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Biomedical subjects

A Takagi

Publications and source records attributed to A Takagi.

At least 307 records · Page 17Linked to original sources

Alteration of fecal bacterial flora following oral administration of bifidobacterial preparation.

The fecal bacterial flora was examined in multiple stool specimens from 14 subjects with gastrointestinal disorders before, during and after the oral administration of bifidobacterial preparation (BBG, viable B. breve and B. bifidum, 3 X 10(9) or 6 X 10(9) per day) for 2 or 3 weeks. Enumerations of fecal bacterial flora showed no conspicuous alterations in total anaerobic bacterial counts during the BBG therapy, however the total number of bifidobacteria in feces increased significantly, and of E. coli and other aerobacteria showed a tendency to decline. The administered B. breve and B. bifidum were recovered in the feces at a concentration of 10(8)/g and of 10(7) to 10(8)/g, respectively. Both species continued to be excreted over 2 weeks after completion of the medication in the feces at concentrations of 10(6) to 10(7)/g and of 10(5) to 10(6)/g respectively, and diminished rapidly in 5 patients and continued at essentially the same level as during the medication in 6 patients. During the treatment the pH, urease activity and ammonia content in feces became lowered and showed a rerise after therapy. Symptomatic discomforts including abdominal distension and pain, anorexia, edema and fever of undetermined origin were reduced during the therapy. Urinalysis, hematological examinations and blood biochemical tests including blood ammonia level, however revealed no significant change.

Administration, Oral↗

In situ electron microscopic observation of negatively stained tissue culture cells contaminated with mycoplasmas.

A simple, fast, and in situ method of detecting the inapparent infection of cultured cells with mycoplasmas is reported. Animal cells grown on Formvar-coated electron microscopic grids were directly fixed with glutaraldehyde, negatively stained with phosphotungstic acid and examined by transmission electron microscopy. Cells contaminated with mycoplasmas could be discriminated from uncontaminated cells. The micro-organisms in the negatively stained preparations corresponded with those revealed by thin sectioning, and the distribution of mycoplasmas in cultured cells coincided with those revealed by the Hoechst staining method. Most of the highly resolved mycoplasmas were polymorphic, and closely associated with host cells; often more than 500 organisms per host cell were seen.

Animals↗

Construction and Characterization of Isogenic Series of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Polyploid Strains.

Tetraploid cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are generated spontaneously in a homothallic MATa/MATalpha diploid population at low frequency (approximately 10 per cell) through the homozygosity of mating-type alleles by mitotic recombination followed by homothallic switching of the mating-type alleles. To isolate tetraploid clones more effectively, a selection method was developed that used a dye plate containing 40 mg each of eosin Y and amaranth in synthetic nutrient agar per liter. It was possible to isolate tetraploid clones on the dye plate at a frequency of 1 to 3% among the colonies colored dark red in contrast to the light red of the original diploid colonies. Isogenic series of haploid to tetraploid clones with homozygous or heterozygous genomic configurations were easily constructed with the tetraploid strains. No significant differences in specific growth rate or fermentative rate were observed corresponding to differences in ploidy, although the haploid clones showed a higher frequency of spontaneous respiratory-deficient cells than did the others. However, a significant increment in the fermentative rate in glucose nutrient medium was observed in the hybrid strains constructed with two independent homozygous cell lines. These observations strongly suggest that the polyploid strains favored by the brewing and baking industries perform well not because of the physical increment of the cellular volume by polyploidy but because of the genetic complexity or heterosis by heterozygosity of the genome in the hybrid polyploid cells.

Journal Article↗

Mounding phenomenon: an experimental study in vitro.

"Mounding" is a local contracture of skeletal muscle that is induced by tapping the muscle directly. We studied the mounding phenomenon in vitro on rat muscles that were percussed by a rotating hammer. In the bulged portion of muscle, there were scattered areas where the sarcomere length was shortened. After muscle was depolarized by the application of KCl-Ringer solution or relaxing solution, the mounding phenomenon was preserved. Agents that abolish the function of T-tubule or T-SR junction did not alter the phenomenon, either. However, after the function of intracellular membrane system such as the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) was destroyed by Brij 58, the mounding disappeared. Thus, the mounding is a local contracture that is probably induced by calcium ion liberated from the SR by percussion.

