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Biomedical subjects

K Tsuji

Publications and source records attributed to K Tsuji.

At least 937 records · Page 52Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Protection of breathing zone by uniform velocity blowing.

A system of work site ventilation that blows clean air around a worker's nose and mouth was studied. The characteristics of the blowing flow were examined experimentally and then for a practical application. Field tests were performed to confirm the effectiveness of the blowing equipment during concrete chipping at a building construction site. This type of ventilation was found to be useful for contaminants with relatively low toxicity (e.g., nuisance dust); however, the technique may increase the exposure of workers in adjacent areas, since the dust is not captured or filtered. It became evident that the worker's dust exposure during the chipping could be decreased by using the air-blowing equipment.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Isolation from beer and structural determination of a potent stimulant of gastrin release.

Beer was subjected to five successive chromatographic procedures to isolate the gastrin release-inducing activity, guided by bioassay of the fractions in anaesthetized Donryu rats. The procedures were: (1) hydrophobic interaction chromatography (aqueous effluent with an HP20 column); (2) weak cation-exchange chromatography (1 M acetic acid eluate with a CM Sephadex C-25 column); (3) gel filtration (methanol eluate with a Sephadex LH-20 column); (4) same as (2); (5) high-performance liquid chromatography (YMC-Pack ODS-AM with 7% acetonitrile-0.01 M HCl). The active component finally isolated had a specific activity approximately 10000 times higher than that of beer. It was identified by means of mass, 1H- and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectral analyses as N-methyltyramine (NMT). The dose of NMT giving maximal gastrin-releasing activity was 25 microg/kg, and the 50% effective dose was approximately 10 microg/kg on oral administration to rats. NMT was isolated and identified as a gastrin release inducer in beer. Its concentration in beer is sufficient to account for most of the activity of beer.

Adrenergic alpha-Agonists↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Thickened gastric walls showing diffuse low attenuation on CT.

Thickened gastric walls of diffusely low attenuation were observed on CT of three of eight patients with mucinous adenocarcinoma in a retrospective review of 141 cases of gastric carcinoma. On pathologic examination the low attenuation correlated with large amounts of mucin in the pathologic specimens. Mucinous adenocarcinoma with abundant mucin should be included in the differential diagnosis of thickened gastric walls of diffusely low attenuation.

Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Infertility and HLA antigen - male infertility and infertile couples. - Correlation between HLA antigen and infertility.

On the basis of the concept that immunogenetic factors play a role in the incidence of unexplained male infertility, the so-called idiopathic infertility, HLA antigen analyses were performed for (1) azoospermia cases among the infertile males diagnosed by testicular biopsies as having germ cell aplasia and (2) unexplained infertile couples. The results were as follows. (1) The detection frequency of the various HLA antigens of locus A in the azoospermia cases with germ cell aplasia did not differ from that in the controls, but there was a significant increase of BW 35 at locus B (corrected P value< 0.017). (2) In the unexplained infertile couples, frequencies of locus A antigens closely resembled the controls, but there was a significantly higher frequency of BW 35 at locus B. An important future topic for investigation concerning the correlation between infertility and the HLA antigens will be the HLA-D loci on the basis of their correlation with BW 35

Female↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Ibudilast protects against neuronal damage induced by glutamate in cultured hippocampal neurons.

1. The effect of ibudilast, a drug that has been clinically used for asthma and the improvement of cerebrovascular disorders, was examined on glutamate neurotoxicity in cultured neurons from rat hippocampus. 2. The extent of neuronal damage induced by exposure of the neurons to glutamate for 5 min was estimated by the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) released from degenerated neurons into the medium during a 24 h postexposure period. When ibudilast was added into all pre-incubation, exposure and postexposure media, the extent of neuronal damage decreased to approximately half that of control at an ibudilast concentration of 43 mumol/L. 3. The neuroprotective effects of ibudilast were dose-dependent. Sufficient protection was detected even when ibudilast was added only into the postexposure medium. 4. The extent of 45Ca2+ influx during glutamate exposure was slightly reduced by the addition of ibudilast. Intracellular cAMP, as measured by radioimmunoassay, was increased by neuronal exposure to glutamate and then decreased after the removal of glutamate; however in the presence of ibudilast, AMP was maintained at the high level. 5. These results suggest that protection against glutamate neurotoxicity by ibudilast is not only attributable to the inhibition of phenomena that occur during glutamate exposure, such as Ca2+ influx, but also to some beneficial metabolic changes that are induced by a sustained high level of intracellular cAMP.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Trimethadione tolerance test for the quantitative assessment of liver function in rats.

