Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

H Shibata

Publications and source records attributed to H Shibata.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Efficacy of shitei-to, a traditional Chinese medicine formulation, against convulsions in mice.

The anticonvulsant effects of Shitei-To and its components on maximal electroshock seizures and chemical convulsions were examined. Shitei-To significantly prolonged the latency to bicuculline (2.0 mg/kg, s.c.)-induced clonic convulsions. Repeated treatment with Shitei-To also significantly prolonged the latency to strychnine (1.5 mg/kg, i.p.)- and pentylenetetrazol (90 mg/kg, i.p.)-induced clonic convulsions. On the other hand, Shitei-To had no effect on maximal electroshock seizures. Of the components of Shitei-To, Shitei had almost the same effect as Shitei-To against the clonic convulsions induced by the three chemical agents tested. These findings suggest that Shitei-To has anticonvulsant effects.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

The mechanisms of immune suppression by high-pressure stress in mice.

The effects of high-pressure stress on the induction of anti-sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and of plaque-forming cells (PFC), and on thymus weight, were studied in BALB/c mice in-vivo and in-vitro. The efficacy of high-pressure stress in suppressing PFC and thymic involution was maximum when the stress was applied 1 h day(-1) for 2 days before immunization with SRBC. Both effects were blocked by administration of indomethacin, atropine, naloxone or phentolamine before the first application of stress, whereas hexamethonium and propranolol had no such effect. Hexamethonium, naloxone and propranolol administered before the second application of high-pressure stress blocked both effects. Prostaglandin and acetylcholine given 24 h before application of high-pressure stress caused a marked reduction in PFC count, but not in thymus weight. The reduced PFC count caused by acetylcholine was blocked by pretreatment with indomethacin. When adrenaline was injected 24 h after application of high-pressure stress a marked reduction in PFC was observed, but without thymic involution. When adrenaline was injected 24 h after prostaglandin injection the PFC count was also markedly reduced, but not thymus weight. The decrease in PFC caused by two exposures to stress or one exposure to stress plus injection of adrenaline was blocked by diethylcarbamazine before the second exposure to stress or the injection of adrenaline. In addition, normal spleen cells, were induced as suppressor cells when incubated with the serum of stressed mice, but not when supplemented with anti-leukotriene C4, D4 antibody. These data suggest that mice fall into a pre-stress condition via the release of prostaglandin after the first stress, and then immunosuppression is induced in these prestressed mice via the release of leukotriene C4, D4, caused by the activation of the autonomic nervous system by the second exposure to stress.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Natural antioxidant, chlorogenic acid, protects against DNA breakage caused by monochloramine.

Chlorogenic acid prevented a stepwise conversion of plasmid pUC18 DNA, from I-->form II-->form III, induced by 3 mM monochloramine with a half inhibition of 67.4 microM. Chlorogenic acid reacted with monochloramine in a time-dependent manner, and the reaction rate increased with decreasing pH. These results suggest that chlorogenic acid prevents genotoxicity of monochloramine in gastric mucosa.

Ammonium Chloride↗
PubMed1999

Sexual differences in relationships between birth weight or current body weight and blood pressure or cholesterol in young Japanese students.

This study was designed to examine the relationships between birth weight or current body weight and blood pressure (BP) or cholesterol in 178 Japanese high school students (98 male, 80 female, age 15-16 yr). All subjects were born after a full-term pregnancy (gestational age > or = 38 wk) with a birth weight > or = 2,500 g; these data were obtained from routine obstetrical records. At a health check-up, nurses used an automatic device to perform two consecutive BP measurements with each subject in a sitting position after resting for at least 5 min. Serum total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels were measured. Birth weight was not related to BP, but was inversely related to serum total cholesterol in both males (r= -0.241, p < 0.05) and females (r= -0.351, p < 0.01). Current body weight was significantly related to systolic BP (r=0.369, p<0.01), diastolic BP (r=0.216, p<0.05), and HDL cholesterol level (r= -0.224, p < 0.05) in males, but not in females. Although no relationship was demonstrated between birth weight and BP level in young Japanese students without intrauterine growth retardation, an inverse relationship between birth weight and serum total cholesterol level was found. There was a gender difference in the relationship between current body weight and either BP or HDL cholesterol in these subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

XcmI site-containing vector for direct cloning and in vitro transcription of PCR product.

