Spinal cord injury by direct damage during trigger point injection: a case report.

Trigger point injection (TPI) is commonly administered for myofascial pain syndrome management, but occasionally leads to complications, including bleeding, muscle hematoma, vasovagal syncope, skin infections, and pneumothorax. This report presents a case of TPI-induced iatrogenic spinal cord injury (SCI). A 59-year-old woman received TPI for myofascial pain on both thoracolumbar paraspinal muscles. She experienced an electric shock sensation throughout the lower extremities upon receiving blind TPI in the left thoracolumbar paraspinal muscle, and later complained of weakness (manual muscle test grade: 0-2) and neuropathic pain (numeric rating scale [NRS]: 7) in the lower left extremity. Thoracolumbar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 3 days after the TPI revealed a high-intensity T2 signal in the left T12 to L2 spinal cord segments, indicating the presence of edema or inflammation in this region. In concordance with the MRI findings, electrophysiological recordings performed 11 days after the TPI revealed no central motor conduction time response in the left leg. At 7 months post-onset, the patient had partially recovered motor function and neuropathic pain was reduced to NRS 4. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of needle-induced SCI during paraspinal muscle TPI; imaging guidance may be helpful for accurate needle targeting during the procedure.

Functional identification of oleate 12-desaturase and ω-3 fatty acid desaturase genes from Perilla frutescens var. frutescens.

KEY MESSAGE: We described identification, expression, subcellular localization, and functions of genes that encode fatty acid desaturase enzymes in Perilla frutescens var. frutescens. Perilla (Perilla frutescens var. frutescens) seeds contain approximately 40 % of oil, of which α-linolenic acid (18:3) comprise more than 60 % in seed oil and 56 % of total fatty acids (FAs) in leaf, respectively. In perilla, endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-localized and chloroplast-localized ω-3 FA desaturase genes (PfrFAD3 and PfrFAD7, respectively) have already been reported, however, microsomal oleate 12-desaturase gene (PfrFAD2) has not yet. Here, four perilla FA desaturase genes, PfrFAD2-1, PfrFAD2-2, PfrFAD3-2 and PfrFAD7-2, were newly identified and characterized using random amplification of complementary DNA ends and sequence data from RNAseq analysis, respectively. According to the data of transcriptome and gene cloning, perilla expresses two PfrFAD2 and PfrFAD3 genes, respectively, coding for proteins that possess three histidine boxes, transmembrane domains, and an ER retrieval motif at its C-terminal, and two chloroplast-localized ω-3 FA desaturase genes, PfrFAD7-1 and PfrFAD7-2. Arabidopsis protoplasts transformed with perilla genes fused to green fluorescence protein gene demonstrated that PfrFAD2-1 and PfrFAD3-2 were localized in the ER, and PfrFAD7-1 and PfrFAD7-2 were localized in the chloroplasts. PfrFAD2 and perilla ω-3 FA desaturases were functional in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) indicated by the presence of 18:2 and 16:2 in yeast harboring the PfrFAD2 gene. 18:2 supplementation of yeast harboring ω-3 FA desaturase gene led to the production of 18:3. Therefore, perilla expresses two functional FAD2 and FAD3 genes, and two chloroplast-localized ω-3 FA desaturase genes, which support an evidence that P. frutescens cultivar is allotetraploid plant.

Ectopic overexpression of castor bean LEAFY COTYLEDON2 (LEC2) in Arabidopsis triggers the expression of genes that encode regulators of seed maturation and oil body proteins in vegetative tissues.

The LEAFY COTYLEDON2 (LEC2) gene plays critically important regulatory roles during both early and late embryonic development. Here, we report the identification of the LEC2 gene from the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis), and characterize the effects of its overexpression on gene regulation and lipid metabolism in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. LEC2 exists as a single-copy gene in castor bean, is expressed predominantly in embryos, and encodes a protein with a conserved B3 domain, but different N- and C-terminal domains to those found in LEC2 from Arabidopsis. Ectopic overexpression of LEC2 from castor bean under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter in Arabidopsis plants induces the accumulation of transcripts that encodes five major transcription factors (the LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1), LEAFY COTYLEDON1-LIKE (L1L), FUSCA3 (FUS3), and ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE 3 (ABI3) transcripts for seed maturation, and WRINKELED1 (WRI1) transcripts for fatty acid biosynthesis), as well as OLEOSIN transcripts for the formation of oil bodies in vegetative tissues. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants that express the LEC2 gene from castor bean show a range of dose-dependent morphological phenotypes and effects on the expression of LEC2-regulated genes during seedling establishment and vegetative growth. Expression of castor bean LEC2 in Arabidopsis increased the expression of fatty acid elongase 1 (FAE1) and induced the accumulation of triacylglycerols, especially those containing the seed-specific fatty acid, eicosenoic acid (20:1(Δ11)), in vegetative tissues.

Flow-rate measurements of a dual-phase pipe flow by cross-correlation technique of transmitted radiation signals.

The flow rate measurements of dual-phase pipe flow were conducted with a couple of sealed radioisotopes for the cross-correlation technology. The flow was produced in an acrylic tubing of which internal diameter is 8cm and into which pressurized nitrogen gas was periodically injected. Under the given conditions where the distance between two sources is four times of the diameter, N/S ratio ranges from 0.12 to 0.15 and the data sampling time is 4ms, the measured flow rates were estimated with the maximum relative error of 1.7%. From the subsequent experiments, it was proven that the closer the distance between the two sealed sources is, the higher the precision of measurement result is. It is anticipated that the industrial application of the technique for flow rate measurements in an in-service process can play an important role for monitoring multi-phase process media in petrochemical and refinery industries.