Biomedical subjects

Masayuki Imai

Publications and source records attributed to Masayuki Imai.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Growth dynamics of domains in ternary fluid vesicles.

We have studied the growth dynamics of domains on ternary fluid vesicles composed of saturated (dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine), unsaturated (dioleoylphosphatidylcholine) phosphatidylcholine lipids, and cholesterol using a fluorescence microscopy. The domain coarsening processes are classified into two types: normal coarsening and trapped coarsening. For the normal coarsening, the domains having flat circular shape grow in a diffusion-and-coalescence manner and phenomenologically the mean size grows as a power law of approximately t(2/3). The observed growth law is not described by a two-dimensional diffusion-and-coalescence growth mechanism following the Saffman and Delbrück theory, which may originate from the two-body hydrodynamic interactions between domains. For trapped coarsening, on the other hand, the domain coarsening is suppressed at a certain domain size because the repulsive interdomain interactions obstruct the coalescence of domains. The two-color imaging of the trapped domains reveals that the repulsive interactions are induced by the budding of domains. The model free energy consisting of the bending energy of domains, the bending energy of matrix, the line energy of domain boundary, and the translation energy of domains can describe the observed trapped coarsening. The trapping of domains is caused by the coupling between the phase separation and the membrane elasticity under the incompressibility constraint.

1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine↗

PubMed2006

Effects of grafted polymer chains on lamellar membranes.

We have investigated the effects of grafted polymer chains [poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)] on the bending modulus and the intermembrane interactions of lamellar membranes (C(12)E(5) water) by means of a neutron spin-echo and a small-angle x-ray scattering technique. In this study the hydrophilic chain takes the mushroom configuration on the membrane. The bending modulus of the polymer-grafted membranes increases in proportion to the square of the end to end distance of the polymer chain, which agrees well with the theoretical prediction of Hiergeist and Lipowsky [J. Phys. II 6, 1465 (1996)]. From the interlamellar interaction point of view, the mushroom layer is renormalized to the membrane thickness, which enhances the repulsive Helfrich interaction. When the size of the decorated polymer chain increases to the interlamellar distance, however, the mushroom is squeezed so as to optimize the interlamellar potential. Further increase of the grafted polymer size brings a lamellar-lamellar phase separation, where the grafted polymer chains are localized in the dilute lamellar phase and the concentrated lamellar phase forms the onionlike texture.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Anomalous decrease in lamellar spacing by shear flow in a nonionic surfactant/water system.

We study the effects of shear flow on the structure of a lamellar phase in a C16E7 [hepta(oxyethylene glycol)-n-hexadecyl ether]/water system (40-55 wt % of C16E7) at 70 degrees C using small-angle neutron scattering in the range of shear rate of 10(-3)-30 s(-1). At the shear rate 0.1-1 s(-1), the repeat distance (d) is decreased significantly (down to about 40% of d at rest in the most significant case) and discontinuously with increasing shear rate. With the further increase in the shear rate, d increases through a sharp minimum (referred to as d*). Such a shear rate dependence of d is obtained for all the principal orientations of lamellae. As the concentration of C16E7 decreases from 55 to 40 wt %, d increases from 6.5 to 8.5 nm at rest whereas d* remains almost constant (approximately equal to 5 nm). Moreover, d* is found to be almost equal to the thickness of bilayers obtained from the line shape analysis of small-angle X-ray scattering at rest. The results strongly suggest that the water layer is excluded by shear flow and that the lamellar phase segregates into surfactant-rich and water-rich regions, although these regions do not reach macroscopic size.

Letter↗

PubMed2002

Defects in reproductive functions in PACAP-deficient female mice.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a highly conserved neuropeptide and widely expressed in both brain and peripheral tissues, including several reproductive organs (e.g., testis and ovary). PACAP stimulates syntheses of several sexual hormones and steroids, suggesting it has possible roles in reproductive function. In this study, the role of PACAP in female reproductive functions such as fertility, mating behavior and maternal behaviors were investigated by using mice lacking PACAP (PACAP(-/-)). PACAP(-/-) females showed reduced fertility (the number of parturitions relative to the number of pairings). Mating experiments using vasectomized males revealed that mating frequency and its intervals in some PACAP(-/-) females were quite different (zero to eight times/4 weeks), whereas the frequency was relatively constant (two to three times/4 weeks) in wild-type females. In PACAP(-/-) females, maternal crouching behavior tended to decrease compared to wild-type females, although the influence of litter size on maternal behavior needs to be considered. These data suggest a role for endogenous PACAP in female reproductive processes.

Animals↗