The movements of cilia and flagella are driven by multiple species of dynein heavy chains (DHCs), which constitute inner- and outer-dynein arms. In Chlamydomonas, 11 DHC proteins have been identified in the axoneme, but 14 genes encoding axonemal DHCs are present in the genome. Here, we assigned each previously unassigned DHC gene to a particular DHC protein and found that DHC3, DHC4 and DHC11 encode novel, relatively low abundance DHCs. Immunofluorescence microcopy revealed that DHC11 is localized exclusively to the proximal ∼2 μm region of the ∼12 μm long flagellum. Analyses of growing flagella suggested that DHC3 and DHC4 are also localized to the proximal region. By contrast, the DHC of a previously identified inner-arm dynein, dynein b, displayed an inverse distribution pattern. Thus, the proximal portion of the flagellar axoneme apparently differs in dynein composition from the remaining portion; this difference might be relevant to the special function performed by the flagellar base.

Because excessive glutamate release is believed to play a pivotal role in numerous neuropathological disorders, such as ischemia or seizure, we aimed to investigate whether intrinsic prosaposin (PS), a neuroprotective factor when supplied exogenously in vivo or in vitro, is up-regulated after the excitotoxicity induced by kainic acid (KA), a glutamate analog. In the present study, PS immunoreactivity and its mRNA expression in the hippocampal and cortical neurons showed significant increases on day 3 after KA injection, and high PS levels were maintained even after 3 weeks. The increase in PS, but not saposins, detected by immunoblot analysis suggests that the increase in PS-like immunoreactivity after KA injection was not due to an increase in saposins as lysosomal enzymes after neuronal damage, but rather to an increase in PS as a neurotrophic factor to improve neuronal survival. Furthermore, several neurons with slender nuclei inside/outside of the pyramidal layer showed more intense PS mRNA expression than other pyramidal neurons. Based on the results from double immunostaining using anti-PS and anti-GABA antibodies, these neurons were shown to be GABAergic interneurons in the extra- and intra-pyramidal layers. In the cerebral cortex, several large neurons in the V layer showed very intense PS mRNA expression 3 days after KA injection. The choroid plexus showed intense PS mRNA expression even in the normal rat, and the intensity increased significantly after KA injection. The present study indicates that inhibitory interneurons as well as stimulated hippocampal pyramidal and cortical neurons synthesize PS for neuronal survival, and the choroid plexus is highly activated to synthesize PS, which may prevent neurons from excitotoxic neuronal damage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates axonal transport and increased production of neurotrophic factor PS after KA injection.

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Case: A 70-year-old man was brought to our hospital emergency department with accidental thermal burns. Surgical tracheostomy was carried out on day 8 after admission, followed by several profuse bleeding episodes from the orifice. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography of the neck revealed a small nodule with arterial phase enhancement that was suspected to be a pseudoaneurysm. During emergency angiography, the nodule was revealed to be a pseudoaneurysm arising from the right superior thyroid artery with contrast medium extravasation.Outcome: The patient underwent transcatheter arterial embolization, which resolved bleeding from the tracheostomy orifice. Conclusion: Pseudoaneurysm of the superior thyroid artery is an extremely rare and life-threatening tracheostomy complication. All clinicians certified to perform tracheostomy should be acquainted with the various complications and methods for managing lifethreatening post-tracheostomy complications.