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Biomedical subjects

K Abe

Publications and source records attributed to K Abe.

At least 955 records · Page 53Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Dissociation of HSP72 and HSC73 heat shock mRNA inductions after spinal cord ischemia in rabbit.

The inductions of HSP72 and HSC73 mRNAs were investigated with Northern blot and immunohistochemical analyses for up to 7 days of the reperfusion after 5 or 15 min ischemia in rabbit spinal cord. Following 15 min ischemia, HSP72 mRNA was induced at 8 h of reperfusion, while HSC73 mRNA continuously remained at the control level. Immunoreactivity of HSP72 protein was slightly induced at 8 h of reperfusion selectively in motor neurons, and the majority of motor neuron showed selective cell death at 7 days of reperfusion. This study demonstrated selective induction of HSP72 mRNA and the protein in motor neuron cells that eventually showed selective delayed neuronal death after transient ischemia in the spinal cord. This phenomenon was not accompanied by HSC73 induction.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

The prognostic significance of vascular invasion by endometrial carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Recently, invasion of vascular spaces by endometrial carcinoma has received particular attention as a prognostic factor. The goal of the current investigation was to re-examine the effect of vascular invasion on tumor recurrence and survival in patients with endometrial carcinoma. METHODS: Surgical specimens from 238 patients with endometrial carcinoma were examined for the presence of vascular invasion by tumor cells. Vascular invasion was compared with clinicopathologic features and postoperative survival. Survival curves by vascular invasion were evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: In a histopathologic review of 238 cases of endometrial carcinoma, 82 neoplasms demonstrated vascular invasion. Vascular invasion significantly correlated with the extension of primary tumor, depth of myometrial invasion, and histologic grade. Patients with lymph node metastasis had a significantly higher incidence of vascular invasion. Survival at 5 years for patients with vascular invasion was 73.4%. This was significantly lower than the survival rate of 91.5% for women without this finding (P < 0.001). Among patients with lymph node metastasis, 80.2% of the patients with vascular invasion survived for 5 years compared with 95.3% of the patients without vascular invasion (P < 0.05). Ten of 47 patients with no lymph node metastasis but with vascular invasion developed recurrent carcinoma. Nine of these ten patients apparently had extrapelvic recurrences. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of vascular invasion is a reliable prognostic indicator. Recording of tumor recurrence pattern may lead to a better selection of patients for adjuvant systemic therapy after surgery.

Endometrial Neoplasms↗
PubMed1996

Soyacystatin, a novel cysteine proteinase inhibitor in soybean, is distinct in protein structure and gene organization from other cystatins of animal and plant origin.

Cystatins, cysteine proteinase inhibitors, deserve note because of their regulatory and protective functions in plant tissues. We isolated both genomic DNA and cDNA clones from soybean that encode a cystatin consisting of 245 amino acid residues (soyacystatin). It is, while basically similar in sequence to known cystatins that are generally in the range of 12-15 kDa, characterized by having extremely large extension sequences in both its amino and carboxyl termini. The genomic DNA encoding soyacystatin is also unique in that it consists of four exons with three introns in its coding regions. The mRNA for soyacystatin is distinctly expressed in soybean seeds 2 weeks after flowering. Soyacystatin purified from mature soybean seeds had a molecular mass of about 26 kDa on SDS/PAGE which suggests that it contains the extension sequences. Papain-inhibition experiments demonstrate that this endogenous soyacystatin has almost the same inhibitory activity as that of its deletion mutant (102 amino acid residues) recombinantly produced by truncation of the amino and carboxyl terminal extensions, indicating that the occurrence of the extensions does not affect the cystatin activity. Immunohistochemical experiments reveal that soyacystatin is expressed nearly uniformly in the cotyledons. These results also suggest the possible occurrence of a cysteine proteinase as the target enzyme of soyacystatin.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1996

Inductions of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase- and nitric oxide synthase-like immunoreactivities in rabbit spinal cord after transient ischemia.