For TA cloning and the direct in vitro transcription of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) product, we constructed a novel T-vector, pGEMTA.miwa, derived from pGEM-3Zf(+). The vector were designed to produce single thymidine (T) overhangs when digested with a restriction enzyme Xcml. In a useful modification of the direct TA cloning system, the novel T vector can be applied to the direct in vitro transcription of riboprobe from the cloned sequences. The vector has the advantage of excluding GC-rich extra sequences in the multiple cloning site of the vector for the reduction of nonspecific hybridization signals in in situ hybridization. The use of the vector also provides a rapid system for the cloning of unmodified PCR products, a color selection of the recombinant clones, and subsequent sequencing analysis of the cloned fragments. These functions allow us to synthesize an RNA probe directly from RT-PCR products or cDNA sequences, and are useful for hybridization or in situ hybridization analysis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

A new combination chemotherapy with cis-diammine-glycolatoplatinum (Nedaplatin) and 5-fluorouracil for advanced esophageal cancers.

OBJECTIVE: The efficacy of a new chemotherapeutic combination consisting of Cis-diammineglycolatoplatinum (Nedaplatin), a derivative of cisplatin (CDDP), and 5-fluorouracil (5FU) was evaluated in patients with advanced esophageal carcinomas. METHODS: Nedaplatin was administered at a dose of 80 or 100 mg/m2 with 500 ml of saline by slow drip infusion for 120 minutes on day 1. 5FU at a dose of 350 or 500 mg/m2 was mixed with 1,000 ml of saline and administered by continuous infusion for 24 hours on days 1 to 5. PATIENTS OR MATERIALS: This combination chemotherapy was tried in 17 patients with metastatic, recurrent, or bulky unresectable esophageal cancers. Of these, 15 evaluable patients received at least two courses of chemotherapy. RESULTS: The response rates in assessable and all patients were 60% and 52.9%, respectively. Cases with lymph node and liver metastases, as well as primary lesions, showed excellent response to the therapy with positive response rates of 54.5% (6/11), 100% (5/5) and 58.4% (7/12), respectively. The median response duration was 7 (range 3 to 37+) months for patients who achieved a partial response. Adverse drug reactions were limited to three cases of grade 3 toxicity, including allergy, and decreased hemoglobin and platelets, which were well tolerated by the patients. CONCLUSION: The present study thus indicated the combination chemotherapy of Nedaplatin and 5FU to be safe and efficacious for advanced esophageal cancer. Further investigations are clearly warranted.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

Relationship of serum cholesterols and vitamin E to depressive status in the elderly.

Various relationships of serum cholesterols and alpha-tocopherol in the blood to depressive status as assessed by a short version of the Geriatric Depression Score (GDS) were cross-sectionally and longitudinally investigated in the elderly using multivariate analysis. Subjects comprised 504 residents (195 men and 309 women) aged 65 years and over in a rural community. Neither cholesterols nor alpha-tocopherol significantly related to depressive status in either sex, adjusted for age and educational attainment in cross-sectional analysis. However, both total cholesterol and alpha-tocopherol at baseline significantly prevented a 4-year longitudinal progression of depressive status in men alone, adjusted for age, education, and the GDS score at baseline. LDL + VLDL cholesterol related in the same fashion as total cholesterol, whereas HDL cholesterol did not significantly relate to the progression of depressive status.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1999

[Compliance concerning external protectors for hip fractures among the institutionalized elderly in Japan].

An external protector (EHP) which was developed in Europe to protect the femoral neck from direct impact on falling is available but has not been examined sufficiently in Japan. In order to explore the compliance of use of the EHP among the institutionalized elderly with in case of hip fracture who are at high risk of falling, we conducted the four-week intervention study using two types of a EHP. The subjects of a study consisted of 10 elderly people (2 men, 8 women) with a mean age 85.7 living in nursing home in a village. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. At the end of the study, rate of subjects who wore EHP was relatively high for the Finnish EHP (Safety Pants) group compared to the Danish EHP (Hip Protector) group. There were no significant differences between variables in age, sex, fall experience during the previous year, history of diseases etc. The reasons for dropout were first: difficult in wearing EHP and accompanying delay in toilet, secondly: taking much time to wear, thirdly: a sense of incongruity, too small or too tight'. If the EHP is redesigned to suit Japanese elderly, the compliance might increase. Thorough explanation to institutionalized elderly who may have cognitive impairment, physical problems, or both, is required.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

[Compliance in use of external protectors for hip fractures among the community elderly in Japan].