Animals↗

Therapeutic trial with protease inhibitor (leupeptin) in chicken muscular dystrophy. A histologic and histochemical study.

For the purpose of observing the therapeutic benefit of protease inhibitors for progressive muscular dystrophy, a large quantity of doses of leupeptin of 10 mg/kg/day and 50 mg/kg/day were administered i.p. to male chickens afflicted with hereditary muscular dystrophy (line 413) for 4 months starting on the 7th day ex ovo. No clinical improvement was identified in physical ability as a result of the examination by flip test, and creatine kinase (CK) values. The number of necrotic fibers in the pectoralis superficialis (PS) muscle which is known to be preferentially damaged in dystrophic chicken, did not decrease significantly in the birds treated with 10 mg leupeptin/kg/day (number of necrotic fibers; 47.7/mm2) and 50 mg/kg/day (46.4/mm2) as compared to that of the untreated ones (43.2/mm2). A morphometric analysis of fiber diameter distribution also showed no statistical difference between the treated and untreated birds. In the second group, 10 mg leupeptin/kg and a combination of leupeptin and bestatin of 10 mg/kg each were injected directly into the left lower half of the PS muscle three times a week for 4 months. Necrotic fibers were still present in the injected site, remote area of the left upper PS muscle treated with leupeptin (52.7/mm2), leupeptin and bestatin (52.2/mm2), and contralateral right upper PS muscle (41.6 and 53.5/mm2, respectively). The number of necrotic fibers in treated muscles was again not significantly different from that in untreated dystrophic ones (39.6/mm2). In fiber diameter analysis, no statistical difference was recognized between the treated and untreated dystrophic muscles.

Aminopeptidases↗

Malignant hyperpyrexia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy: A case report.

We report a patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who developed malignant hyperpyrexia during general anaesthesia. During anaesthesia bradycardia was followed by ventricular fibrillation, on which ventricular flutter supervened and a body temperature rise of 0.6 degrees C for 15 minutes, myoglobinuria and elevation of CPK level were observed. The caffeine sensitivity test of biopsied muscle fibers revealed an increase in sensitivity, although there was no sign of muscle rigidity during or after anaesthesia. Diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy was first established after the development of malignant hyperpyrexia in the present case as well as in previously reported cases. Determination of serum CPK is very important before general anaesthesia.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

Circadian rhythm of brain susceptibility to haloperidol during chronic administration.

Circadian fluctuation has been reported to exist to the effects of haloperidol after acute administration. In an attempt to clarify the viability of chronotherapy with haloperidol, the antiapomorphine effect of haloperidol after chronic administration was investigated in the present paper. Haloperidol was administered once daily at the same time for 21 consecutive days to rats which were kept under 12 hr lighting conditions with light onset at 19:30. Then the chronology of the antiapomorphine effect was investigated. The antiapomorphine effect was significantly stronger in the group treated at 19:30 than that treated at 13:30. These data agreed with the results found after the acute administration of the drug. After chronic administration, no difference was found in the plasma and brain level of haloperidol due to the time of administration. These experimental results seem to suggest that a circadian rhythm in the brain susceptibility to haloperidol exists even during chronic administration.

Animals↗

Coexistence of fast and slow types of myosin light chains in a single fiber of rat soleus muscle.

Single muscle fibers were isolated from soleus and extensor digitorum longus muscle of adult rats. The muscle fiber type of single fibers was determined physiologically by the skinned fiber method according to the sensitivity to strontium (Sr) ions. The fiber type of single fibers was contrasted to the pattern of myosin light chains analyzed by one and two dimensional gel-electrophoreses. All the type 2 fibers isolated from soleus muscle contained both fast and slow types of myosin light chains.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

Changes in prostaglandin levels in cultures of SV40 -transformed macrophage cell lines in relation to their phenotypic expression.

