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Biomedical subjects

K Ota

Publications and source records attributed to K Ota.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

A case of influenza subtype A virus-induced fulminant myocarditis: an experience of percutaneous cardio-pulmonary support (PCPS) treatment and immunohistochemical analysis.

A 64-year-old man was admitted to the emergency center of Furukawa City Hospital because of common cold-like symptoms and hypotension. He was diagnosed as fulminant myocarditis with cardiogenic shock and arrhythmia elicited by influenza virus subtype A. Cardiac angiography, echocardiography and biopsy also showed myocarditis, and serum antibody titer to influenza virus subtype A was increased to 4-fold in paired serums. Treatments of both percutaneous cardio-pulmonary support (PCPS) and intra-aortic balloon pumping (IABP) were carried out to sustain the general circulation. PCPS treatment was discontinued on the 25th day of the admission, but IABP was continued. Finally, he died of multiple organ failure. The autopsy revealed myocardial necrosis with a slight fibrosis and a small amount of lymphocytic infiltration into the ventricular wall, which were compatible with restrictive myocarditis. Moreover, immunohistochemical analysis also showed the presence of viral antigens in cardiac myocytes. This case clearly showed that PCPS and IABP can be beneficial to sustain the general circulation in fulminant myocarditis, but cardiac pumping function failed completely to recover from myocardial damage.

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation↗
PubMed2001

Idiopathic giant cell granulomatous hypophysitis with hypopituitarism, right abducens nerve paresis and masked diabetes insipidus.

A 38-year-old man presented with headache, fever, and double vision associated with right abducens nerve paresis. He had neither nuchal rigidity nor visual field defect. Laboratory data revealed elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), eosinophilia, and lymphocytic pleocytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Provocation tests of pituitary hormones showed partial hypopituitarism. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed swelling of the hypophysis and a mass lesion expanding into the right cavernous sinus. The supplement dose of dexamethasone for hypothalamic hypocortisolism manifested diabetes insipidus. Biopsy, carried out through the transsphenoidal approach, revealed giant cell granuloma. Systemic granulomatous diseases were ruled out, and the lesion was considered to be idiopathic giant cell granulomatous hypophysitis. Right abducens nerve paresis, diabetes insipidus and dysfunction of the anterior lobe were amended by the treatment with prednisolone for 4 months, and findings of the pituitary gland and stalk were normalized. The present case shows that glucocorticoid has an effect on amendment of idiopathic giant cell granulomatous hypophysitis.

Abducens Nerve Diseases↗
PubMed2001

Chronic cyclosporin-induced nephropathy.

AIMS: There is still no consensus about the prognostic influence of chronic nephropathy induced by low-dose maintenance therapy with cyclosporin. Our aim was to investigate the prognostic effect of cyclosporin nephropathy in Japanese renal transplant recipients. MATERIAL: We retrospectively investigated the clinical records of 1,323 kidney transplant recipients who received cyclosporin at 65 institutions in Japan from 1982 to 1991. METHOD: Renal biopsy was performed in 461 patients. RESULTS: At 5 years and 9 years after transplantation, the patients who had cyclosporin nephropathy associated with immunological rejection, glomerulonephritis, or both showed a significantly worse prognosis than those with cyclosporin nephropathy alone (p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in the loss of renal function at 9 years after transplantation between patients showing no abnormalities and patients with cyclosporin nephropathy alone. Even when cyclosporin nephropathy was absent, the long-term prognosis was unfavorable in recipients with immunological rejection or glomerulonephritis. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that cyclosporin nephropathy does not influence the prognosis of renal transplantation in patients on low-dose maintenance therapy with cyclosporin.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed2001

[Chronic myelogenous leukemia with marked thrombocytosis].

We report a case of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) with marked thrombocytosis. The patient was a 68-year-old woman who showed marked thrombocytosis (> 200 x 10(4)/microliter), a slightly increased leukocyte count without any immature myeloid cells in the peripheral blood, and no hepatosplenomegaly. Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) was detected by karyotype analysis and FISH. The bcr-abl transcript was detected by RT-PCR and the break point was located in the major bcr. Treatment with interferon-alpha was effective, reducing the proportion of Ph-positive cells from 56% to 7% within 21 months. Detailed study of atypical cases of CML such as the present one may provide additional information about the disease pathogenesis.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

[A case of rheumatoid arthritis associated with minimal change nephrotic syndrome].

