Impact of inhalation exposure to cigarette smoke on the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension primed by monocrotaline in rats.

Extensive, long-term exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) was recently suggested to be a risk factor for pulmonary hypertension, although further validation is required. The vascular effects of CS share similarities with the etiology of pulmonary hypertension, including vascular inflammation and remodeling. Thus, we examined the influence of CS exposure on the pathogenesis of monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary hypertension, hypothesizing that smoking might accelerate the development of primed pulmonary hypertension. CS was generated from 3R4F reference cigarettes, and rats were exposed to CS by inhalation at total particulate matter concentrations of 100-300 µg/L for 4 h/day, 7 days/week for 4 weeks. Following 1 week of initial exposure, rats received 60 mg/kg MCT and were sacrificed and analyzed after an additional 3 weeks of exposure. MCT induced hypertrophy in pulmonary arterioles and increased the Fulton index, a measure of right ventricular hypertrophy. Additional CS exposure exacerbated arteriolar hypertrophy but did not further elevate the Fulton index. No significant alterations were observed in levels of endothelin-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor, or in hematological and serum biochemical parameters. Short-term inhalation exposure to CS exacerbated arteriolar hypertrophy in the lung, although this effect did not directly aggravate the overworked heart under the current experimental conditions.

Securing Your Airspace: Detection of Drones Trespassing Protected Areas.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) deployment has risen rapidly in recent years. They are now used in a wide range of applications, from critical safety-of-life scenarios like nuclear power plant surveillance to entertainment and hobby applications. While the popularity of drones has grown lately, the associated intentional and unintentional security threats require adequate consideration. Thus, there is an urgent need for real-time accurate detection and classification of drones. This article provides an overview of drone detection approaches, highlighting their benefits and limitations. We analyze detection techniques that employ radars, acoustic and optical sensors, and emitted radio frequency (RF) signals. We compare their performance, accuracy, and cost under different operating conditions. We conclude that multi-sensor detection systems offer more compelling results, but further research is required.

OPTILOD: Optimal Beacon Placement for High-Accuracy Indoor Localization of Drones.

For many applications, drones are required to operate entirely or partially autonomously. In order to fly completely or partially on their own, drones need to access location services for navigation commands. While using the Global Positioning System (GPS) is an obvious choice, GPS is not always available, can be spoofed or jammed, and is highly error-prone for indoor and underground environments. The ranging method using beacons is one of the most popular methods for localization, especially for indoor environments. In general, the localization error in this class is due to two factors: the ranging error, and the error induced by the relative geometry between the beacons and the target object to be localized. This paper proposes OPTILOD (Optimal Beacon Placement for High-Accuracy Indoor Localization of Drones), an optimization algorithm for the optimal placement of beacons deployed in three-dimensional indoor environments. OPTILOD leverages advances in evolutionary algorithms to compute the minimum number of beacons and their optimal placement, thereby minimizing the localization error. These problems belong to the Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) class and are both considered NP-hard. Despite this, OPTILOD can provide multiple optimal beacon configurations that minimize the localization error and the number of deployed beacons concurrently and efficiently.

NADPH Oxidase 1 Mediates Acute Blood Pressure Response to Angiotensin II by Contributing to Calcium Influx in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells.

BACKGROUND: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium ions (Ca2+) are among the major effectors of Ang II (angiotensin II) in vascular smooth muscle cells. ROS are related to Ca2+ signaling or contraction induced by Ang II, but little is known about their detailed functions. Here, NOX (NADPH oxidase), a major ROS source responsive to Ang II, was investigated regarding its contribution to Ca2+ signaling. METHODS: Vascular smooth muscle cells were primary cultured from rat aorta. Ca2+ and ROS were monitored mainly using fura-2 and HyPer family probes' respectively. Signals activating NOX were examined with relevant pharmacological inhibitors and genetic manipulation techniques. RESULTS: Ang II-induced ROS generation was found to be biphasic: the first phase of ROS production, which was mainly mediated by NOX1, was small and transient, preceding a rise in Ca2+, and the second phase of ROS generation, mediated by NOX1 and NOX4, was slow but sizeable, continuing over tens of minutes. NOX1-derived superoxide in the first phase is required for Ca2+ influx through nonselective cation channels. AT1R (Ang II type 1 receptor)-Gßγ-PI3Kγ (phosphoinositide 3-kinase γ) signaling pathway was responsible for the rapid activation of NOX1 in the first phase, while in the second phase, NOX1 was further activated by a separate AT1R-Gαq/11-PLC (phospholipase C)-PKCß (protein kinase C ß) signaling axis. Consistent with these observations, aortas from NOX1-knockout mice exhibited reduced contractility in response to Ang II, and thus the acute pressor response to Ang II was also attenuated in NOX1-knockout mice. CONCLUSIONS: NOX1 mediates Ca2+ signal generation and thereby contributes to vascular contraction and blood pressure elevation by Ang II.

