Cellular and humoral immune responses to COVID-19 booster vaccination in Japanese dialysis patients.

BACKGROUND: Dialysis patients are susceptible to developing severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to hypoimmunity. Antibody titers against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) after the primary vaccinations are lower in hemodialysis (HD) patients than in healthy individuals. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccination in HD and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients based on antibody titers and cellular and humoral immunity. METHODS: Participants of the control, HD, and PD groups were recruited from 12 facilities. SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific cytokine and IgG-antibody levels were measured. Regulatory T cells and memory B cells were counted using flow cytometry at 6 months after primary vaccination with BNT162b2 and 3 weeks after the booster vaccination in HD and PD patients and compared with those of a control group. RESULTS: Booster vaccination significantly enhanced the levels of antibodies, cytokines, and memory B cells in three groups. The HD group showed significantly higher levels of IgG-antibodies, IL-1ß, IL-2, IL-4, IL-17, and memory B cells than those in the control group at 3 weeks after the booster dose. The PD group tended to show similar trends to HD patients but had similar levels of IgG-antibodies, cytokines, and memory B cells to the control group. CONCLUSIONS: HD patients had significantly stronger cellular and humoral immune responses than the control 3 weeks after the booster dose. Our findings will help in developing better COVID-19 vaccination strategies for HD and PD patients.

Enhancement of mechanical properties and shape memory effect of Ti-Cr-based alloys via Au and Cu modifications.

The requirements for biomedical materials have been raised greatly due to the rapidly aging global population. Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are indeed promising materials for biomedical applications due to their controllable shape deformation via the manipulation of temperature and/or stress. This study investigated the enhancement of the fundamental mechanical properties and the shape memory effect (SME) in the Ti-Cr-based alloys via the modification of Au and Cu. The quaternary Ti-Cr-Au-Cu alloys were successfully manufactured by physical metallurgy methods and their phase constitutions, mechanical properties, SME, and superelastic (SE) behaviors have been investigated in this study. Cold-workability, which was enhanced by the introduction of the Au element, was elaborated by the phase constitutions of the alloys. The ß-parent phase was stabilized to around body temperature by the introduction of the ß-stabilizers of Cr, Au, and Cu, and the functionalities of the specimens were revealed at the operating temperature. Perfect SME at the shape recovery rate of 100% was practiced by the substitution of Au by Cu and the mechanical properties, such as strength and ductility, were also enhanced. Functional mappings of the fundamental mechanical properties, which could be a helpful tool for the investigations of the quaternary Ti-Cr-Au-Cu alloys, were constructed in this work.

Effects of high-fat diet and fructose-rich diet on obesity, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia in the WBN/Kob-Leprfa rat, a new model of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are occurring at epidemic-like rates, and these epidemics appear to have emerged largely from changes in daily diet. In the present study, we compared effects of high-fat diet (HFD) and fructose-rich diet (FRD) in WBN/Kob-Leprfa (WBKDF) rats that spontaneously develop obesity, dyslipidemia and T2DM. After a 4-week feeding of each diet, WBKDF-HFD and WBKDF-FRD rats exhibited aggravated obesity and dyslipidemia compared with WBKDF rats fed standard diet (STD). In contrast, hyperglycemia developed in WBKDF-STD rats was significantly inhibited in WBKDF-FRD rats, but not in WBKDF-HFD rats. The present study demonstrated that the 4-week feeding of HFD and FRD caused diet-induced obesity with a distinct phenotype in the glucose metabolism in WBKDF rats.

Quantitative detection system for maize sample containing combined-trait genetically modified maize.

Various countries have established regulations that stipulate the labeling of agricultural commodities, feed, and food products that contain or are made from genetically modified (GM) material or that contain adventitious GM material in amounts that exceed certain threshold levels. While regulations in some countries refer to GM material on a weight per weight (w/w) percentage, the currently applied detection methods do not directly measure the w/w percentage of the GM material. Depending on the particular method and the sample matrix it is applied to, the conversion of analytical results to a w/w percentage is challenging or not possible. The first rapid PCR system for GM maize detection on a single kernel basis has been developed. The equipment for the grinding of individual kernels and a silica membrane-based 96-well DNA extraction kit were both significantly revised and optimized for this particular purpose, respectively. We developed a multiplex real-time PCR method for the rapid quantification of GM DNA sequences in the obtained DNA solutions. In addition, a multiplex qualitative PCR detection method allows for the simultaneous detection of different GM maize traits in each kernel and thereby for identification of individual kernels that contain a combination of two or more GM traits. Especially for grain samples that potentially contain combined-trait GM maize kernels, the proposed methods can deliver informative results in a rapid, precise, and reliable manner.