A 55-year-old Japanese woman has been treated with various kinds of anti-rheumatic drugs under a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis(RA) for 18 years of disease duration. She persistently had right elbow joint pain and swelling and X-ray showed bone erosion on humerus. Thus, the synovectomy was performed with typical histopathology of RA on April 1999. On the end of February 2000, she had suddenly fatigue and anasarca with profound proteinuria of nephrotic syndrome. The renal biopsy showed minimal change glomerulopathy and no cellular infiltration in interstitial tissue by light microscopy and partial fusion of foot process by electron microscopy. Renal function was sustained normally. All of anti-rheumatic drugs including D-penicillamine(D-Pc) except NSAID were stopped and she was treated with bed rest, diet therapy, diuretics and albumin infusion without steroid therapy. Edema and proteinuria gradually disappeared. Membranous and amyloid nephropathy in RA patients associated with nephrotic syndrome are found in high incidence in literature. In low incidence, MCNS is associated with NSAID or D-Pc induced nephropathy in RA. In our case, nephrotic syndrome disappeared in 6 weeks without discontinuation of NSAID and application of steroid therapy. Thus, MCNS might be co-incidentally associated with RA.

Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal↗
PubMed2000

Evolution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes in the order Aulopiformes.

The fish order Aulopiformes contains both synchronously hermaphroditic and gonochoristic species. From the cytogenetic viewpoint, few reports show that gonochoristic Aulopiformes have heteromorphic sex chromosomes. Because fish in this order give us a unique opportunity to elucidate the evolution of sex chromosomes, it is important to examine a phylogenetic relationship in Aulopiformes by both molecular evolutionary and cytogenetic methods. Thus, we conducted molecular phylogenetic and cytogenetic studies of six Aulopiform species. Our results suggested that hermaphroditic species were evolutionarily derived from gonochoristic species. It follows that the hermaphroditic species might have lost the heteromorphic sex chromosomes during evolution. Here, we suggest a possibility that heteromorphic sex chromosomes can disappear from the genome, even if they have appeared once in evolution. Taking into account Ohno's hypothesis that heteromorphic sex chromosomes might have emerged from autosomes, we propose the hypothesis that heteromorphic sex chromosomes may have undergone repeated events of appearance and disappearance during the course of fish evolution.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Membrane integration of the second transmembrane segment of band 3 requires a closely apposed preceding signal-anchor sequence.

We have investigated the topogenic rules of multispanning membrane proteins using erythrocyte band 3. Here, the fine structural requirements for the correct disposition of its second transmembrane segment (TM2) were assessed. We made fusion proteins where TM1 and the loop sequence preceding TM2 were changed and fused to prolactin. They were expressed in a cell-free system supplemented with rough microsomal membrane, and their topologies on the membrane were assessed by protease sensitivity and N-glycosylation. TM1 was demonstrated to be a signal-anchor sequence that mediates translocation of the downstream portion, and thus TM2 should be responsible to halt the translocation to acquire TM topology. When the loop between TM1 and TM2 was elongated, however, TM2 was readily translocated through the membrane and not integrated. For the membrane integration of TM2, TM2 must be in close proximity to TM1. The TM1 can be replaced with another signal-anchor sequence with a long hydrophobic segment but not with a signal sequence with shorter hydrophobic stretch. The length of the hydrophobic segment affected final topology of TM2. We concluded that the two TM segments work synergistically within the translocon to acquire the correct topology and that the length of the preceding signal sequence is critical for stable transmembrane assembly of TM2. We propose that direct interaction among the TM segments is one of the critical factors for the transmembrane topogenesis of multispanning membrane proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2000

Evidence for regulation of NF-kappaB by poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase.

The DNA-binding activity of NF-kappaB in nuclear extracts of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-defective mutant L1210 cell clones was markedly increased and was inversely correlated with the PARP content in these cells. The DNA-binding activity of NF-kappaB in a clone with the lowest PARP content (Cl-3527, contained 6% of PARP of wild type cells) was about 35-fold of that of the wild-type cells, whereas the change in the DNA-binding activity of AP-1 and SP-1 in the mutant was relatively small or not so significant. Transfection of a PARP-expressing plasmid to the mutant cells decreased the abnormally high levels of NF-kappaB complexes, especially p50/p65(Rel A) complex, to near the normal level. Moreover, poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation of nuclear extracts in vitro suppressed the ability of NF-kappaB to form a complex with its specific DNA probe by approx. 80%. Further analysis with purified recombinant NF-kappaB proteins revealed that both rp50 and rMBP-p65 (Rel A) proteins, but not rGST-IkappaB, could be poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated in vitro and that the modification resulted in a marked decrease in the DNA-binding activity of rMBP-p65, whereas a slight activation was observed in rp50. Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated p65/NF-kappaB was detected in the cytosol of wild type L1210 cells by immunoblotting with anti-poly(ADP-ribose) and anti-p65 antibodies. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that PARP is involved in the regulation of NF-kappaB through the protein modification.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Slow spin relaxation of Rb atoms confined in glass cells filled with dense 4He gas at 1.85 K