To protect femoral neck fractures which are the most serious complication of osteoporosis and are increasing in frequency in Japan, an external hip protector (EHP) fixed in special underwear has been proven to absorb a direct impact to the greater trochanter during a fall from standing height. In this study, we investigated compliance concerning the use of EHPs, for six months using two types of EHP, i.e., hard pad type (Hip Protector, Sahvatex) from Denmark (Fig. 1) and soft pad type (Safety Pants, Rounomo Oy) from Finland. The subjects were 20 elderly women aged 70 years or more who had at least one experience of falling within the year preceding the baseline survey in September of 1997. The compliance rate is shown in Fig. 2. Though the soft type EHP had relatively better compliance than the hard type EHP, there was no significant difference between them. The main reason for early dropout (one or two weeks after base-line) was "difficulty to remove especially with regard to using the toilet". The main reason for later dropout was "too tight to wear in winter". There were no significant differences with regard to anthropometric measurements, physical activity, ADL, and rate of falls between compliers and dropouts except age (73.6 vs 78.5 yrs). Sufficient explanation at baseline and generatively good motivation for wearing the EHP will maintain a high compliance which may result in the effective prevention of hip fractures among the community elderly.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

[Association of physical performance and falls among the community elderly in Japan in a five year follow-up study].

Since falling is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality among the elderly, attention should be paid to prevention. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the risk factors for falls among the elderly by a 5-year longitudinal observation. The subjects were the elderly aged 65 years and over living in a rural community in the eastern part of Honshu, Japan. Of the 852 eligible subjects, 685 persons (278 males and 407 females) received the multidimensional medical examination including physical performance as the baseline of TMIG-LISA (Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Longitudinal and Interdisciplinary Study on Aging) in 1992. From baseline medical examinations, the following variables were adopted to investigate risk factors for falls (2 or more times during the 5-year follow-up): self-rated health, experience of falling, TMIG-index of competence, visual deficit, anthropometric measurements (height, weight, BML total skinfold thickness), lumbar bone mineral density, and physical performance tests (grip strength, finger-tapping rate, one leg standing time with eyes open or closed, preferred and maximum speed walking for 5 meters). A total of 108 subjects experienced falls two or more times during the 5-year follow-up period (43 men and 65 women). There were significant differences in grip strength, preferred and maximum walking speeds between those who fell and those who did not. Multiple logistic regression analysis controlled for age, sex and other variables adopted in this study revealed the following variables were significantly and independently related to falling: experience of falling within one year preceding the baseline survey (directly, p < 0.0001), preferred walking speed (inversely, p < 0.005) and total skinfold thickness (inversely, p < 0.01). These results suggest that the walking test as well as the experience of falling have discriminant and predictive validity for assessing the future occurrence of falls among the elderly.

Accidental Falls↗
PubMed1999

Inhibitory effect of Cladosiphon fucoidan on the adhesion of Helicobacter pylori to human gastric cells.

We studied the inhibitory effect of Cladosiphon fucoidan on the attachment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a gastroduodenal pathogen, to human gastric cell lines. The bacterial binding in these cell lines was inhibited more by Cladosiphon fucoidan (IC50 = 16-30 mg/mL), than by the fucoidan from Fucus (IC50 > 30 mg/mL). Dextran sulfate, another sulfated polysaccharide, did not inhibit the binding at all. Pre-incubating the bacterial suspension with fucoidans reinforced the inhibitory ability of these components, and reduced the IC50 value of Cladosiphon fucoidan to approximately 1 mg/mL. However, the binding was not inhibited by pre-treatment of gastric cells with these components. It was also shown that this fucoidan blocks both Leb- and sulfatide-mediated attachment of H. pylori to gastric cells. Furthermore, fucoidan-binding proteins were found on the H. pylori cell surface by Western blot analysis. Thus, the inhibitory effect exerted by Cladosiphon fucoidan on binding between H. pylori and gastric cells might result from the coating with this component of the bacterial surface.

Antigens↗
PubMed1999

[The factor structure of coping strategies and their effects on burnout among primary caregivers of impaired elderly persons].

The purpose of this study was to extract the factor structure of coping strategies and to examine their direct and indirect effects on burnout. Eight hundred thirty four valid responses obtained from primary caregivers of impaired persons aged 65 years old and over living in the community were analyzed. The results of covariance structural analysis were as follows: Three second order factors, including "Approach", and "Avoidance," and "Support seeking," were extracted. Five factors, "Keeping their own pace," "Positive acceptance of caregiving role," "Diversion," "Informal support seeking," and "Formal support seeking," were extracted as first order factors. "Keeping their own pace," directly decreased burnout and "Diversion" indirectly decreased burnout through caregiving in involvement. "Informal support seeking" directly increased burnout and "Positive acceptance of caregiving role" indirectly increased burnout through caregiving involvement.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

[Influence of abnormal structure beta chain of luteinizing hormone on endocrinological kinetics of luteinizing hormone and gynecologic diseases].

