Stress fracture of the navicular bone in a patient with cerebral palsy: a case report.

A 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy (spastic diplegia) underwent examination due to a chief complaint of right foot pain, and was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the central one third of the navicular bone. The fracture was considered to have developed due to repeated loading on the navicular bone as a result of an equinus gait.Therefore, she underwent osteosynthesis and Achilles tendon lengthening to correct the equinus deformity. Following our review of the current literature, we did not identify any reports of stress fracture of the navicular bone in cerebral palsy. We believe that in cases where cerebral palsy patients with paralytic equinus complain of foot pain, the possibility of stress fracture of the navicular bone should be considered.

The t-SNAREs syntaxin4 and SNAP23 but not v-SNARE VAMP2 are indispensable to tether GLUT4 vesicles at the plasma membrane in adipocyte.

SNARE proteins (VAMP2, syntaxin4, and SNAP23) have been thought to play a key role in GLUT4 trafficking by mediating the tethering, docking and subsequent fusion of GLUT4-containing vesicles with the plasma membrane. The precise functions of these proteins have remained elusive, however. We have now shown that depletion of the vesicle SNARE (v-SNARE) VAMP2 by RNA interference in 3T3-L1 adipocytes inhibited the fusion of GLUT4 vesicles with the plasma membrane but did not affect tethering of the vesicles to the membrane. In contrast, depletion of the target SNAREs (t-SNAREs) syntaxin4 or SNAP23 resulted in impairment of GLUT4 vesicle tethering to the plasma membrane. Our results indicate that the t-SNAREs syntaxin4 and SNAP23 are indispensable for the tethering of GLUT4 vesicles to the plasma membrane, whereas the v-SNARE VAMP2 is not required for this step but is essential for the subsequent fusion event.

Lag-phase autophagy in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris.

When microbes sense environmental changes, they often temporarily attenuate cell growth to adapt to the new situations, showing a lag phase. In this study, we report that the methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris, induced autophagy during the lag phase after the cells were shifted from glucose to methanol medium. Through the autophagic process at least two proteins, aminopeptidase I precursor and cytosolic aldehyde dehydrogenase, were found to be transported into the vacuole, which was dependent on PpAtg11 and PpAtg17, respectively. Notably, PpAtg1 and PpAtg17 were required for early exit from the lag phase during the methanol adaptation. In accordance, phosphorylation states of elongation initiation factor 2alpha indicated reductions of intracellular amino-acid pools in the atg mutant strains. Together, these data demonstrate the importance of amino acid recycling by autophagy during a cell-remodeling process.

Adipocytes from Munc18c-null mice show increased sensitivity to insulin-stimulated GLUT4 externalization.

Insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in adipocytes is mediated by translocation of vesicles containing the glucose transporter GLUT4 from intracellular storage sites to the cell periphery and the subsequent fusion of these vesicles with the plasma membrane, resulting in the externalization of GLUT4. Fusion of the GLUT4-containing vesicles with the plasma membrane is mediated by a soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) complex consisting of vesicle-associated membrane protein 2 (VAMP2), 23-kDa synaptosomal-associated protein (SNAP23), and syntaxin4. We have now generated mouse embryos deficient in the syntaxin4 binding protein Munc18c and show that the insulin-induced appearance of GLUT4 at the cell surface is enhanced in adipocytes derived from these Munc18c-/- mice compared with that in Munc18c+/+ cells. Wortmannin, an inhibitor of PI3K, inhibited insulin-stimulated GLUT4 externalization, without affecting GLUT4 translocation to the cell periphery, in Munc18c+/+ adipocytes, but it did not affect GLUT4 externalization in Munc18c-/- cells. Phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, which induced GLUT4 translocation to the cell periphery without externalization in Munc18c+/+ cells, elicited GLUT4 externalization in Munc18c-/- cells. These findings demonstrate that Munc18c inhibits insulin-stimulated externalization of GLUT4 in a wortmannin-sensitive manner, and they suggest that disruption of the interaction between syntaxin4 and Munc18c in adipocytes might result in enhancement of insulin-stimulated GLUT4 externalization.

Insulin-stimulated fusion of GLUT4 vesicles to plasma membrane is dependent on wortmannin-sensitive insulin signaling pathway in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

It is established that wortmannin which completely inhibits class IA PI 3-kinase activation abrogated the insulin-dependent translocation of GLUT4 to the plasma membrane in adipocytes and skeletal muscle. However, it was not clear which steps wortmannin inhibited during the whole translocation process of GLUT4. We have now dissected the each steps of the GLUT4 trafficking in 3T3-L1 adipocytes using exogenously-expressed GLUT4 reporter in combination with plasma membrane lawn assay. We showed that 100 nM wortmannin inhibited the fusion of GLUT4 vesicles to the plasma membrane without affecting the movement and the subsequent tethering/docking event of GLUT4 vesicles to the membrane in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. These results suggest that wortmannin-sensitive insulin signaling pathway plays a crucial role in the fusion step of GLUT4 vesicles to the plasma membrane in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.