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Selected AbstractsAnti-Fenton reaction activity of three taxa of water yam (Dioscorea alata L.)INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Issue 9 2007Tsu-Shing Wang Summary In the present study, we compared the anti-Fenton reaction activity of three taxa of water yam (Dioscorea alata L.): DS2, TN2 and PSY [D. alata L. var. purpurea (Roxb.) M. Pouch]. Anti-Fenton reaction activity was evaluated by measuring the damage inflicted on calf thymus DNA by copper ions combined with hydrogen peroxide with the use of an ethidium bromide binding assay and agarose gel electrophoresis. We found that extracts of tuber pulp from all three taxa of yam had significant anti-Fenton reaction activity. The protection pattern of the three tuber pulp extracts was similar to that of EDTA, a typical divalent metal ion chelator, which displayed a significant protection lag-phase. With the use of thin-layer chromatography, we found that a common, major ansialdehyde-sulphuric acid stained spot (possibly a polysaccharide mucilage) with an Rf of 0.09 may be the most likely contributor to the anti-Fenton reaction activities of the yam tuber extracts investigated. The present study identifies the mechanism of the health benefit of the Dioscorea family. The copper-chelating and absorbing capability of yam tuber pulp extracts may be useful in functional screening. [source] Neuroimaging of Language: Why Hasn't a Clearer Picture Emerged?LINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2009Evelina Fedorenko Two broad questions have driven dozens of studies on the neural basis of language published in the last several decades: (i) Are distinct cortical regions engaged in different aspects of language? (ii) Are regions engaged in language processing specific to the domain of language? Neuroimaging has not yet provided clear answers to either question. In this paper, we discuss one factor that is a likely contributor to the unclear state of affairs in the neurocognition of language, and that, in our opinion, has not received sufficient attention in the recent literature. In particular, fMRI studies of language have relied, almost exclusively, on group analyses, in which data from multiple individuals are co-registered to and analyzed in a common space. We argue that this approach can obscure functional specificity because of the anatomical variability across individual brains, and we advocate the use of an alternative approach , the functional localization approach , that circumvents this problem. [source] Imaging of amyloid burden and distribution in cerebral amyloid angiopathyANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 3 2007Keith A. Johnson MD Objective Cerebrovascular deposition of ,-amyloid (cerebral amyloid angiopathy [CAA]) is a major cause of hemorrhagic stroke and a likely contributor to vascular cognitive impairment. We evaluated positron emission tomographic imaging with the ,-amyloid,binding compound Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB) as a potential noninvasive method for detection of CAA. We hypothesized that amyloid deposition would be observed with PiB in CAA, and based on the occipital predilection of CAA pathology and associated hemorrhages, that specific PiB retention would be disproportionately greater in occipital lobes. Methods We compared specific cortical PiB retention in 6 nondemented subjects diagnosed with probable CAA with 15 healthy control subjects and 9 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results All CAA and AD subjects were PiB-positive, both by distribution volume ratio measurements and by visual inspection of positron emission tomographic images. Global cortical PiB retention was significantly increased in CAA (distribution volume ratio 1.18 ± 0.06) relative to healthy control subjects (1.04 ± 0.10; p = 0.0009), but was lower in CAA than in AD subjects (1.41 ± 0.17; p = 0.002). The occipital-to-global PiB ratio, however, was significantly greater in CAA than in AD subjects (0.99 ± 0.07 vs 0.86 ± 0.05; p = 0.003). Interpretation We conclude that PiB-positron emission tomography can detect cerebrovascular ,-amyloid and may serve as a method for identifying the extent of CAA in living subjects. Ann Neurol 2007 [source] Changes in Radical-scavenging Activity and Components of Mulberry Fruit During MaturationJOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE, Issue 1 2006Tomoyuki Oki ABSTRACT Extracts of mulberry fruits (Morus sp.) were prepared from 8 cultivars harvested at 4 stages of maturity, and their radicalscavenging activity, anthocyanin content, and total phenolic content were measured. The radical-scavenging activity was evaluated by a spectrophotometric assay using the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) in a 96-well microplate. Mulberry fruit extracts exhibited the DPPH-scavenging activities, ranging from 2.5 to 20.3 ,mol-Trolox equiv/g-FW. Their activities were variable during maturation, and the highest activity was observed in the fully mature mulberry fruit in all cultivars. Anthocyanin was scarcely present in the immature mulberry fruits; however, its content increased as the fruit matured in all cultivars. On the other hand, all immature mulberry fruits contained non-anthocyanin phenolic compound. An on-line high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the detection of DPPH-scavenging compounds revealed the difference in predominant radical scavengers between the immature and fully mature stages in the Miran 5 cultivar. Four major radical scavengers in the Miran 5 cultivar were assigned to 2 caffeoylquinic acids (chlorogenic acid and its isomer) and 2 anthocyanins (cyanidin 3-glucoside and cyanidin 3-rutinoside) in the immature and fully mature stages, respectively, by LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis. The change in the content of 4 compounds in mulberry fruits during maturation demonstrated that the most likely contributors to the DPPH-scavenging activity were caffeoylquinic acids in the immature mulberry and anthocyanins in the mature and fully mature mulberry. [source] Chemokine responses in schistosomal antigen-elicited granuloma formation,PARASITE IMMUNOLOGY, Issue 6 2002Bo-Chin Chiu Summary Host immune systems have evolved specialized responses to multicellular parasites. This is well represented by the type 2 granulomatous response to Schistosoma mansoni egg antigens, which is an eosinophil-rich inflammatory response mediated by Th2-associated cytokines. Using Ag-bead models of pulmonary granuloma formation in mice, we defined characteristic chemokine (CK) profiles in the granulomatous lungs. Our findings point to a role for C-C chemokine receptor-2 (CCR2) and CCR3 agonists such as monocyte chemotactic proteins (MCPs) 1/CCL2, 3/CCL7 and 5/CCL12 as important participants that are subject to regulation by Th2 cytokines interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13. CCR4 and CCR8 agonists are also likely contributors. Analysis of CK receptor knockout mice revealed that CCR2 ligands (e.g. MCP-1 and 5) promoted early phase granuloma macrophage accumulation, whereas anti-MCP-3 (CCL7) antibody treatment abrogated eosinophil recruitment. CCR8 knockout mice also demonstrated impaired eosinophil recruitment but this appeared to be related to impaired Th2 cell function. Transcript analysis of CD4+ T cells generated during schistosome granuloma formation failed to show biased CCR8 expression but, having a more limited receptor repertoire, these cells were likely more dependent on CCR8 ligands. Together, these studies indicate an intricate involvement of chemokines in various stages and aspects of schistosomal egg Ag-elicited granuloma formation. [source] | |||||||||||||