RESUMEN
Sun exposure during leisure activity evokes fatigue. We employed the Advanced Trail Making Test (ATMT), a recently developed objective method of evaluating brain function performance used to measure mental fatigue, for objective determination of fatigue development caused by solar exposure to the human body. First, a survey of consumer awareness was performed, and fatigue development from solar exposure was generally recognized in both summer and spring. In the field test, 15 males (26-41 years old) received sun exposure equivalent to 100 kJ m(-2) of ultraviolet radiation three to four times each day for 3 days, during which the subjects wore a short sleeve shirt and a short pant, and covered their head with a towel. A significant increase in scores for subjective sense of fatigue was observed in the evening of all 3 days following sun exposure and on the fourth day, which had no exposure, as well as in the morning of the third and fourth days, as compared with those periods during the control week, which did not have experimental solar exposure. ATMT showed a significant increase in average value in the evening of the first and second days following sun exposure, as well as in the morning of the third and fourth days. In addition, increases in body temperature and heart rate were observed during the exposure periods. The results of multiple regression analysis of subjective feelings showed that fatigue caused by solar exposure was qualitatively different from that in the control week. These results suggest that brain function performance declined following solar exposure as did fatigue development. ATMT results may be useful for quantitative and objective evaluation of mental fatigue caused by sun exposure, along with development of sun care products for the prevention of solar-caused fatigue.
RESUMEN
The small intestinal sucrase activity in a senescence-accelerated strain of mouse, SAMP1, was significantly lower than that in other strains, including its control strain, SAMR1. In contrast, the activity of isomaltase, which usually associates with sucrase to form a complex enzyme (SI complex), in SAMP1 was comparable to that in other strains. Thus, the ratio of the sucrase to isomaltase activities (S/I ratio) in SAMP1 was very low (about 0.15), compared with that in other strains (around 0.7). The S/I ratio in SAMP1 was abnormally low, even at a young age, indicating that senescence did not result in the low sucrase activity. Western blot analysis suggests that a large part of the isomaltase subunit occurred alone without the association of the sucrase subunit in this strain. In contrast, Northern blot analysis shows that the level of mRNA for the SI complex in SAMP1 was comparable to that in SAMR1. When the pancreatico-biliary ducts were ligated in SAMP1 to reduce the level of pancreatic proteases, a remarkable increase was observed in the sucrase activity, whereas the isomaltase activity was increased to a much smaller extent. This marked increase in sucrase activity resulted in the S/I ratio increasing to 0.84 18 h after the ligation. These results suggest the sucrase subunit of the SI complex to be abnormally unstable against pancreatic proteases in SAMP1.