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Biomedical subjects

H Ohkubo

Publications and source records attributed to H Ohkubo.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

[Randomized controlled study of methyl 6-[3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosoureido]-6-deoxy-alpha-D-glucopyranoside (MCNU) in comparison with busulfan for chronic myelogenous leukemia].

UNLABELLED: In a randomized controlled study, the efficacy of MCNU was compared with that of Busulfan in 95 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Of the patients studied, 95 were entered among whom 77 were evaluable. These comprised 40 for an MCNU group (M) and 37 for a Busulfan group (B). No significant difference was found statistically between the two groups with regard to background factors, i.e., male-to-female ratio, age, white blood cell counts, platelet counts, splenomegaly or Ph1 chromosome. RESULTS: CR rate was 83% for M and 68% for B, and the number of days to CR was 88 for M and 155 for B. Blastic crisis was noted in 31% of M patients and 33% of B patients and the number of days to blastic crisis was 542.6 and 581.9, respectively for the two groups. Deaths accounted for 28% and 29% for each of M and B. Side effects were observed in 31% of M cases and 15% of B cases. A significant difference was observed only in the period to CR. MCNU showed almost equal efficacy to that of Busulfan but was superior to Busulfan in patients who required rapid response. Side effects were mild and transient. Despite its delivery by intravenous injection, the administration of MCNU is deemed convenient, considering the long interval possible between treatments, being comparable in this respect with oral Busulfan. MCNU therefore seems a very effective drug for chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

[CO2 laser in treating head and neck cancer].

CO2 laser is especially useful in treating cancer of tube- and cavity-organs. For carcinomas of the tongue, we have employed three types of laser usage. Carcinomas confined within the mucosa are treated by laser alone. For carcinomas invading the muscle to some extent, we make a mass reduction surgery by means of laser which is followed by (chemo)radiotherapy. Carcinomas with extensive muscular invasion are first treated with induction chemotherapy. If the chemotherapy is effective, we add laser surgery for the purpose of mass reduction and chemoradiotherapy follows. 26 patients were treated and none has developed local recurrence. For glottic carcinomas, we have applied laser in two ways: laser surgery alone and laser combined with (chemo)radiotherapy. We have treated 58 patients with glottic carcinoma. 14 developed local recurrence. Of these 14, 13 were successfully treated but the other died because he refused to have further treatment.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1985

[Clinical evaluation of aztreonam in children].

Clinical usage of aztreonam (AZT), a newly synthesized antibiotic which belongs to monobactam, was evaluated for its efficacy and safety in 22 patients aged from 1 month-old to 13 year-5 month-old with bacterial infections and the following results were obtained. AZT was administered to 4 patients with pyelonephritis and 10 patients with tonsillitis at a daily dosage of 40.4-120.9 mg/kg and to 5 patients with clinical sepsis associated with agranulocytosis caused by intensive antileukemic therapy at a daily dosage of 142.4-171.4 mg/kg, divided into 3 or 4, by intravenous injection or by 30 minutes drip infusion. The clinical results of these 19 evaluable patients were as follows: excellent; 10 cases, good; 5 cases, fair; 2 cases, poor; 2 cases. The over all efficacy rate was 78.9% and that of pyelonephritis and tonsillitis was 100.0%. No clinical side effects were observed in any 23 patients, including a patient who proved to be suffering from Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection, and no abnormal laboratory findings caused by AZT was noticed. The MICs of AZT against 9 strains isolated from patients with pyelonephritis and those with tonsillitis were as follows: MICs against all of 3 strains of K. pneumoniae were less than 0.05 microgram/ml. MICs against 2 out of 4 strains of H. influenzae were less than 0.05 microgram/ml and those of the remaining 2 strains were 0.10 microgram/ml. MIC against 1 strain of S. aureus was 1.56 microgram/ml. MIC against 1 strain of S. epidermidis was more than 100 micrograms/ml.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Validation of infrared spectroscopy for assessment of vinyl polymers of bile-pigment gallstones.