Contrastive Learning-Based Anomaly Detection for Actual Corporate Environments.

Information systems play an important role in business management, especially in personnel, budget, and financial management. If an anomaly ensues in an information system, all operations are paralyzed until their recovery. In this study, we propose a method for collecting and labeling datasets from actual operating systems in corporate environments for deep learning. The construction of a dataset from actual operating systems in a company's information system involves constraints. Collecting anomalous data from these systems is challenging because of the need to maintain system stability. Even with data collected over a long period, the training dataset may have an imbalance of normal and anomalous data. We propose a method that utilizes contrastive learning with data augmentation through negative sampling for anomaly detection, which is particularly suitable for small datasets. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we compared it with traditional deep learning models, such as the convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM). The proposed method achieved a true positive rate (TPR) of 99.47%, whereas CNN and LSTM achieved TPRs of 98.8% and 98.67%, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate the method's effectiveness in utilizing contrastive learning and detecting anomalies in small datasets from a company's information system.

Blood Test for Breast Cancer Screening through the Detection of Tumor-Associated Circulating Transcripts.

Liquid biopsy has been emerging for early screening and treatment monitoring at each cancer stage. However, the current blood-based diagnostic tools in breast cancer have not been sufficient to understand patient-derived molecular features of aggressive tumors individually. Herein, we aimed to develop a blood test for the early detection of breast cancer with cost-effective and high-throughput considerations in order to combat the challenges associated with precision oncology using mRNA-based tests. We prospectively evaluated 719 blood samples from 404 breast cancer patients and 315 healthy controls, and identified 10 mRNA transcripts whose expression is increased in the blood of breast cancer patients relative to healthy controls. Modeling of the tumor-associated circulating transcripts (TACTs) is performed by means of four different machine learning techniques (artificial neural network (ANN), decision tree (DT), logistic regression (LR), and support vector machine (SVM)). The ANN model had superior sensitivity (90.2%), specificity (80.0%), and accuracy (85.7%) compared with the other three models. Relative to the value of 90.2% achieved using the TACT assay on our test set, the sensitivity values of other conventional assays (mammogram, CEA, and CA 15-3) were comparable or much lower, at 89%, 7%, and 5%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of TACTs were appreciably consistent across the different breast cancer stages, suggesting the potential of the TACTs assay as an early diagnosis and prediction of poor outcomes. Our study potentially paves the way for a simple and accurate diagnostic and prognostic tool for liquid biopsy.

A mixture of chloromethylisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone impairs rat vascular smooth muscle by depleting thiols and thereby elevating cytosolic Zn2+ and generating reactive oxygen species.

Chloromethylisothiazolinone (CMIT) and methylisothiazolinone (MIT) are biocidal preservatives and the active ingredients in Kathon CG, which contains ca. 1.5% mixture of CMIT and MIT at a ratio of 3:1 (CMIT/MIT). CMIT/MIT was misused as humidifier disinfectant products, which caused serious health problems in Korea. Here, the vascular effects of CMIT/MIT were investigated to evaluate claims of putative cardiovascular toxicity observed in humidifier disinfectant users. CMIT/MIT did not affect the basal tension of the rat thoracic aorta up to 2.5 µg/mL in myograph experiments. Instead, pretreatment with CMIT/MIT impaired phenylephrine- or 5-hydroxytryptamine-induced vasoconstriction in a range of 0.5-2.5 µg/mL, which was largely irreversible and not recovered by washing out the CMIT/MIT. Similarly, the application of CMIT/MIT to pre-contracted aorta caused a gradual loss of tension. In primary cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), CMIT/MIT caused thiol depletion, which in turn led to cytosolic Zn2+ elevation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation. CMIT/MIT-induced shrinkage, detachment, and lysis of VSMCs depending on the concentration and the treatment time. All events induced by CMIT/MIT were prevented by a thiol donor N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Cytolysis could be inhibited by a Zn2+ chelator TPEN and a superoxide scavenger TEMPOL, whereas they did not affect shrinkage and detachment. In accordance with these results, CMIT/MIT-exposed aortas exhibited dissociation and collapse of tissue in histology analysis. Taken together, CMIT/MIT causes functional impairment and tissue damage to blood vessels by depleting thiol and thereby elevating cytosolic Zn2+ and generating ROS. Therefore, exposure to CMIT/MIT in consumer products may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disorders.

