhances the formation of SF and increases the overall superoxide generation. This suggests that if electron transfer was inhibited under pathological conditions, superoxide generation from the SF would be increased.

X-ray structure of the NO-bound Cu(B) in bovine cytochrome c oxidase.

The X-ray crystallographic structure of nitric oxide-treated bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) in the fully reduced state has been determined at 50 K under light illumination. In this structure, nitric oxide (NO) is bound to the CcO oxygen-reduction site, which consists of haem and a Cu atom (the haem a(3)-Cu(B) site). Electron density for the NO molecule was observed close to Cu(B). The refined structure indicates that NO is bound to Cu(B) in a side-on manner.

Fams-ace: a combined method to select the best model after remodeling all server models.

During Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP7, Pacific Grove, CA, 2006), fams-ace was entered in the 3D coordinate prediction category as a human expert group. The procedure can be summarized by the following three steps. (1) All the server models were refined and rebuilt utilizing our homology modeling method. (2) Representative structures were selected from each server, according to a model quality evaluation, based on a 3D1D profile score (like Verify3D). (3) The top five models were selected and submitted in the order of the consensus-based score (like 3D-Jury). Fams-ace is a fully automated server and does not require human intervention. In this article, we introduce the methodology of fams-ace and discuss the successes and failures of this approach during CASP7. In addition, we discuss possible improvements for the next CASP.

Molecular evidence of sorbitol dehydrogenase in tomato, a non-Rosaceae plant.

The enzyme NAD-dependent sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH) is well characterized in the Rosaceae family of fruit trees, which synthesizes sorbitol as a translocatable photosynthate. Expressed sequence tags of SDH-like sequences have also been generated from various non-Rosaceae species that do not synthesize sorbitol as a primary photosynthetic product, but the physiological roles of the encoded proteins in non-Rosaceae plants are unknown. Therefore, we isolated an SDH-like cDNA (SDL) from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Genomic Southern blot analysis suggested that SDL exists in the tomato genome as a single-copy gene. Northern blot analysis showed that SDL is ubiquitously expressed in tomato plants. Recombinant SDL protein was produced and purified for enzymatic characterization. SDL catalyzed the interconversion of sorbitol and fructose with NAD (H). SDL showed highest activity for sorbitol among the several substrates tested. SDL showed no activity with NADP+. Thus, SDL was identified as a SDH, although the Km values and substrate specificity of SDL were significantly different from those of SDH purified from the Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia), a Rosaceae fruit tree. In addition, tomato was transformed with antisense SDL to evaluate the contribution of SDL to SDH activity in tomato. The transformation decreased SDH activity to approximately 50% on average. Taken together, these results provide molecular evidence of SDH in tomato, and SDL was renamed LeSDH.

Enhanced expression of a novel dioxygenase during the early developmental stage of tomato fruit.

Most previous efforts to isolate genes that are expressed during fruit development have focused on fruit ripening. As a result, information is lacking on fruit genes that are specifically expressed at early developmental stages. Using a cDNA subtraction technique, we isolated fruit-specific genes that are expressed during the cell expansion phase of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) fruit development. One of the isolated cDNAs, LeODD, is transiently expressed 15 days after flowering in a nearly fruit-specific manner during the initial period of cell expansion. Southern blot analysis indicated that LeODD is encoded by a single gene. LeODD is homologous to 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase genes, and the key amino acid residues in the binding sites for ferrous iron and 2-oxoglutarate are completely conserved. The amino acid sequence identity between LeODD and other 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases is relatively low, suggesting that LeODD is a novel enzyme of this family. Another of the isolated cDNAs, LeGLO2, is also highly expressed at 15 days after flowering. LeGLO2 is thought to be a novel glycolate oxidase isoform that functions in fruit. 2-Oxoglutarate, the cosubstrate of LeODD, could be supplied by a LeGLO2-mediated glycolate pathway in immature fruit. The coordinate expression of LeODD and LeGLO2 may play a role in the biosynthesis of a metabolite, such as a plant hormone or secondary metabolite, that is required during the initial period of the cell expansion phase of fruit development.

Manipulation and assembly of small objects in liquid crystals by dynamical disorganizing effect of push-pull-azobenzene-dye.

The phase transition of a nematic liquid crystal containing a push-pull azobenzene dye could be induced efficiently during irradiation with visible light. The dynamical disorganizing effect of the push-pull azobenzene dye on the liquid crystalline order through its trans-cis-trans photoisomerizaion cycle under visible light was contributed to the efficient phase transition. Then, the effects of light irradiation on the motion of small objects dispersed in the liquid crystals containing the push-pull azobenzene were explored, and the manipulation and assembly of those objects were successfully achieved in the nematic phase but also in the smectic phase. The combination of the photo-controlled dynamical change in the liquid crystalline order and the intrinsic self-assembly property of a liquid crystal is promising for use in technologies that require not only the organization of small objects but also the photo-driving of nano- and micro-sized mechanical materials.

Rhenium-catalyzed allylation of C-H bonds of benzoic and acrylic acids.

We have succeeded in the allylation of aromatic and olefinic C-H bonds of benzoic and acrylic acids using a rhenium catalyst, Re(2)(CO)(10). In this reaction, isomerization of the introduced allyl group to the 1-propenyl group did not occur.