The i.r. spectra of bilirubin isomers that differ in number and position of vinyl groups were examined to verify the assignment of the 988 cm-1 peak of bilirubin (991 cm-1 peak in calcium bilirubinate) to its pendant vinyl groups. There were only small changes in this peak with changes in position of vinyl groups (exo-2- and -18-vinyl versus endo-3- and -17-vinyl), but progressive loss of peaks in this region was observed when vinyl groups were reduced to ethyl groups (dihydrobilirubin and mesobilirubin). Methylvinylmaleimide, a monopyrrole derived from the outer (A and D) rings of bilirubin, has a pendant vinyl group and exhibits a prominent peak at 986 cm-1, but haematinic acid methyl ester derived from the inner (B and C) rings has no vinyl group and shows no peak near 988 cm-1. These observations verify the assignment of the 988 cm-1 peak of bilirubin to its pendant vinyl groups. This supports our previous proposal that a decrease in the peak at 985-995 cm-1 in the i.r. spectra of pigment gallstones, as compared with unconjugated bilirubin or calcium bilirubinate, indicates a consumption of vinyl groups in the process of formation of the polymer in the pigment stones.

Bilirubin↗
PubMed1984

Primary structure of human preangiotensinogen deduced from the cloned cDNA sequence.

Cloned cDNA sequences for human preangiotensinogen have been isolated from a human liver cDNA library by hybridization with a restriction fragment derived from a previously cloned cDNA for rat preangiotensinogen. Analyses by nucleotide sequence determination, S1 nuclease mapping, and RNA blot hybridization indicate that human preangiotensinogen is encoded by two mRNAs that differ only in the length of the 3'-untranslated region. The deduced amino acid sequence shows that the mature angiotensinogen consists of 452 amino acid residues with the angiotensin sequence at its amino-terminal portion. Two potential initiation sites have been discussed. These are the methionine codon located at the position exactly corresponding to the initiation site of rat preangiotensinogen mRNA and an additional methionine codon positioned nearest the 5' end of the mRNA. The amino acid sequences starting at either of the initiation sites and preceding the angiotensin sequence constitute a large number of hydrophobic amino acid residues, thus representing the signal peptide characteristic of the secretory proteins. Human and rat preangiotensinogens show that 63.6% of the amino acid positions of the two proteins are identical. However, the amino-terminal portions directly distal to angiotensin I diverge markedly between the two proteins and differ in their possible glycosylation sites. These structural differences may contribute to the known species specificity exhibited by renin.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1984

Common structural organization of the angiotensinogen and the alpha 1-antitrypsin genes.

A rat genomic DNA segment containing the angiotensinogen gene has been isolated from a gene library by hybridization with a restriction fragment derived from a previously cloned cDNA for rat angiotensinogen. Restriction mapping and nucleotide sequence analysis of the cloned DNA fragments have indicated that the rat angiotensinogen gene is approximately 11.8 kilobase pairs long and consists of five exons separated by four introns. Because it has recently been reported that the sequence of angiotensinogen significantly resembles those of alpha 1-antitrypsin and ovalbumin and also that the exon-intron arrangements of the alpha 1-antitrypsin and ovalbumin genes are completely different, this study compares the structural organization of the angiotensinogen gene with those of the alpha 1-antitrypsin gene and the ovalbumin gene. The comparison has revealed that the four introns of the angiotensinogen gene are all located at the positions equivalent to or corresponding to those observed in the alpha 1-antitrypsin gene, suggesting that the angiotensinogen gene and the alpha 1-antitrypsin gene have diverged from a common ancestor gene. This finding raises interesting possibilities regarding the biological function of angiotensinogen and the evolution of the angiotensinogen gene.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1984

Structure of the human renin gene.