Deconvolution of diffuse gastric cancer and the suppression of CD34 on the BALB/c nude mice model.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is a considerable burden for worldwide patients. And diffuse gastric cancer is the most insidious subgroup with poor survival. The phenotypic characterization of the diffuse gastric cancer cell line can be useful for gastric cancer researchers. In this article, we aimed to characterize the diffuse gastric cancer cells with MRI and transcriptomic data. We hypothesized that gene expression pattern is associated with the phenotype of the cells and that the heterogeneous enhancement pattern and the high tumorigenicity of SNU484 can be modulated by the perturbation of the highly expressed gene. METHODS: We evaluated the 9.4 T magnetic resonance imaging and transcriptomic data of the orthotopic mice models from diffuse gastric cancer cells such as SNU484, Hs746T, SNU668, and KATO III. We included MKN74 as an intestinal cancer control cell. After comprehensive analysis integrating MRI and transcriptomic data, we selected CD34 and validated the effect by shRNA in the BALB/c nude mice models. RESULTS: SNU484, SNU668, Hs746T, and MKN74 formed orthotopic tumors by the 5 weeks after cell injection. The diffuse phenotype was found in the SNU484 and Hs746T. SNU484 was the only tumor showing the heterogeneous enhancement pattern on T2 images with a high level of CD34 expression. Knockdown of CD34 decreased the round-void shape in the H&E staining (P = 0.028), the heterogeneous T2 enhancement, and orthotopic tumorigenicity (100% vs 66.7%). The RNAseq showed that the suppressed CD34 is associated with the downregulated gene-sets of the extracellular matrix remodeling. CONCLUSION: Suppression of CD34 in the human-originated gastric cancer cell suggests that it is important for the round-void histologic shape, heterogeneous enhancement pattern on MRI, and the growth of gastric cancer cell line.

Retention in care in aging adults with a dual diagnosis of HIV infection and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a longitudinal retrospective cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the measures of retention in care (RIC) in persons living with HIV (PLWH) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by age group (younger vs. older adults). METHODS: This was a longitudinal retrospective cross-sectional study that used secondary data from the Center for AIDS Research Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS). We examined RIC in 798 adult PLWH + T2DM who visited a CNICS clinic at least once in 2015. Six measures of RIC were examined: missed visits [measured as a continuous variable (total number of missed visits) and dichotomous variable (0 = never missed, 1 = missed)], visit adherence, 6-month visit gap, 4-month visit constancy, and the Health and Resources Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau's RIC measure. We calculated Spearman correlation coefficients and conducted logistic regression and multi-group path analysis. RESULTS: Most RIC measures were significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with one another; only 4-month visit constancy was not correlated with other measures. Except for the number of missed visits in older adult PLWH + T2DM, we found no significant relationships between RIC measures and CD4 cell count using logistic regression. However, multi-group path analysis demonstrated significant positive relationships between most RIC measures and CD4 cell count in both age groups. In younger adults living with HIV (YALWH) + T2DM, HbA1c level, but not CD4 count, was significantly associated with most RIC measures. CONCLUSIONS: RIC is related to disease control (CD4 cell count and HbA1c level) in PLWH + T2DM and notably, HbA1c level was only significantly affected in YALWH + T2DM. A future study is needed to find more accurate reasons for the fact that only HbA1c level had significant relationships in YALWH + T2DM. The findings from this study provide guidance in measuring RIC in PLWH who have comorbidities.

Epidemiological Characterization of a Directed and Weighted Disease Network Using Data From a Cohort of One Million Patients: Network Analysis.

