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Biomedical subjects

H Kono

Publications and source records attributed to H Kono.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase genotypes and drinking behavior of Chinese living in Shanghai.

Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), the principal enzymes responsible for oxidative metabolism of ethanol, exist in multiple, genetically determined molecular forms. Widely different kinetic properties in some of these isozymes account for the individual differences in alcohol sensitivity. In this study we used the polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism method to determine the genotypes of the ADH2 and ALDH2 loci of alcoholic and nonalcoholic Chinese living in Shanghai. We also investigated the subjects' drinking patterns by means of semistructured interviews. The alcoholics had significantly lower frequencies of the ADH2(2) and ALDH2(2) alleles than did the nonalcoholics, suggesting the inhibitory effects of these alleles for the development of alcoholism. In the nonalcoholic subjects, ADH2(2) had little, if any, effect, despite the significant effect of the ALDH2(2) allele in decreasing the alcohol consumption of the individual. Taken together, these results fit the proposed hypothesis for the development of alcoholism, i.e., drinking behavior is greatly influenced by the individual's genotypes of alcohol-metabolizing enzymes, and the risk of becoming alcoholic is proportionate with the ethanol consumption of the individual.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

[A case of tsutsugamushi disease which occurred in south western Shikoku].

We report a case of tsutsugamushi disease found in south western Shikoku. A 64-year-old male who lived in Towa Village in Kochi, developed a fever and headache on April 6, 1994, and was admitted to Uwajima City Hospital on April 15, with a ten-day history of illness. He had an eschar on the right anterior side of the breast and an enlargement of the right axillary lymph node, without a rash. Laboratory data showed mild liver injury and atypical lymphocytes with 6% in peripheral blood. After his blood was drawn for rickettsial isolation, the minocycline was administered. His symptoms improved rapidly and was discharged in good condition. We successfully isolated the causative agent, Rickettsia tsutugamushi, and designated it as the Shiba strain. High antibody titer against the Kato, Karp and Gilliam strains was detected in serum on admission and increased during the course of the disease. In Shikoku, tsutsugamushi disease is rare and only 13 cases were reported during last ten years. Especially in south western district of Shikoku, there have been no case reported since 1960. This case is important epidemiologically and suggests that we should pay attention to this disease.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1995

[Clinical effects of FUT-187 in reflux esophagitis after gastrectomy].

FUT-187 was orally administered to 38 patients with postgastrectomy reflux esophagitis for 4 weeks. The drug reduced the chief subjective symptoms of reflux esophagitis, such as heartburn, chest pain, precordial pain, and dysphagia for solids in 78.1% of patients. Redness, edema and erosion were also reduced in 53.3% of patients as determined endoscopically. Overall, FUT-187 exhibited an excellent therapeutic effect on the reflux esophagitis which was refractory to conventional treatments.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1994

Energy minimization method using automata network for sequence and side-chain conformation prediction from given backbone geometry.

Globular proteins have high packing densities as a result of residue side chains in the core achieving a tight, complementary packing. The internal packing is considered the main determinant of native protein structure. From that point of view, we present here a method of energy minimization using an automata network to predict a set of amino acid sequences and their side-chain conformations from a desired backbone geometry for de novo design of proteins. Using discrete side-chain conformations, that is, rotamers, the sequence generation problem from a given backbone geometry becomes one of combinatorial problems. We focused on the residues composing the interior core region and predicted a set of amino acid sequences and their side-chain conformations only from a given backbone geometry. The kinds of residues were restricted to six hydrophobic amino acids (Ala, Ile, Met, Leu, Phe, and Val) because the core regions are almost always composed of hydrophobic residues. The obtained sequences were well packed as was the native sequence. The method can be used for automated sequence generation in the de novo design of proteins.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed1994

Effect of recombinant human erythropoietin administration on peripheral blood neutrophil counts of premature infants.

To clarify whether administration of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) may have toxic effects on neutrophil production in premature infants, 10 low birth weight infants who received rHuEpo, 200 U/kg per week, were studied retrospectively. Treated infants were compared with 10 untreated infants. None of the infants studied had infection antenatally or postnatally. In both groups the neutrophil count remained greater than 5000/mm3 for the first 3 weeks and decreased markedly at approximately 4 weeks. Although reticulocyte counts were significantly elevated in the rHuEpo-treated group, the difference in neutrophil counts between the groups was not significant. In addition, administration of rHuEpo did not exert any significant effect on granulocyte-macrophage colony formation of circulating hematopoietic progenitors in neonates. Thus no evidence was found that administration of rHuEpo has toxic effects on granulopoiesis in premature infants.