The human renin gene was isolated from a Charon 4A human genomic library and characterized. The gene spans about 11.7 kilobases and consists of 10 exons and 9 introns that map at points that could be variable surface loops of the enzyme. The complete coding regions, the 5'- and 3'-flanking regions, and the exon-intron boundaries were sequenced. The active site aspartyl residues Asp-38 and Asp-226 are encoded by the third and eighth exons, respectively. The extra three amino acids (Asp-165, Ser-166, Glu-167) that are not present in mouse renin are encoded by the separate sixth exon, an exon as small as 9 nucleotides. The positions of the introns are in remarkable agreement with those in the human pepsin gene, supporting the view that the genes coding for aspartyl proteinases have arisen as the result of duplication of a common ancestral gene. As in most eukaryotic genes, the putative T-A-T-A and C-A-A-T sequences, which may play a role in the initiation of gene transcription, are found in the vicinity of -29 and -51 nucleotides of the cap site. Further upstream, at nucleotides -456 to -451, is located the hexanucleotide T-G-T-T-C-T, which has recently been suggested as a binding site for the glucocorticoid receptor. In the 3'-flanking region, there is the conserved hexanucleotide sequence A-A-T-A-A-A, thought to be necessary for polyadenylylation. Blot-hybridization analyses of the isolated gene clone and the total cellular DNA after digestion with restriction enzymes revealed that human renin is encoded by a single gene.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1984

Polymer networks in pigment and cholesterol gallstones assessed by equilibrium swelling and infrared spectroscopy.

Sixty-five gallstones were assessed for content of network polymer by equilibrium swelling and infrared spectroscopy. All types of pigment gallstones exhibited swelling in aqueous buffers, indicating network polymer content, but swelling was greatest in black pigment gallstones. Gallstones composed principally of cholesterol did not swell. Swelling increased with increasing pH values from 6 to 10.5, suggesting that titratable carboxyl side chains of the pigment were intact. Swelling increased in the presence of 10 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, indicating that calcium ions provided secondary crosslinks in the network. In all types of pigment gallstones, the equilibrium swelling ratio at the maximum (pH = 10.5) was correlated inversely with the proportion of intact vinyl groups in the pigment assessed by infrared spectroscopy. This suggests that pigment vinyl groups are consumed in forming the covalent crosslinks of the polymer network. A weaker direct correlation between equilibrium swelling ratio and the percentage of unmeasured residue in the gallstones suggested that this residue may also have contributed to the swelling. The high content of cross-linked network polymer in black pigment gallstones renders their therapeutic dissolution improbable by physicochemical means.

Biopolymers↗
PubMed1984

[Fundamental studies on the introduction of chemotherapy of uterine cervical carcinoma--tissue level of 5-FU after oral administration].

In Japan, oral 5-FU has been popularly used as an adjuvant chemotherapy to surgical operation mainly gastrointestinal carcinomas. This drug is generally administered consecutively at a low dose over a long term, because of its distribution at high levels in the upper gastrointestinal organs after oral administration. The authors have attempted to introduce the oral administration of 5-FU as an adjuvant chemotherapy in the treatment of uterine cervical carcinoma, and the results of a preliminary trial are reported in this paper; that is, the 5-FU level in target organs was measured after oral administration of 5-FU in 44 cases of uterine cervical carcinoma. Judging from the 5-FU level in organs removed about 2 hours after preoperative administration of 5-FU at 300 mg, the distribution of the drug to bilateral lymph nodes and the uterine cervix was good, and when calculated on the basis of the trace as 0, the average tissue level was 0.0432 microgram/g in the left lymph node, 0.0104 microgram/g in the right lymph node and 0.0190 microgram/g in the uterine cervix. From the above, it was concluded that, in the application of oral 5-FU as an adjuvant chemotherapy to treatment of uterine cervical carcinoma, a different manner application procedure should be established from that used to treat gastrointestinal carcinoma; that is, 5-FU should be administered intermittently at a moderate dose.

Administration, Oral↗