A radioimmunoassay was performed to determine the total amounts of the A, B, and E series prostaglandins (prostaglandins) in culture fluids of simian virus 40 (SV40)-transformed mouse clonal macrophages, line 28-12, and its subline, 28-12 (Ara). When the proportion of phagocytic cells in confluent 28-12 cell cultures increased, the prostaglandin levels in the culture fluids decreased. On the other hand, stably phagocytic 28-12 (Ara) cells, which were derived from 28-12 cells and which had a reduced growth rate, did not release prostaglandins under the usual culture conditions; however, when they were treated with lipopolysaccharide or streptococcal preparation OK-432, large amounts of prostaglandins were released. In contrast, nonphagocytic cell populations in the cultures of 28-12 cells were not responsive to the drug treatment. These results suggest that there is a correlation between the phenotypic change from the nonphagocytic to the phagocytic state and a decrease in prostaglandin levels in culture fluids, and indicate that phagocytic cells are responsive to prostaglandin inducers, whereas nonphagocytic cells are not.

Animals↗

[Multidisciplinary treatment of malignant melanoma of the nose and paranasal sinuses--with special reference to oral administration of enterosoluble BCG capsules].

In authors' clinic, seven patients with malignant melanoma of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses were treated with "per oral BCG" immunotherapy combined with other treatments for 3 years and 7 months from September 1978 to March, 1982. Eighty mg of BCG was enclosed in an enterosoluble capsule and administered to these patients orally once a week. Total doses of BCG administered were ranged from 2,240 mg to 11,860 mg. These treatments were effective for metastasis to the lung, but ineffective against the abdominal metastasis. Immunological parameters of these patients indicated good scores during the treatments. Mean survival time of four cases who died was 3 years and 3 months, and three other cases lived for 5 months, 11 months, and 2 years and 10 months, respectively. On the other hand, mean survival time of six historical control cases was 1 year and 10 months. Multidisciniplinary treatment was thought to be effective to extend their survival time. Three cases complained of arthralgia as a side effect by oral BCG administration.

Adult↗

Studies on peptides. CXI. Synthesis of chicken gastrin-releasing peptide.

The heptacosapeptide amide corresponding to the entire amino acid sequence of chicken gastrin-releasing peptide (cGRP) was synthesized similarly to the synthesis of porcine GRP by assembling six peptide fragments followed by deprotection with 1 M trifluoromethanesulfonic acid-thioanisole in TFA. A new carboxyl-activating reagent, thiazolidine-2-thione, was preferentially adopted for preparation of necessary fragments. The synthetic cGRP, purified by ion-exchange chromatography, followed by partition chromatography, was active as the synthetic porcine GRP, when plasma immunoreactive gastrin level was examined in rats. No obvious difference was observed when synthetic and natural cGRP preparations were compared by HPLC, immunochemical property and biological activity in dogs.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

[The effect of PSK on laryngeal cancer].

In order to examine effects of PSK (polysaccharide Kureha) on laryngeal cancer, clinical results of 28 patients treated by PSK were compared with those of 31 of the historical control group. Three months after treatments, the PSK group showed a higher cumulative survival rate and better results in immunological parameters such as counts of peripheral lymphocyte, PPD and PHA skin reaction. However, these differences between the PSK group and the control group were not significant statistically, except peripheral leucocyte counts. The side effect was found in one patient who complained of stomach discomfort after applicating PSK.

Adjuvants, Immunologic↗

Chronopharmacological studies of neuroleptics.

Studies were carried out to clarify the mechanism of appearance and the laws controlling the appearance of such phenomena as circadian fluctuation in the effects of neuroleptics. A detailed review was initially made of previous studies on drugs closely related to neuroleptics; then data obtained by the authors was analyzed. Significant circadian fluctuation was found in the effect of chlorpromazine, haloperidol, and tetrabenazine, varying with the time of administration, with the kind of drug, and even with the dose of the same drug. There was also circadian fluctuation in lethality rate, which was seen to be a phenomenon controlled by a law different from that controlling circadian fluctuation in the effect of a drug. Circadian fluctuation in the effect of a drug was regulated externally by clock time, setting the light-dark rhythm of the raising environment. Different times of administration of a drug did not affect chronological changes in the blood level or intracerebral concentration of a drug after administration. From these results, it was assumed that this phenomenon might be induced by the circadian rhythm of drug sensitivity of a brain where the drug acts.

Animals↗