Pine wilt disease caused by the pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner et Buhrer) Nickle, has destroyed huge areas of pine forest in East Asia, including Japan, China and Korea. No protection against PWN has been developed, and the responses of pine trees at the molecular level are unrecorded. We isolated and analyzed upregulated or newly induced genes from PWN-inoculated Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora Sieb. et Zucc.) by using an annealing control primer system and suppression subtractive hybridization. Significant changes occurred in the transcript abundance of genes with functions related to defense, secondary metabolism and transcription, as the disease progressed. Other gene transcripts encoding pathogenesis-related proteins, pinosylvin synthases and metallothioneins were also more abundant in PWN-inoculated trees than in non-inoculated trees. Our report provides fundamental information on the molecular mechanisms controlling the biochemical and physiological responses of Japanese red pine trees to PWN invasion.
Study Design. Retrospective case-control study. Objective. To evaluate specific functional disabilities after short- and long-level lumbar fusion. Summary of Background Data. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) cannot represent all types of functional disabilities observed after lumbar fusion and a region-specific Functional Disability Index (SFDI) is necessary. Methods. We examined the differences in postoperative functional disability between 81 patients who underwent ≥3-level lumbar fusion (group I) and 70 age- and sex-matched patients who underwent one- or two-level lumbar fusion (group II). The ODI and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were assessed pre- and postoperatively. The SFDI was assessed after lumbar fusion. We evaluated intergroup differences in postoperative VAS, ODI, and SFDI scores during 3-year follow-up. Each mean score was evaluated separately for the 10 ODI and the 12 SFDI items, and we evaluated the changes observed in these scores over the 3-year follow-up. Results. The mean intergroup preoperative ODI and VAS scores were similar. The mean postoperative intergroup VAS scores were similar; however, the mean postoperative ODI and SFDI scores were significantly higher in group I than in group II at 1-year (P<0.001, P<0.001, respectively) and 3-year follow-up (P = 0.037, P<0.001, respectively). Among 10 ODI items, group I showed significant disability with regard to six items at the 1-year follow-up compared with group II, but only showed significant disability with regard to one item at the 3-year follow-up. Among the 12 SFDI items, group I showed significant disability with regard to all 12 items at 1-year follow-up compared with group II, as well as significant disability with regard to nine items at 3-year follow-up. Conclusion. The SFDI is more sensitive than the ODI in assessing functional disabilities based on the levels of fusion. Most SFDI items indicated continued significant disability in patients with long-level lumbar fusion even 3 years postoperatively. Level of Evidence: 3
The life-span of the sparganum in humans is not exactly known, but it may survive longer than 5 years in some patients. We experienced a case infected with a sparganum that is presumed to have lived for 20 years in a patient's leg. The patient was a 60-year-old woman, and she was admitted to a hospital due to ankle pain that was aggravated on dorsiflexion. She had noticed a mass on her knee some 20 years ago, but she received no medical management for it. The mass moved into the ankle joint 3 months before the current admission, and then the aforementioned symptoms appeared. A living sparganum was recovered by surgery, and the calcified tract near the knee was proved to be the pathway along which the larva had passed.
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