The distributions and inductions of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD), neuronal and endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (nNOS and eNOS), and nitrotyrosine (NT) were immunohistochemically examined in rabbit spinal cords after 5 and 15 min of transient ischemia. The neurons in the anterior horns (AH) were selectively lost 7 days after 15-min ischemia as compared with those of sham-operated controls. In the normal spinal cords, a number of neurons in the AHs were positive for the nNOS, and only slightly positive for the Cu/Zn SOD and the eNOS. Immunoreactivities for the proteins were induced at 8-24 h both after 5- and 15-min ischemia. In contrast, NT-like immunoreactivity was negative both in the normal and postischemic spinal cords. These results suggest that Cu/Zn SOD- and nNOS-, and eNOS-like immunoreactivities are induced, but that, even though an interaction of Cu/Zn SOD with NO could be present, NT was not detected in the motor neurons in the rabbit spinal cords after transient ischemia. Other factors could be required for NT formation found in degenerative motor neuron death in humans.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Circadian blood pressure variation related to morbidity and mortality from cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases.

The mortality rate of stroke has decreased dramatically over the past 30 years in Japan, but the prevalence of cerebral infarction has increased, mainly because of the higher incidence of nonfatal cerebral infarction in the elderly. Significant advances in the development of antihypertensive drugs over the last 30 years have contributed to the decrease in stroke mortality, but antihypertensive treatment appears to relate to an increase in the prevalence of cerebral infarction in the elderly. We investigated the risks of low BP levels determined by ambulatory BP monitoring and home BP measurements to clarify the previously reported J-shaped relationships between the incidence of ischemic cardiovascular disease and BP levels after treatment. A long-term prospective study of all causes of mortality and cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality has been conducted in Ohasama, Japan, since 1987. Cox proportional hazard model after adjusting for age and sex demonstrated that during a 5-year follow-up period involving 893 of the subjects aged 50 years and over in this cohort, those with the lowest quintile of ambulatory BP levels exhibited a significantly high hazard ratio of cardiovascular as well as all causes of mortality. During the same follow-up period in 1,226 subjects aged 50 years and over, those with the lowest and highest quintiles of home BP levels demonstrated a significantly high hazard ratio of cardiovascular as well as all causes of mortality (i.e., J-shaped relationship). The amplitude of the fall in nocturnal BP obtained by ambulatory BP monitoring correlated positively with the severity of silent cerebrovascular lesions in elderly women, but not in elderly men. These results suggest the significantly high risk associated with low BP levels, which can be determined only by ambulatory and home BP measurements, but not by casual BP measurements.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1996

cDNA cloning of the human homologues of the mouse Ke4 and Ke6 genes at the centromeric end of the human MHC region.

cDNA clones corresponding to the HKE4 and HKE6 genes at the centromeric end of the HLA region on human chromosome 6p21.3 were isolated and characterized. The predicted amino acid sequences of HKE4 and HKE6 exhibited 81.5 and 85.6% identity to the mouse homologues, Ke4 and Ke6, respectively. HKE4 may encode a membrane protein with histidine-rich charge clusters. HKE6 possesses remarkable amino acid sequence conservation with several bacterial proteins with oxidoreductase function and also shows significant homology with the two unique functional domains containing the nucleotide cofactor binding site and the consensus motif characteristic of the members of the superfamily of short-chain alcohol dehydrogenases such as human and rat steroid and prostaglandin dehydrogenases.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1996

Diagnosis of four chromosome abnormalities of unknown origin by chromosome microdissection and subsequent reverse and forward painting.

A molecular cytogenetic method consisting of chromosome microdissection and subsequent reverse/forward chromosome painting is a powerful tool to identify chromosome abnormalities of unknown origin. We present 4 cases of chromosome structural abnormalities whose origins were ascertained by this method. In one MCA/MR patient with an add(5q)chromosome, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), using probes generated from a microdissected additional segment of the add(5q) chromosome and then from a distal region of normal chromosome 5, confirmed that the patient had a tandem duplication for a 5q35-qter segment. Similarly, we ascertained that an additional segment of an add(3p) chromosome in another MCA/MR patient had been derived from a 7q32-qter segment. In a woman with a history of successive spontaneous abortions and with a minute marker chromosome, painting using microdissected probes from the whole marker chromosome revealed that it was i(15)(p10) or psu dic(15;15)(q11;q11). Likewise, a marker observed in a fetus was a ring chromosome derived from the paracentromeric region of chromosome 19. We emphasize the value of the microdissection-based chromosome painting method in the identification of unknown chromosomes, especially for marker chromosomes. The method may contribute to a collection of data among patients with similar or identical chromosome abnormalities, which may lead to a better clinical syndrome delineation.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed1996

Transforming growth factor-beta 1 promotes re-elongation of injured axons of cultured rat hippocampal neurons.

Transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) is highly expressed in neural tissues following brain injuries. To determine a role of TGF-beta 1 in neural pathologies, axons of cultured rat hippocampal neurons were cut by local irradiation of laser beam, and the effect of TGF-beta 1 on neurite regeneration following axotomy was investigated. The axonal growth was stopped by laser irradiation, but addition of TGF-beta 1 remarkably promoted the axonal re-elongation from the injured site. The effect of TGF-beta 1 was concentration dependent and seen maximally at a concentration of 1 ng/ml. These results suggest that TGF-beta 1 has a capability of promoting axonal regeneration of brain neurons after lesioning.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Relevance of the arginine transport activity to the nitric oxide synthesis in mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide.

Transport of arginine and production of nitrite have been investigated in mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The arginine transport activity was induced by LPS at very low concentration (maximally induced at 1 ng/ml), whereas much higher concentration of LPS was required for the induction of nitrite production. Arginine was more concentrated in the cells when its transport activity was induced. Lysine, which is a competitive inhibitor of the transport of arginine, neutralized the concentrative effect of the induced transport activity and thus inhibited the nitrite production. Induction of the arginine transport activity seems to be prerequisite to the enhanced synthesis of nitric oxide in activated macrophages.

Amino Acid Transport Systems↗
PubMed1996

Hepatitis C and B virus infections in hepatocellular carcinoma. Analysis of direct detection of viral genome in paraffin embedded tissues.

BACKGROUND: Although there have been many seroepidemiologic studies on hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurrence, the actual role of HCV in hepatocarcinogenesis is unknown. METHODS: We have previously reported on a highly sensitive method of detecting and identifying sequences of RNA genome in formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Using this method, we carried out a retrospective study to determine the prevalence of HCV and hepatitis B virus (HBV) genomes in FFPE specimens from 102 Japanese patients with HCC. RESULTS: HCV-RNA was detected by nested PCR reverse transcription (RT) in 64 of the 102 patients (62.7%), and 78.1% (50/64) of those HCV-RNA-positive patients had HCV genotype II. HCV-RNA was present in 54 of 70 (77.1%) anti-HCV-positive patients, and also in 5 of 20 (25%) anti-HCV-negative patients. HBV-DNA was detected by nested PCR in FFPE liver specimens from 21 of 102 (20.6%) patients. HBV-DNA positivity was consistent with seropositivity for serum HBV markers in 17 of these 21 patients (80.9%). HBV-DNA was present in FFPE samples from 2 patients who were seronegative for HBV markers, and in 1 patient who was seropositive for anti-HBs. Double infection of these two viruses was found in 6 patients (5.9%). Three patients (2.9%) were negative for both hepatic viral genomes and serum viral markers. CONCLUSIONS: The precise prevalence of HCV and/or HBV infection among HCC patients can be determined by studying routinely-processed FFPE HCC samples preserved for up to 11 years using the technique of nested PCR. HCV-RNA was detected in the majority of our HCC cases; type II was the most common genotype of HCV encountered. The incidence of HCV-associated HCC was three times greater than that of HBV. Thus, the hepatitis virus infection most frequently associated, and probably ectologically implicated, with HCC in Japanese people is HCV infection.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Dentate gyrus field potentials evoked by stimulation of the basolateral amygdaloid nucleus in anesthetized rats.

We previously found that long-term potentiation (LTP) in the dentate gyrus (DG) is attenuated by lesion of the basolateral amygdala (BLA), but it remained unclear whether or not there is neural connection between the BLA and the DG. In the present study, we tried to provide physiological evidence that the DG receives neural inputs from the BLA. Single-pulse electrical stimulation of the BLA evoked two distinct components of field potentials in the ipsilateral DG: the P1 component with 26-ms peak latency was elicited by lower intensity of BLA stimulation, whereas the P2 component with 14-ms peak latency was elicited at higher stimulus intensity. The PI response (1) was evoked when the stimulating electrode was positioned within the BLA, (2) showed the laminar profile similar to the perforant path (PP)-evoked response and (3) exhibited strong paired-pulse facilitation. On the other hand, the P2 wave (1) was evoked even with the stimulating electrode outside the BLA, (2) did not reverse its polarity at any location in the DG and (3) showed only slight facilitation by paired-pulse stimulation. These data indicate that the P1 component represents synaptic responses of DG granule cells to neural inputs from the BLA. Furthermore, the BLA-evoked DG field potentials were not affected by local injection of tetracaine into the PP and displayed LTP independently of the PP-evoked response, suggesting that neural inputs from the BLA are not mediated by the PP.