With recent progress in endocrinology and in procreation physiology, the importance of kinetics of pituitary gonadotropin has been increasing, and the measurement method has been improved. In the present study, however, we found inconsistency in measured LH values between IRMA (SPAC-S LH) as the conventional method and CLEIA (IMMULYZE LH) as the newly developed method. The inconsistency between the SPAC-S LH value and the IMMULYZE LH value was observed in 10.0% of the healthy group and in 12.5% of the patient group. The cause of this discrepancy was due to a reaction of the SPAC-S LH of the intact LH monoclonal antibodies to the LH with the abnormal structure beta chain by two point mutation in the LH beta gene. The response of LH-RH test varied depending on the measurement reagent of LH in patients who had the LH with the abnormal structure beta chain, which made it difficult to determine the lesion and histological grading regarding the ovulation mechanism. Therefore, in patients with abnormal beta chain, an accurate treatment protocol was indeterminate. In this study, although a relationship between various gynecological diseases and the point mutation of LH was not clarified, we suggest that LH of the abnormal structure beta chain may cause excessive secretion in the early stage, and lead to some effect on physical activities.

Biomarkers↗
PubMed1999

The utility and limitations of an ultrasonic miniprobe in the staging of gastric cancer.

To determine the utility and limitations of an ultrasonic miniprobe (UMP) in the staging of gastric cancer, we evaluated 46 patients who underwent endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) using an UMP and who were histologically determined to have gastric cancers. In every case, UMP findings were compared with histopathological findings after treatment. The total accuracy of UMP relative to the depth of tumor invasion was 71.7% (33/46 cases). Accuracy with respect to T1-m tumor diagnosis was 75.7% (22/29 cases), and for T1-sm, 76.9% (10/13 cases), but accuracy for T2 tumor diagnosis was low, due to ultrasound attenuation. When the analysis was carried out based on the size of tumor, the accuracy for UMP was 50.0% (9/18 cases) for all tumors over 20 mm and 85.7% (24/28 cases) for all tumors smaller than 20 mm. We conclude that UMP is suitable for investigation of tumor extension when the lesion is superficial and/or small gastric cancers which do not cause ultrasonic attenuation, but not when the tumor is large or located in certain sites, although conventional EUS is useful in some of these cases.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

[Basic examination of hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein quantitative method and the clinical significance in during the follow-up of the patients after interferon treatment].

We evaluated the basic efficacy and clinical usefulness of "Imucheck F-HCV Ag-core(KOKUSAI)" (Ag-Core). This kit has been developed using monoclonal antibodies against hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein. This character is different from RT-PCR assay or branched DNA assay, which have been developed for the detection of HCV-RNA. The reproducibility of Ag-Core assay was supported by vigorous mixture of reagents during the manual pretreatment of samples. The correlation between Ag-Core assay and Amplicor HCV (RT-PCR) assay was relatively good (correlation coefficient: r was 0.735 and the qualitative accordance rate was 96.6%). The change of viral load during the IFN-alpha treatment was also in good accordance between the values determined by Ag-Core and Amplicor-HCV assay. Since it is simple, cheaper and faster than the Amplicor-HCV assay. Quantitation of HCV core protein by the Ag-Core assay is useful for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of IFN-alpha treatment.

Drug Monitoring↗
PubMed1999

[A longitudinal study on social support and life satisfaction among Japanese elderly].

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of social support on life satisfaction among Japanese elderly aged 60 and over (N = 1,285), using the longitudinal data of a national representative sample. An initial survey was carried out in 1987, and a follow-up was conducted in 1990. We measured life satisfaction by the Life Satisfaction Index A. Social support was measured from two aspects, providing support and receiving support. The impact of social support and changes in support during a period of three years on life satisfaction were assessed by sex after controlling for influences of socioeconomic status, physical functioning, and initial life satisfaction. Providing support predicted a high life satisfaction three years later only in females. Receiving support was not significantly associated with life satisfaction for either males or females. However changes in providing and receiving support had a significant impact on life satisfaction of the elderly. The findings of this study suggest that the effects of social support on life satisfaction differ by sex and the impacts of changes in support are strong determinant predicting life satisfaction of the elderly.

Aged↗