BACKGROUND: In the past 20 years, various methods have been introduced to construct disease networks. However, established disease networks have not been clinically useful to date because of differences among demographic factors, as well as the temporal order and intensity among disease-disease associations. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to investigate the overall patterns of the associations among diseases; network properties, such as clustering, degree, and strength; and the relationship between the structure of disease networks and demographic factors. METHODS: We used National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) data from the Republic of Korea, which included the time series insurance information of 1 million out of 50 million Korean (approximately 2%) patients obtained between 2002 and 2013. After setting the observation and outcome periods, we selected only 520 common Korean Classification of Disease, sixth revision codes that were the most prevalent diagnoses, making up approximately 80% of the cases, for statistical validity. Using these data, we constructed a directional and weighted temporal network that considered both demographic factors and network properties. RESULTS: Our disease network contained 294 nodes and 3085 edges, a relative risk value of more than 4, and a false discovery rate-adjusted P value of <.001. Interestingly, our network presented four large clusters. Analysis of the network topology revealed a stronger correlation between in-strength and out-strength than between in-degree and out-degree. Further, the mean age of each disease population was related to the position along the regression line of the out/in-strength plot. Conversely, clustering analysis suggested that our network boasted four large clusters with different sex, age, and disease categories. CONCLUSIONS: We constructed a directional and weighted disease network visualizing demographic factors. Our proposed disease network model is expected to be a valuable tool for use by early clinical researchers seeking to explore the relationships among diseases in the future.

Rehabilitation Program Combined with Local Vibroacoustics Improves Psychophysiological Conditions in Patients with ACL Reconstruction.

Background and objective: This study investigated the therapeutic effect of applying local body vibration (LBV) with built-in vibroacoustic sound on patients who had an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four participants were randomly classified into a LBV group (LBVG; n = 11) or a non-LBV group (nLBVG; n = 13). Both groups received the same program; however, the LBVG received LBV. Psychological measures included pain, anxiety, and symptoms; physiological measures included systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure, heart rate (HR), breathing rate (BR), sympathetic activation (SA), parasympathetic activation (PSA), range of motion (ROM), and isokinetic muscle strength at Weeks 0, 4, and 8. Results: Among the psychophysiological variables, pain, anxiety, symptoms, SBP, BR, and SA were significantly reduced in both groups, whereas HR, PSA, isokinetic peak torque (PT) of the knee joint, and ROM were significantly improved only in the LBVG. Comparing both groups, a significant difference appeared in pain, symptom, SA, PSA, isokinetic PT, and ROM at Weeks 4 and 8. Conclusions: The results indicate that the LBV intervention mitigated the participants' pain and symptoms and improved their leg strength and ROM, thus highlighting its effectiveness.

Paramagnetic Carbon Nanosheets with Random Hole Defects and Oxygenated Functional Groups.

Ordered graphitic carbon nanosheets (GCNs) were, for the first time, synthesized by the direct condensation of multifunctional phenylacetyl building blocks (monomers) in the presence of phosphorous pentoxide. The GCNs had highly ordered structures with random hole defects and oxygenated functional groups, showing paramagnetism. The results of combined structural and magnetic analyses indicate that the hole defects and functional groups are associated with the appearance and stabilization of unpaired spins. DFT calculations further suggest that the emergence of stabilized spin moments near the edge groups necessitates the presence of functionalized carbon atoms around the hole defects. That is, both hole defects and oxygenated functional groups are essential ingredients for the generation and stabilization of spins in GCNs.

Nonlocal Spin Diffusion Driven by Giant Spin Hall Effect at Oxide Heterointerfaces.

A two-dimensional electron gas emerged at a LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface is an ideal system for "spin-orbitronics" as the structure itself strongly couple the spin and orbital degree of freedom through the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. One of core experiments toward this direction is the nonlocal spin transport measurement, which has remained elusive due to the low spin injection efficiency to this system. Here we bypass the problem by generating a spin current not through the spin injection from outside but instead through the inherent spin Hall effect and demonstrate the nonlocal spin transport. The analysis on the nonlocal spin voltage, confirmed by the signature of a Larmor spin precession and its length dependence, displays that both D'yakonov-Perel' and Elliott-Yafet mechanisms involve in the spin relaxation at low temperature. Our results show that the oxide heterointerface is highly efficient in spin-charge conversion with exceptionally strong spin Hall coefficient γ ∼ 0.15 ± 0.05 and could be an outstanding platform for the study of coupled charge and spin transport phenomena and their electronic applications.

Optical biochemical sensor based on half-circled microdisk laser diode.