Amygdala↗
PubMed1996

Comparative effect of IL-2 and IL-6 on morphology of cultured hippocampal neurons from fetal rat brain.

It has become increasingly clear that immune cytokines have an effect on growth and differentiation in the nervous system as well as in the immune system. We have previously reported that interleukin-2 (IL-2) promotes survival of primary cultured neurons from fetal rat brain. In the present study, we investigated the effects of IL-2 as well as IL-6, one of the neurotrophic cytokines, on neuronal morphology and regeneration after damage in primary cultured hippocampal neurons. For neuronal morphology, IL-2 significantly promoted the elongation and branching of neurites, but IL-6 enhanced only the elongation. The neurite-elongating effect of IL-2 was different from that of IL-6 in terms of both effective concentration and maximal effect. In laser beam-damaged neurons, IL-2 significantly increased both the number and the length of branches emerging from the proximal part of damaged neurite. IL-2 also increased the length and the number of non-damaged neurites. IL-6, however, did not affect any of these parameters in damaged neurons. These results suggest that IL-2 and IL-6 modulate neuronal morphology through distinct mechanisms.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Cloning, sequencing, and expression in escherichia coli of OxlT, the oxalate:formate exchange protein of Oxalobacter formigenes.

OxlT is the oxalate/formate exchange protein that represents the vectorial component of a proton-motive metabolic cycle in Oxalobacter formigenes. Here we report the cloning and sequencing of OxlT and describe its expression in Escherichia coli. The OxlT amino acid sequence specifies a polytopic hydrophobic protein of 418 residues with a mass of 44,128 daltons. Analysis of hydropathy and consideration of the distribution of charged residues suggests an OxlT secondary structure having 12 transmembrane segments, oriented so that the N and C termini face the cytoplasm. Expression of OxlT in E. coli coincides with appearance of a capacity to carry out the self-exchange of oxalate and the heterologous, electrogenic exchange of oxalate with formate. The unusually high velocity of OxlT-mediated transport is also preserved in E. coli. We conclude that the essential features of OxlT are retained on its expression in E. coli.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1996

Characterization of a human glycoprotein with a potential role in sperm-egg fusion: cDNA cloning, immunohistochemical localization, and chromosomal assignment of the gene (AEGL1).

Acidic epididymal glycoprotein (AEG), thus far identified only in rodents, is one of the sperm surface proteins involved in the fusion of the sperm and egg plasma membranes. In the present study, we describe the isolation and characterization of cDNA encoding a human glycoprotein related to AEG. Although this protein, designated ARP (AEG-related protein), is not the ortholog of rodent AEG, it resembles AEG in that it is an epididymal secretory glycoprotein that binds to the postacrosomal region of the sperm head. The fact that no AEG mRNA can be detected in the human epididymis suggests that ARP might be the functional counterpart of rodent AEG. The gene encoding ARP (AEGL1) was mapped by fluorescence in situ hybridization to 6p21.1-p21.2. This result indicates that AEGL1 and the mouse gene for AEG are located in the chromosomal segments with conserved syntenies.

Acrosome↗
PubMed1996

Cell-cycle-dependent expression of the STK-1 gene encoding a novel murine putative protein kinase.

We have cloned a novel putative serine/threonine kinase-encoding gene, designed STK-1, from murine embryonic stem (ES) cell and testis cDNA libraries. The kinase most closely related to STK-1 is Xenopus laevis XLP46 protein kinase which shows 71% amino-acid identity to STK-1 between their kinase domains. Nevertheless, STK-1 is conserved throughout phylogeny with hybridizing sequences being detected in DNA from mammals, amphibians, insects and yeast. STK-1 mRNA is detected in testis, intestine and spleen, tissues that contain a large number of proliferating cells, but not in other tissues. All cell lines tested expressed STK-1 mRNA with levels being dependent upon proliferation rates. In NIH 3T3 cells, STK-1 is expressed in a cell-cycle-dependent fashion. These findings suggest a role for STK-1 in cell growth.

3T3 Cells↗