Erythropoietin↗
PubMed1994

Monoamine oxidase activity in rat organs during pregnancy.

To elucidate the involvement of MAO activity in rat pregnancy, female rats exhibiting at least 3 consecutive 4-day estrous cycles were used. The day of sperm-positive smears was designated as day 0 of pregnancy. The rats were sacrificed on day 2 of diestrus (diestrus-2) and days 7, 14 and 21 of gestation. The organs were collected and weighted, and mitochondrial fractions were prepared for MAO analysis with kynuramine dihydrobromide as substrate. Specific activity (pmol/mg of protein/min) in the ovary is significantly lower in rats on diestrus-2 (792 +/- 127) (mean +/- S.D.) than on day 14 (1,038 +/- 140) and day 21 (1,580 +/- 61) of pregnancy. However, the levels of MAO activity in the uterus of rats on diestrus-2 (899 +/- 266) is higher than on day 21 (570 +/- 80) of pregnancy. The MAO activity in the placenta on day 21 (644 +/- 82) was higher than day 14 (356 +/- 88) of pregnancy. Total MAO activity per organ (nmol/min) of ovary on day 21 (27.2 +/- 5.2) is higher than on diestrus-2 (8.7 +/- 3.0) and on day 14 (14.2 +/- 3.6). Our results suggest that MAO activity in rat reproductive organs such as uterus, ovary, and placenta might fluctuate significantly near term, in correlation with steroid levels, tissue catecholamine contents and so on, in order to maintain pregnancy.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Early diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism: the Japanese experience.

The current status and problems concerning the early identification, diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism in Japan are outlined in this article. With regard to the early diagnosis of alcoholism, we focus on the following four aspects: (1) the drinking culture in Japan and the difficulties in early diagnosis of drinking problems because of this culture, (2) the social system which serves to the early diagnosis of alcoholism, (3) the education of specialists, and (4) screening tests and biological markers of alcoholism. The number of facilities offering specialized treatment of alcoholics has sharply increased in recent years, but it is clear that such facilities are still not sufficient to meet the demand. It also emphasizes that diversification of alcohol treatment facilities is essential to meet the therapeutic needs of newly emerging subgroups such as women, young people and the elderly. Finally, the characteristics of the two self-help groups in Japan, Danshukai (Japan Sobriety Association) and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), are described and compared.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Effect of ethanol and progesterone on monoamine oxidase activity in cultured cells of human term placenta.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ethanol and progesterone on the monoamine oxidase activity in cultured human term placental cells. STUDY DESIGN: Human placental cells were prepared from normal human term placentas by enzymatic dispersion in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium. The viability of placental cells prepared by our method was 90%, and the yield of placental cells was 0.6 x 10(6) cells per gram of wet placental tissue. Five milliliters of Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium containing 3 x 10(5) placental cells was plated in a 25 cm2 flask and cultured for 8 days in an incubator at 37 degrees C under an atmosphere of 5% carbon dioxide and 95% oxygen with a saturated humidity. During the culture period the culture medium was replenished every 2 days. A confluent monolayer condition was achieved after 8 days in culture. The cultured placental cells were treated with different concentrations of ethanol (0, 34.6, and 69.2 mmol/L) and progesterone (0, 16, and 32 mumol/L) on day 8 of culture for 48 hours. At the end of treatment placental cells from control and treated flasks were harvested for the analysis of monoamine oxidase activity by spectrophotometry. The effects of ethanol and progesterone on cultured placental cells were statistically analyzed by one-way analysis of variance followed by Duncan's multiple comparisons procedure. RESULTS: A human placental cell culture system has been established from normal human term placentas. The monoamine oxidase activity in 8-day-cultured human term placental cells was significantly higher than that of freshly prepared placental cells. Ethanol concentrations at 34.6 and 69.2 mmol/L significantly increased and progesterone concentration at 32 mumol/L significantly decreased the monoamine oxidase activity. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the cultured human term placental cells can be used to examine the in vitro effects of ethanol and progesterone on monoamine oxidase activity. However, the physiologic significance of progesterone's inhibitory effect and the stimulatory effect of ethanol monoamine oxidase activity in the in vivo system have yet to be further investigated.

