Hirosaki University

About: Hirosaki University is a education organization based out in Hirosaki, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 7922 authors who have published 14344 publications receiving 277097 citations. The organization is also known as: Hirosaki Daigaku.

Dietary fat attenuates the benefits of an elemental diet in active Crohn's disease: a randomized, controlled trial.

Abstract: ObjectivesAlthough an elemental diet has been established as the primary treatment for patients with Crohn's disease, the influence of dietary fat on the elemental diet remains unclear. We have designed the first randomized, controlled trial for elemental diets containing different fat percentages i

The time variation of dose rate artificially increased by the Fukushima nuclear crisis

Abstract: A car-borne survey for dose rate in air was carried out in March and April 2011 along an expressway passing northwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station which released radionuclides starting after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, and in an area closer to the Fukushima NPS which is known to have been strongly affected. Dose rates along the expressway, i.e. relatively far from the power station were higher after than before March 11, in some places by several orders of magnitude, implying that there were some additional releases from Fukushima NPS. The maximum dose rate in air within the high level contamination area was 36 μGy h−1, and the estimated maximum cumulative external dose for evacuees who came from Namie Town to evacuation sites (e.g. Fukushima, Koriyama and Nihonmatsu Cities) was 68 mSv. The evacuation is justified from the viewpoint of radiation protection.

Strontium-90 activity concentration in soil samples from the exclusion zone of the Fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant.

Abstract: The radioactive fission product 90Sr has a long biological half-life (˜18 y) in the human body. Due to its chemical similarity to calcium it accumulates in bones and irradiates the bone marrow, causing its high radio-toxicity. Assessing 90Sr is therefore extremely important in case of a nuclear disaster. In this work 16 soil samples were collected from the exclusion zone (<30 km) of the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, to measure 90Sr activity concentration using liquid scintillation counting. 137Cs activity concentration was also measured with gamma-spectroscopy in order to investigate correlation with 90Sr. The 90Sr activity concentrations ranged from 3.0 ± 0.3 to 23.3 ± 1.5 Bq kg−1 while the 137Cs from 0.7 ± 0.1 to 110.8 ± 0.3 kBq kg−1. The fact that radioactive contamination originated from the Fukushima nuclear accident was obvious due to the presence of 134Cs. However, 90Sr contamination was not confirmed in all samples although detectable amounts of 90Sr can be expected in Japanese soils, as a background, stemming from global fallout due to the atmospheric nuclear weapon tests. Correlation analysis between 90Sr and 137Cs activity concentrations provides a potentially powerful tool to discriminate background 90Sr level from its Fukushima contribution.

Major role of 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate-dependent protein kinase A pathway in corticotropin-releasing factor gene expression in the rat hypothalamus in vivo.

Abstract: To assess whether the cAMP-dependent protein kinase-A and/or the diacylglycerol-dependent protein kinase C (PKC) pathways play important roles in the activation of CRF neurons in vivo under physiological conditions, we tested the effect of microinjection of 8-bromo-cAMP (8-Br-cAMP) or 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13-acetate (TPA) into both paraventricular nuclei (PVN) of the hypothalamus in conscious rats. Both 8-Br-cAMP and TPA increased plasma ACTH concentrations and the POMC messenger RNA (mRNA) concentrations in the anterior pituitary. While injection of 8-Br-cAMP also increased CRF mRNA concentrations in hypothalamic tissue containing the PVN, TPA injection had no effect on CRF mRNA concentrations there. During insulin-induced hypoglycemia, which stimulates CRF gene expression and release, c-fos and c-jun mRNA increases in the hypothalamic tissue preceded the increase in the CRF mRNA level after insulin-induced hypoglycemia. Antisense oligodeoxyribonucleotides (oligos) directed against c-fos, c-jun, or the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) mRNA were injected into both PVN before insulin-induced hypoglycemia to assess whether activator protein-1 or CREB mediates transcriptional activation of CRF during hypoglycemia. Only antisense oligo against CREB mRNA reduced the CRF mRNA level after insulin-induced hypoglycemia. These results suggest that protein kinase A may transduce intracellular signals in CRF neurons under physiological conditions and raises the possibility that CREB may be involved in stress-induced CRF gene expression.