In this study, a half-circled cavity based microdisk laser diode is proposed and demonstrated experimentally for an integrated photonic biochemical sensor. Conventional microdisk sensors have limitations in optical coupling and reproducibility. In order to overcome these drawbacks, we design a novel half-circled micro disk laser (HC-MDL) which is easy to manufacture and has optical output directionality. The Q-factor of the fabricated HC-MDL was measured as 7.72 × 106 using the self-heterodyne method and the side mode suppression ratio was measured as 23 dB. Moreover, gas sensing experiments were performed using the HC-MDL sensor. A wavelength shift response of 14.21 pm was obtained for 100 ppb dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) gas and that of 14.70 pm was obtained for 1 ppm ethanol gas. These results indicate the possibility of highly sensitive gas detection at ppb levels using HC-MDL. This attractive feature of the HC-MDL sensor is believed to be very useful for a wide variety of optical biochemical sensor applications.

Nioella aestuarii sp. nov., of the family Rhodobacteraceae, isolated from tidal flat.

A bacterium, designated strain MME-018T, was isolated from a tidal flat of the Muui-do in the Republic of Korea and identified within the family Rhodobacteraceae. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate showed the highest similarity to that of Nioella sediminis JS7-11T (98.9 %), followed by Nioella nitratireducens SSW136T (97.1 %). In phylogenetic analyses, these taxa formed a clade at neighbour-joining, maximum-likelihood, and maximum-parsimony algorithms, in which it was separated from other genus belonging to the family Rhodobacteraceae. Ubiquinone-10 (Q-10) was the major respiratory quinone. Major polar lipids included phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified phospholipids, and an unidentified lipid. Major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) C16 : 0, cyclo C19 : 0ω8c, and 11-methyl C18 : 1ω7c. Genomic DNA G+C content was 61 mol%. Cells were Gram-stain negative, non-motile, aerobic, and rod-shaped. This strain grew in 1‒4 % (w/v) NaCl, at 4-40 °C and pH 6.0‒8.0, with optimal growth in 2 % (w/v) NaCl, at 25‒30 °C and pH 7.0. DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain MME-018T and Nioella sediminis KCTC 42144T and Nioella nitratireducens KCTC 32417T were 17±3 and 13±1 %, respectively. On the basis of polyphasic taxonomic analysis, strain MME-018T is proposed to represent a novel species of the genus Nioella, for which the name Nioellaaestuarii sp. nov. The type strain of Nioellaaestuarii is MME-018T (=KCCM 43135T=JCM 30752T).

Paenibacillus arcticus sp. nov., isolated from Arctic soil.

A Gram-positive, endospore-forming, strictly aerobic and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain MME2_R6T, was isolated from Arctic soil, and it was identified by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. This strain was psychrotolerant, growing at 4‒24 °C. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain MME2_R6T was closest to Paenibacillus swuensis DY6T, with 93.9 % similarity. However, in phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, strain MME2_R6T showed that it clustered with Paenibacillus contaminans CKOBP-6T and the sequencing similarity between the two species was 93.7 %. Its major cellular fatty acid was anteiso-C15 : 0, like other Paenibacillus species. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone-7. The diagnostic diamino acid in the cell wall was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The genomic DNA G+C content was 44.2 mol%. Based on the results of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, a novel species, Paenibacillus arcticus sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is MME2_R6T (=JCM 30981T=PAMC 28731T).

Flavimarina flava sp. nov., isolated from Salicornia herbacea.

A Gram-stain-negative, motile-by-gliding, aerobic, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped and yellow-pigmented bacterium was isolated from Salicornia herbacea in the Yellow Sea and designated as strain MBLN091T. It belonged to the family Flavobacteriaceae. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of this isolated strain was similar to that of Flavimarina pacifica IDSW-73T with 94.8 % similarity, and with 92.3-92.8 % similarities to those of other closely related species of the genus Leeuwenhoekiella. The similarities of the RNA polymerase subunit B gene between this strain and F. pacifica KCTC 32466T and Leeuwenhoekiella marinoflava DSM 3653T were 80.5 and 80.2 %, respectively. Growth of strain MBLN091T was observed in the presence of 0.5‒15.0 % (w/v) NaCl at 4‒35 °C and pH 6.0-8.0, with optimal growth in the presence of 2.5‒5.0 % (w/v) NaCl at 20‒25 °C and pH 7.0. This isolate was able to hydrolyse gelatin. The only respiratory quinone was MK-6. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminolipid and two unidentified lipids. Major fatty acids of the isolate were iso-C15 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1 ω7c and/or C16 : 1 ω6c), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 1 G. The genomic DNA G+C content was 39.6 mol%. The physiological features were closely related to F. pacifica. Therefore, strain MBLN091T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Flavimarina, for which the name Flavimarina flava sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MBLN091T (=KCTC 52527T=JCM 31731T).

