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34 These authors contributed equally to the work.Key Words: CD38, oxytocin, mutation, polymorphism, autism, high-functioning autism Author information Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to H. Higashida (haruhiro@med.kanazawa-u.ac.jp). 3 ABSTRACTThe neurobiological basis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains poorly understood.Given the role of CD38 in social recognition through oxytocin (OT) release, we hypothesized that CD38 may play a role in the etiology of ASD. Here, we first examined the immunohistochemical expression of CD38 in the hypothalamus of post-mortem brains of non-ASD subjects and found that CD38 was colocalized with OT in secretory neurons.In studies of the association between CD38 and autism, we analyzed 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and mutations of CD38 by re-sequencing DNAs mainly from a case-control study in Japan, and Caucasian cases mainly recruited to the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE). The SNPs of CD38, rs6449197 (p<0.040) and rs3796863 (p<0.005) showed significant associations with a subset of ASD (IQ>70; designated as high-functioning autism (HFA)) in the U.S. 104 AGRE family trios, but not with Japanese 188 HFA subjects. A mutation that caused tryptophan to replace arginine at amino acid residue 140 (R140W; (rs1800561, 4693C>T)) was found in 0.6%-4.6% of the Japanese population and was associated with ASD in the smaller case-control study. The SNP was clustered in pedigrees in which the fathers and brothers of T-allele-carrier probands had ASD or ASD traits. In this cohort OT plasma levels were lower in subjects with the T allele than in those without. One proband with the T allele who was taking nasal OT spray showed relief of symptoms. The two variant CD38 poloymorphysms tested may be of interest with regard of the pathophysiology of ASD.4

These findings suggest that graft-infiltrating PD-L1 CD-DCs may play a key role in the regulation of alloimmunity and in the induction of liver transplant tolerance. (Hepatology 2018;67:1499-1515).

Genistein is a major component of soybean isoflavone and has multiple functions resulting in antitumor effects. Prostate cancer is 1 of the targets for the preventive role of genistein. We examined the effect of genistein on human prostate cancer (LNCaP and PC-3) cells. Proliferation of both cell lines was inhibited by genistein treatment in a dose-dependent manner. To obtain the gene expression profile of genistein in LNCaP cells, we performed cDNA microarray analysis. The expression of many genes, including apoptosis inhibitor (survivin), DNA topoisomerase II, cell division cycle 6 (CDC6) and mitogen-activated protein kinase 6 (MAPK 6), was downregulated. Expression levels were increased more than 2-fold in only 4 genes. The glutathione peroxidase (GPx)-1 gene expression level was the most upregulated. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed significant elevation of transcript levels of GPx-1 in both LNCaP and PC-3 cells. Upregulation of gene expression levels accompanied elevation of GPx enzyme activities. In contrast, no significant changes were observed in the gene expression levels and enzyme activities of the other antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase and catalase. GPx activation might be one of the important characteristics of the effects of genistein on prostate cancer cells.