At temperatures below 2.1 K, long-lived gaseous Rb atoms in glass cells have been generated with a simple method: irradiating the cells, containing 4He gas and Rb metal, with a cw laser. The obtained atomic Rb density ( approximately 10(8) cm(-3)) decreases with a 1/e time constant of about 10 s at 1.85 K. We have performed optical pumping of the Rb atoms and measured the longitudinal electronic spin relaxation time at 1.85 K as well. For processes (such as Rb-He collisions) which do not remove the atomic Rb from the vapor, this relaxation time is found to be about 60+/-15 s.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

ABO-incompatible pediatric kidney transplantation in a single-center trial.

We have performed ten pediatric kidney transplantations from living-related ABO-incompatible donors. All patients underwent preoperative plasmapheresis with or without immunoadsorption to reduce isoagglutinin. Primary immunosuppression consisted of methyl-prednisolone, cyclosporin or tacrolimus, azathioprine, anti-lymphocyte globulin, and/or deoxyspergualin. At transplantation splenectomy was simultaneously performed in all patients. Median follow-up is 65 months (range 4-95 months). The patient and graft survival rates are 100% to date. Post-transplantation isoagglutinin titers did not increase more than 1:32, except for 1 patient, without uncontrollable vascular rejection episodes. Despite the heavy immunosuppressive regimen, cytomegalovirus infection occurred in only three patients, who were successfully treated with ganciclovir and cytomegalovirus high-titer gamma globulin. Our small series clearly shows that the preoperative reduction of isoagglutinin, splenectomy, and strict immunosuppressive therapy lead to successful long-term results in children.

ABO Blood-Group System↗
PubMed2000

Deep circumflex iliac artery as a free arterial graft for myocardial revascularization.

When complete revascularization cannot be obtained with the internal thoracic artery and the other arterial grafts, the deep circumflex iliac artery (DCIA) may be an excellent alternative conduit. The deep circumflex iliac artery was used as a free graft for direct myocardial revascularization in 4 patients from January to July 1999. We describe our experience with this arterial conduit, review the anatomy of the artery, and present our harvesting technique.

Coronary Angiography↗
PubMed2000

The natural history and prognostic factors in patients with cirrhosis and gastric fundal varices without prior bleeding.

Objectives and methods: The prognostic factors have not yet been fully evaluated in patients with cirrhosis and gastric fundal varices (FV). We investigated the natural history of 145 patients with cirrhosis and FV with no history of bleeding. Various possible prognostic factors, which include clinical, biochemical, and endoscopical variables, were analyzed using Cox's proportional hazard model. Results: Among the 145 patients with cirrhosis and FV, there were 76 patients in class A, 45 in class B and 24 class C according to Child's classification. Sixty-five patients had concomitant hepatocellular carcinoma at the time of enrollment. Seventy deaths and 34 episodes of the hemorrhage from FV occurred during the mean follow-up period of 26.4 months. The cumulative survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 75, 53 and 34%, respectively. The cause of death was related to gastrointestinal hemorrhage in 18 patients (15 deaths were related to FV hemorrhage), hepatic failure in 22, hepatocellular carcinoma in 22, and other causes in eight patients. In patients with small-, medium-, and large-sized FV, the deaths related to FV hemorrhage were 4, 21 and 54%, respectively. Overall, the death related to FV hemorrhage was 21%. A multiple regression analysis using Cox's model showed hemorrhage from FV, the presence of hepatocellular carcinoma and poor Child's status were all highly significant prognostic factors. Conclusion: The natural history of the patients with cirrhosis and FV was adversely modified by the hemorrhage from FV, concomitant hepatocellular carcinoma and poor hepatic functional reserve. Since the number of deaths related to FV hemorrhage was great in patients with large-sized FV, it is important to identify high-risk large FV and its prophylactic obliteration. Further studies are needed to elucidate the efficacy of prophylactic obliteration of large-sized FV.

Journal Article↗