No abstract

Recent advances in intravital microscopy have provided insight into dynamic biological events at the cellular level in both healthy and pathological tissue. However, real-time in vivo cellular imaging of the beating heart has not been fully established, mainly due to the difficulty of obtaining clear images through cycles of cardiac and respiratory motion. Here we report the successful recording of clear in vivo moving images of the beating rat heart by two-photon microscopy facilitated by cardiothoracic surgery and a novel cardiac stabiliser. Subcellular dynamics of the major cardiac components including the myocardium and its subcellular structures (i.e., nuclei and myofibrils) and mitochondrial distribution in cardiac myocytes were visualised for 4–5 h in green fluorescent protein-expressing transgenic Lewis rats at 15 frames/s. We also observed ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury-induced suppression of the contraction/relaxation cycle and the consequent increase in cell permeability and leukocyte accumulation in cardiac tissue. I/R injury was induced in other transgenic mouse lines to further clarify the biological events in cardiac tissue. This imaging system can serve as an alternative modality for real time monitoring in animal models and cardiological drug screening, and can contribute to the development of more effective treatments for cardiac diseases.

The elevation of CRP and PCT were significantly associated with bacteremias. PCT was superior to CRP as a diagnostic indicator for predicting bacteremias, for discriminating bacterial from nonbacterial infections, and for determining bacterial species.

To achieve similar concentrations, an approximately 3-fold increase in dosage of amiodarone was required when patients were given the drug nasogastrically rather than orally. This suggests that the absorption of amiodarone following nasogastric administration is poor when compared with oral administration. Therapeutic drug monitoring is necessary to optimize dose particularly during the early stages of amiodarone therapy.

In a porous crystal of zeolite low-silica X (LSX), β-cages and supercages (cavities) are arrayed in a diamond structure, respectively. We loaded potassium metal into zeolite LSX which has a chemical formula of Na 7.3 K 4.7 Al 12 Si 12 O 48 per β-cage (or supercage), and generated Na-K alloy clusters in β-cages and=or supercages. We have investigated the magnetic properties, the optical ones and the electrical resistivity at various values of K-loading density n per β-cage (or supercage) up to n = 9.7. Localized magnetic moments are observed at 8.2 < n < 9.7. Almost simultaneously, nearly pure ferromagnetism is observed at 8.4 < n < 9.7. The highest Curie temperature is ≈12 K at n ≈ 9. Optical reflection spectra for 8 < n have a new band at 2.8 eV which is assigned to the optical excitation of s-electrons of clusters generated at β-cages. The origin of the magnetic moments is assigned to these β-cage clusters because of the coincidence between the growths of the 2.8 eV band and localized magnetic moments. The origin of magnetic ordering is explained by a ferromagnetic interaction between β-cage clusters. All samples are found to be insulating from the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity. A direct magnetic interaction between β-cage clusters is not expected because of the high electronic barrier between them. A ferromagnetic superexchange coupling between β-cage clusters is newly proposed via the sp 3 -like closed-shell clusters at supercages. A thermal hysteresis is observed in the electrical resistivity at intermediate temperatures, and the origin is assigned to low-density carriers generated in the Na-K eutectic alloy structures in nanospace.