Discovery of Parasite Eggs in Archeological Residence during the 15th Century in Seoul, Korea.

During civil engineering construction near Sejong-ro, Jongro-ku, Seoul, cultural sites were found that are thought to have been built in the 15th century. This area was home to many different people as well as the leaders of the Yi dynasty. To gain further insight into the life styles of the inhabitants of the old capital, soil samples were collected from various areas such as toilets, water foundations, and drainage ways. Parasite eggs were examined by microscopy after 5 g soil samples were rehydrated in 0.5% trisodium phosphate solution. A total of 662 parasite eggs from 7 species were found. Species with the highest number of eggs found were Ascaris lumbricoides (n=483), followed by Trichuris trichiura (138), Trichuris vulpis (21), Fasciola hepatica (8), Clonorchis sinensis (6), Paragonimus westermani (4), and Metagonimus yokogawai (2). These findings indirectly indicate the food habits of the people in Yi dynasty.

AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Mediates the Antiplatelet Effects of the Thiazolidinediones Rosiglitazone and Pioglitazone.

The thiazolidinedione antidiabetic drugs rosiglitazone and pioglitazone exert antiplatelet effects. Such effects are known to be mediated by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), an acknowledged target of the thiazolidinediones, although the molecular mechanism is elusive. Recently, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling was reported to inhibit platelet aggregation. Because AMPK is another target of the thiazolidinediones, the impact of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone on platelet AMPK and its involvement in aggregation were investigated to assess the contribution of AMPK to the antiplatelet activity of these agents. Treatment with rosiglitazone stimulated both AMPK and PPARγ in isolated rat platelets. However, the concentration and the treatment time required for activation were distinct from each other. Indeed, stimulation of AMPK and PPARγ were discrete events without any cross-activation in platelets. Activation of AMPK or PPARγ by rosiglitazone rendered platelets less responsive to aggregatory stimuli such as collagen, ADP, and thrombin. However, the resultant efficacy caused by activating AMPK was higher than that attributable to PPARγ stimulation. Similar results were obtained with pioglitazone. Taken together, rosiglitazone and pioglitazone inhibit platelet aggregation by activating AMPK. AMPK functions as a potential target of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone for their antiplatelet activity, although the in vivo or clinical relevance remains to be assessed.

Pseudoruegeria aestuarii sp. nov., of the family Rhodobacteraceae, isolated from a tidal flat.

A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain MME-001T, was isolated from the tidal flat of Muui-do in the Republic of Korea. Phylogenetic trees based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain MME-001T belonged to the genus Pseudoruegeria in the family Rhodobacteraceae and that it shared the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Pseudoruegeria sabulilitoris GJMS-35T (98.0 % similarity of the 16S rRNA gene). Growth of strain MME-001T occurred in the presence of 1.0-7.0 % (w/v) NaCl at 15-40 °C and pH 7.0-9.0, with optimal growth in the presence of 2.0-3.0 % (w/v) NaCl at 25-30 °C and pH 7.0. Ubiquinone-10 was the major respiratory quinone. Major polar lipids were phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and an unidentified lipid. The major cellular fatty acids were C18 : 1ω7c and C16 : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content was 62 mol%. DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain MME-001T and P. sabulilitoris KCTC 42111T, 'Pseudoruegeria limi' KCTC 32460, Pseudoruegeria lutimaris KCTC 22690T, Pseudoruegeria aquimaris KCTC 12737T and Pseudoruegeriahaliotis KACC 17214T was 36±5, 57±7, 34±4, 18±5 and 21±3 %, respectively. Based on the phenotypic and phylogenetic taxonomical properties, this strain MME-001T represents a novel species of the genus Pseudoruegeria, for which the name Pseudoruegeria aestuarii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MME-001T (=KCCM 43133T=JCM 30751T).