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Biomedical subjects

I Muro

Publications and source records attributed to I Muro.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Lack of involvement of mitochondrial factors in caspase activation in a Drosophila cell-free system.

Although mitochondrial proteins play well-defined roles in caspase activation in mammalian cells, the role of mitochondrial factors in caspase activation in Drosophila is unclear. Using cell-free extracts, we demonstrate that mitochondrial factors play no apparent role in Drosophila caspase activation. Cytosolic extract from apoptotic S2 cells, in which caspases were inhibited, induced caspase activation in cytosolic extract from normal S2 cells. Mitochondrial extract did not activate caspases, nor did it influence caspase activation by cytosolic extract. Silencing of Hid, Reaper, or Grim reduced caspase activation by apoptotic cell extract. Furthermore, a peptide representing the amino terminus of Hid was sufficient to activate caspases in cytosolic extract, and this activity was not enhanced by addition of mitochondria or mitochondrial lysate. The Hid peptide also induced apoptosis when introduced into S2 cells. These results suggest that caspase activation in Drosophila is regulated solely by cytoplasmic factors and does not involve any mitochondrial factors.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Novel laser system and laser irradiation method reduced the risk of carbonization during laser interstitial thermotherapy: assessed by MR temperature measurement.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To establish laser interstitial thermotherapy (LITT) for intracranial tumors, the authors investigated a method to regulate localized temperature generated by interstitial laser irradiation using magnetic resonance (MR) temperature mapping. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: A diode laser system and six different types of optical-fiber system were developed for LITT. The characteristics of temperature profiles produced by each laser-fiber system were investigated with MR temperature measurement (the water proton chemical technique), and differences in the temperature profile induced by two laser-irradiation methods (continuous and intermittent) were observed. RESULTS: All fiber systems with the exception of the diffuse-projection fiber system, created a spherical temperature profile. Carbonization sometimes occurred around the bare-end fiber tip upon high power laser irradiation. The diffuse-projection fiber system produced a cylindrical temperature distribution, and the temperature profile showed a more gradual temperature elevation than the bare-end fiber. No carbonization occurred at the tip of the diffuse-projection fiber system. In addition, the utilization of the intermittent irradiation method also increased temperature gradually. Fiber-system modification and intermittent irradiation reduced laser-beam intensity and the risk of carbonization. CONCLUSION: The use of a diffuse-projection fiber system which intermittently transmits a reduced intensity laser beam is an effective tool to regulate temperature during LITT using MR temperature measurement.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Relation of bimanual coordination to activation in the sensorimotor cortex and supplementary motor area: analysis using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The aim of this study was to analyze how functional activation in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and sensorimotor cortex (SMC) is related to bimanual coordination using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects included 24 healthy volunteers, 15 of whom were right-handed and 9 left-handed. Three kinds of activation tasks, all of which required the repetitive closing and opening of a fist, were performed: unimanual movement of the nonpreferred hand (task A); simultaneous, agonistic movement of both hands (task B); simultaneous, antagonistic movement of both hands (task C). The SMA activation during task C was more pronounced than that during the other two tasks for right and left handers. The results suggested that the activation of the SMA, at least during a simple motion used in the present study, was little influenced by whether the motion was unimanual or bimanual but instead how the bimanual motion was composed of the motion element of a single hand. The SMC activation during task C was significantly larger than that during task B, whereas hemispheric differences in the activation were not found. This indicated that the complexity of the bimanual movement also affected the SMC activation.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Application and validation of three-dimensional data sets from a phase contrast MR angiography for preoperative computer simulation of brain tumors.

We applied a three-dimensional (3D) phase contrast magnetic resonance angiography as the source for generating integrated 3D images for surgical planning of brain tumors. In the 3D model, we defined the Cingulomarginal sulcus and subsequently the central sulcus in the interhemispheric plane. This method solved the misregistration problem caused by the combination of multi-sequence data sets and can be feasible for surgical planning.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1998

Magnetic resonance cisternography for visualization of intracisternal fine structures.

OBJECT: To assess its usefulness in demonstrating cisternal anatomy, the authors investigated magnetic resonance (MR) cisternography in which a heavily T2-weighted turbo spin-echo method was used to visualize normal anatomical fine structures and lesions in the basal cisterns in 20 healthy volunteers and 43 patients. The authors applied peripheral pulse gating, which had been optimized to reduce artifacts in the cisterns attributable to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow. METHODS: The detectability of each cranial nerve was determined in healthy volunteers. The first, second, and third nerves and the seventh-eighth nerve complex were clearly visualized in all participants; the fifth nerve was clearly seen in 80% and the sixth cranial nerve in 50%. The fourth nerve and the ninth through 12th nerves were difficult to identify individually, except in some volunteers. To reduce artifacts caused by fast CSF flow, we determined the delays as a function of the time elapsed between two consecutive peaks of pulse wave in a peripheral pulse gate (P-P interval) at which there was reversal of flow direction to minimize the CSF flow-related artifact. Using peripheral pulse gating and a time delay of 30% of the R-R interval, the authors succeeded in minimizing the CSF flow-related artifacts. Magnetic resonance cisternography appears to be very useful for demonstrating intracisternal fine anatomy and enhancing the contours of the juxtacisternal lesion. A minute amount of CSF interposed between lesions and normal structures such as nerves, vessels, or bone structures can be detected by means of this sequence. In patients with facial spasm, axial images and oblique coronal images obtained in a plane parallel to the seventh-eighth cranial nerve complex demonstrated vascular compression in all 13 patients. The MR cisternography finding of compression was confirmed in all nine patients who underwent microvascular decompression. CONCLUSIONS: Magnetic resonance cisternography appears to show great promise for evaluation of patients with neurovascular compression or tumors in and around the basal cisterns; the procedure adds only a small amount of imaging time.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

[Computerized single probe system using a cadmium telluride detector].

Using cadmium telluride (CdTe) as a detector, we assembled a computerized single probe system. The size of the CdTe used is 16 mm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness. Two types of the straight bore collimators of 16 mm in diameter were prepared. One is 16 mm in length (long type) and the other is 5 mm in length (short type). The response curves of the long and short type collimators to 57Co in water showed that the points at 10% of maximum counts were 4 cm and 3 cm in depth along the center axis. The data were accumulated by using a commercialized single cardiac probe system (OMNISCOPE) and processed by itself or transferred to the microcomputer (LSI-11/23) for further analysis. Twenty percent count loss occurred at 100 000 cps with an integral discriminator setting. This system was applied for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt flow evaluation and measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Measurement of CSF shunt flow has been able to do in any patient's positioning. In 21 patients with various heart diseases, LVEFs obtained by CdTe detector were compared with those obtained by scintillation detector. There was good correlation between the LVEFs obtained by these two detectors: correlation coefficient (r)=0.939.

Cadmium↗