Cells, Cultured↗
PubMed1993

Young female alcoholics with and without eating disorders: a comparative study in Japan.

OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to delineate the characteristics of female alcoholics with eating disorders. METHOD: The study subjects were 29 female Japanese outpatients and inpatients, 30 years of age or younger, with DSM-III-R diagnoses of either alcohol dependence or alcohol abuse and eating disorders. Twenty-one female alcoholics within the same age range who did not have eating disorders served as the comparison group. The social and familial backgrounds, clinical course, and clinical symptoms of the two groups were compared with the use of a structured interview form developed for the study. RESULTS: Ninety-three percent of the subjects with eating disorders had bulimia nervosa; 52% had anorexia nervosa. In all cases, both disorders continued after the onset of problem drinking. The age distributions of the two groups of alcoholic subjects clearly differed: no one in the comparison group was under the age of 24, and the number of comparison subjects increased with age after age 24, whereas the subjects with eating disorders ranged in age from 19 to 30 years, with the greatest number at age 26. More of the alcoholic subjects with eating disorders had never been married, they had had an earlier onset of alcoholism, and they had lower body weights than those without eating disorders. Also, more of them had depression and borderline personality disorder. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that young female alcoholics with eating disorders constitute a clinical subgroup of alcoholics with distinct sociodemographic characteristics and a clinical course and symptoms that differ from those of both younger and older female alcoholics without eating disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Alcoholics with eating disorders: prevalence and clinical course. A study from Japan.

Investigation of the prevalence of eating disorders among a large sample of Japanese alcoholics admitted for hospital treatment revealed a strong association between eating disorders and alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence among young women. That association was not apparent in young men. The results of this study of the clinical courses of eating disorders and alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence suggest that women with eating disorders, especially bulimia nervosa, are at high risk of becoming alcoholic.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Deep breathing test (DBT) in predicting white coat hypertension.

We have evaluated the diagnostic value of deep breathing test (DBT) in detecting the patients with white coat hypertension on the outpatient basis. Thirty patients with untreated mild to moderate hypertension underwent 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Those who had a mean 24-hour blood pressure less than 135/80 mmHg were categorized as having white coat hypertension and the remainder were categorized as sustained hypertension. These two groups were compared with regard to the differences of office blood pressures before and after DBT (i.e., deep breathing 5 times for a minute in sitting position). Although the office systolic pressure significantly fell after DBT in both groups (p < 0.001 vs p < 0.05), there was no significant difference (p = 0.27) between the two groups. On the other hand, the office diastolic blood pressure significantly fell in the white coat hypertensives in contrast with no meaningful fall of it in the sustained hypertensives (p < 0.01 vs p = 0.66). At the cutoff level of -3%, -5% and -10% of the differences in office diastolic blood pressure before and after DBT, the sensitivity for the presence of white coat hypertension were 64.7%, 58.8% and 29.4%, respectively, and the specificity were 61.5%, 84.6% and 100%, respectively. These findings demonstrate that the deep breathing test is useful for identifying white coat hypertension in the outpatient clinic.

Female↗
PubMed1993

[A case report of BWG syndrome in an elderly patient performed with mitral valve replacement 11 years after single CABG].

A 46-year-old female who had undergone single CABG for BWG syndrome 11 years ago was referred to our hospital for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. The roentgenogram showed slightly cardiomegaly and the enlargement of LA. Ischemic changes of ECG appeared at I, aVL, V5, V6, as inverted T wave, and low voltage R wave at V1-V4, but non Q wave. The thallium-201 emission computed tomogram at exercise revealed poor perfusion at apical region without redistribution pattern. Catheterization showed mitral regurgitation (grade III), big right coronary artery (RCA) arising from aorta, rich collateral to poor left coronary artery (LCA), and bypass graft was obstructed. The proximal end of LCA was closed, and didn't arise from both pulmonary artery and ascending aorta. In this cases, MVR only without re-CABG to LCA was selected and performed. Postoperative course was uneventful. The result of this case suggested that MVR was an effective surgical procedure for MR of BWG syndrome in the adult case and it was better to add CABG to LCA as much as possible if the ischemic region was large.

