Seeds of grain amaranths contain a high amount (about 60% of total nitrogen) of albumin and globulin and a trace amount of prolamin. From salt-soluble extracts of A. hypochondriacus seeds, a globulin (440,000 in apparent molecular weight and s°20^= 12.7) was purified by Sepharose 6B gel and DEAE-cellulose column chromatographies. The protein comprised at least four kinds of subunits whose molecular weights were 36,000, 32,000, 20,000 and 18,000, respectively. The amino acid composition of the globulin was almost similar to those of soybean and oat globulins.Grain amaranths (Genus Amaranthus) were consumed by the Aztecs till the 16th century and are even now cultivated as minor crops in the Central and South Americas, and in limited regions of Asia and Africa.1'2* They are dicotyledonous and fast growing plants that produce higher yields of seeds than those of other conventional cereals. 3~5)The seeds of some species of grain amaranths are mainly popped to makea confection with sugar syrup, or milled for baking application.5'6)The leaves of some Amaranthus species are also edible.Many reports have shown that the seeds contain about 13~17% of crude protein with more lysine and a more favorable amino acid composition than any other cereals,3'7'8* and that the grain has higher nutritional values, which can be improved if treated by heat- Kernels of sugary-2 and sugary-2 opaque-2 mutants of a hybrid maize, (Oh43 x B37) xW64A,were from Professor D. V. Glover, Purdue University, Indiana, U.S.A. Grains of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) were purchased locally. Seeds of Amaranthus, maize and dehulled buckwheat were ground on a mill through a 32 mesh screen. The flour was defatted with cold acetone (lOml/g) by occasional stirring for 48hr at -20°C, and then air-dried after washing with diethylether.The defatted meal was further milled, passed throuh a 60 mesh screen and stored at 4°C until use.2) Protein fractionation. Defatted meal (1.5mg) was stirred sequentially with 15ml each of the following solvents: 0.5m NaCl, water, 70% isopropanol (IP), IP containing 0.6% 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME), borate buffer (pH 10.0) containing 0.6% 2-ME, and borate buffer

Objectives Mobile phones are commonly used by adolescents. The aim of this study was to clarify associations between duration of mobile phone use and psychological mood in high school students. Methods This cross-sectional study included 2,785 high school students in Niigata, Japan. A self-administered questionnaire was used to elicit information on sex, school year, hours of mobile phone use, psychological mood status, and possible confounders. Psychological mood outcomes were evaluated with the Mood

Although possible biological functions of whey acidic protein (WAP) have been suggested, few studies have focused on investigating the function of WAP. This paper describes evidence for WAP function in lobulo-alveolar development in mammary glands in vivo and in the cell cycle progression of mammary epithelial cells in vitro. Ubiquitous overexpression of WAP transgene impaired only lobulo-alveolar development in the mammary glands of transgenic female mice but not other physiological functions, indicating that the inhibitory function of WAP is specific to mammary alveolar cells. The forced expression of WAP significantly inhibited the proliferation of mouse mammary epithelial cells (HC11 cells and EpH4/K6 cells), whereas it did not affect that of NIH3T3 cells. Co-culturing of WAP-clonal cells and control cells using a transwell insert demonstrated that WAP inhibited the proliferation of HC11 cells through a paracrine action but not that of NIH3T3 cells, and that WAP was able to bind to HC11 cells but not to NIH3T3 cells. Apoptosis was not enhanced in the HC11 cells with stable WAP expression (WAP-clonal HC11 cells). BrdU incorporation and FACScan analyses revealed that cell cycle progression from the G0/G1 to the S phase was inhibited in the WAP-clonal HC11 cells. Among G1 cyclins, the expression of cyclin D1 and D3 was significantly decreased in the WAP-clonal HC11 cells. The present results provide the first documented evidence that WAP plays a negative regulatory role in the cell cycle progression of mammary epithelial cells through an autocrine or paracrine mechanism in vivo.

No abstract

1) Lipopolysaccharide with pyocin R receptor activity was isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa P14 by the phenol method. Lipopolysaccharide was dissociated and fractionated into amino-sugar-rich fraction and lipopolysaccharide subunits by Sephadex G-100 gel filtration after heat treatment in the presence of sodium deoxycholate.2) The lipopolysaccharide subunits (mol. wt. 12,000-16,000) had no receptor activity in the presence of sodium deoxycholate, but they were reassociated in the absence of sodium deoxycholate and the activity was recovered. Therefore, the subunits may be regarded as the chemical entity of the receptor activity.3) Chemical analysis of the reassociated lipopolysaccharide and the carbohydrate fragment (mol. wt. 1,300-1,500) after acid treatment for the elimination of "lipid A" was carried out. The former contained glucose, rhamnose, heptose, glucosamine, galactosamine, quinovosamine, fucosamine, and a 2-keto-3-deoxy-sugar acid. The latter contained only glucose, rhamnose, heptose, galactosamine, 2-keto-3-deoxy-sugar acid, and phosphate. Lipopolysaccharideof Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been studied by HOMMA, one (F.E.) of the present authors, and their co-workers (1-4), and by GRAY, WILKINSON, and their co-workers (5-7) with different strains. The latter has studied mainly its chemical nature, and the former mainly biological activities such as toxicity, pyrogenicity, Schwartzman activity, and recently pyocin R receptor activity.Pyocin R is a bacteriocin produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa P15 and 1 This constitutes Part II of a series entitled "Studies pyocin R." Part I: J.