Coronary Artery Bypass↗
PubMed1993

[Alcohol and sudden death: a survey on alcohol-related deaths at tokyo Metropolitan Medical Examiner's Office (1989)].

Seven thousand three hundred seventy-six sudden or violent manner of deaths were inspected or autopsied at Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Examiner's Office in 1989. Out of these victims, 693 (9.4%) victims were regarded as heavy drinkers on the basis of the drinking habits and the autopsy reports and 196 (2.7%) victims without past problem drinking were thought to be drunk at death from the family statements or the blood alcohol analysis. The total 889 (12.1%) alcohol-related cases (autopsy was performed on the 489 cases) were studied from epidemiological and etiological viewpoints. The average age of the alcohol-related victims (male: 811, female: 78) was 52 +/- 11 years. In middle-aged (45-54 years) men, 34% of the all sudden or violent deaths were alcohol-related. About half of the alcohol-related victims were living alone and jobless and they often died at home, particularly in the bed. In the alcohol-related victims, the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) analysis revealed that the average BAC of female was significantly higher than that of male. (2.12 +/- 1.73 mg/ml vs. 1.33 +/- 1.75, P < 0.01). This difference may be associated with sex difference in ethanol metabolism, body composition and drinking habits. Among the major causes of the alcohol-related deaths, alcoholic liver diseases accounted for 226 (25%), gastro-intestinal bleedings for 115 (13%), cardiovascular diseases for 105 (12%) and violent deaths (e.g., acute alcohol intoxication, falls, traffic accidents, suicide) for 329 (37%). By histopathological examination of the liver, about 30% of the alcoholic liver disease cases showed mainly fatty metamorphosis and 48% showed liver cirrhosis. Only 12% of the cirrhotics had either jaundice or ascites, suggesting hepatic failure. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy was suspected in only 11 cases. In conclusion, many people, particularly middle-aged men, lose their lives due to heavy drinking and there are many pathologically unexplainable sudden deaths of alcoholics.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Clinical assessment of complement activation and leukocyte kinetics during cardiopulmonary bypass: the effect of cepharanthine].

Complement activation and leukosequestration to the lung was studied during cardiopulmonary bypass in eleven patients undergoing cardiac operation without blood transfusion. Six patients (group I) received methylprednisolone before and after the bypass, and the other five (group II) received cepharanthine (biscoclaurin alkaloid) before the bypass associated with methylprednisolone therapy. Leukosequestration to the lung was observed at the time of reperfusion of the lung only in group I, although complement activation estimated by the increase of C 4 a and C 3 a was quite similar in both group. Cepharanthine prevented the sequestration of the leukocyte to the lung may be by its membrane stabilizing effect.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[A case of gastric cancer with multiple liver metastases responding significantly to intra-arterial infusion of epirubicin/mitomycin C-lipiodol suspension].

We encountered a case of partial response in a patient with multiple liver metastases from gastric cancer as a result of treatment by hepatic artery infusions of epirubicin/mitomycin C-Lipiodol suspension. A 56-year-old man was diagnosed as having advanced gastric cancer with multiple liver metastases. Subtotal gastrectomy with regional lymph node dissection and cholecystectomy were performed, and an injection port was implanted in the proper hepatic artery. Ten days after the operation, the intermittent chemotherapies were performed, and 3 months after the effect was judged to be a partial response by CT scan. Severe side effects were not seen during treatment, and the man is now healthy and working for more than one year after the operation. Thus, this regimen may be found useful for patients with liver metastases.

Adenocarcinoma, Papillary↗
PubMed1992

The relationship between low Km aldehyde dehydrogenase phenotype and drinking behavior in Japanese.

The relationship between the low Km aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) phenotype determined by the isoelectric focusing of hair root lysates, facial flushing and alcohol drinking patterns in Japanese (N = 282) was examined. Men who had inactive ALDH2 drank significantly less alcohol than those with active ALDH2. Although the effect was less noticeable, a similar relationship was detected in women. Two types of flushing responses were determined: one due to the inactive ALDH2, the other unrelated to this variant form of the isozyme. A striking difference between these flushing types, in terms of the inhibitory influence over drinking patterns, was noted. Nearly 86% of the subjects who reported always flushing in the face were shown to have inactive ALDH2, whereas infrequent flushing and absence of flushing were associated with active ALDH2. Thus, facial flushing may be used as an indicator of ALDH2 phenotype.

Adolescent↗