The quantitative estimation of the hepatic functional volume in rats was attempted using the serum dimethadione (DMO)/trimethadione (TMO) ratio in a single blood sampling after oral administration of TMO, which we call the TMO tolerance test, in order to develop a means of pre-operatively assessing hepatic resectability. Serum DMO/TMO ratios correlated well with the total amount of the hepatic microsomal TMO-N-demethylase activity (enzyme activity) and with the remnant liver weight after 37% and 68% partial hepatectomy. These ratios increased after partial hepatectomy in parallel with the changes in the enzyme activity and the remnant liver weight. The results suggest that the quantitative functional changes of the remnant liver after hepatectomy in both CCl4-treated and untreated rats can be estimated pre-operatively by the TMO tolerance test.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Trimethadione tolerance tests for the assessment of feasible size of hepatic resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Pre-operative evaluation of the quantity of functional remnant hepatic parenchyma after hepatectomy was carried out to predict the optimal amount of hepatic resection using the trimethadione (TMO) tolerance test. This test is an estimate based on serum diamethadione (DMO)/TMO ratio (DMO is the only metabolite of TMO) 4 h after oral administration of TMO, and computed tomography (CT) scans of the liver in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The percentage of remnant hepatic parenchyma was calculated pre-operatively from the remaining non-cancerous portion and the whole hepatic parenchyma, excluding the HCC portion, using the CT scans. Presumptive remnant DMO/TMO ratio was calculated by multiplying the percentage of remnant hepatic parenchyma and pre-operative serum DMO/TMO ratio in 45 patients with HCC undergoing resection. The presumptive remnant DMO/TMO ratios were 0.31 +/- 0.10 (mean +/- s.d.) in 42 patients who survived hepatectomy and 0.13 +/- 0.02 (below 0.15) in the three patients who died from postoperative hepatic failure. Of these surviving patients, two patients who had the presumptive remnant DMO/TMO ratios under 0.15 developed postoperative severe complications. Thus, hepatectomy may not be indicated in patients where presumptive remnant DMO/TMO ratio is 0.15 and lower. These findings suggest that pre-operative measurement of presumptive remnant DMO/TMO ratio, when obtained with the CT of the liver and TMO tolerance test, is useful for prediction of the quantity of functional remnant hepatic parenchyma after hepatectomy in patients with chronic liver disease.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

DNA ploidy and stromal bone formation as prognostic indicators of thyroid papillary carcinoma in aged patients: a retrospective study.

The prognostic value of flow cytometry for thyroid papillary carcinoma in aged patients was studied and compared with that of tumor histology. Seventy-five surgically removed primary papillary thyroid carcinomas larger than 30 mm in diameter were obtained from patients over 60 years of age. A subtotal thyroidectomy with modified radical neck dissection was performed in all patients. Sixteen female patients died of the carcinoma (non-survivors) and 18 survived longer than 12 years without recurrence (survivors). Histologically, papillary carcinoma was subclassified into poorly and well differentiated types, and the presence of stromal bone formation was noted. Flow cytometry was performed using paraffin-embedded materials. The incidence of the poorly differentiated type was 2/18 among the tumors of survivors and 6/16 among the tumors of non-survivors (P = 0.08). Stromal bone formation was only found in the tumors of the survivors (6/18 and 0/16; P = 0.014). In flow cytometry, tumors of the survivors showed a DNA diploid pattern (14/14), whereas half of the tumors of non-survivors (6/12) showed an aneuploid pattern (P = 0.004). Moreover, in the remaining six tumors of the non-survivors, two showed a third peak at 6C and one showed a higher S fraction. Therefore, only three showed a DNA diploid pattern that was indistinguishable from that of the survivors. These results suggest that flow cytometry is useful for estimating the prognosis of thyroid papillary carcinoma.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Scratch cytologic findings on surgically resected solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the cytologic characteristics of solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura (SFTPs) on smear preparations. STUDY DESIGN: Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was initially attempted preoperatively in five cases, but the specimens were inappropriate for interpretation because only a few tumor cells were obtained. Therefore, scratch smears made at the time of operation were used. Papanicolaou and immunocytochemical staining was performed in all 10 cases, 2 of which were malignant. RESULTS: As expected, cellular tumors yielded more cells. The cytologic appearance was variable, showing spindle/bipolar, dendritic/stellate and intermediate cells. Atypical cells reminiscent of sarcoma were also present in cellular, benign tumors. Highly atypical epithelioid cells were obtained in two malignant cases. Immunocytochemically, the tumor cells were positive for CD34 and vimentin and negative for cytokeratin, regardless of histologic differences and cell shape. CONCLUSION: It seems difficult to diagnose SFTPs with certainty by FNAC, partly because the cell morphology of SFTPs resembles a wide variety of heterogeneous groups of spindle cell tumors and partly because only a few tumor cells were available in the FNAC specimens in the present study. However, a cytologic diagnosis of SFTP is possible if cytologic preparations yield CD34-positive cells with spindle/bipolar or dendritic/stellate morphology.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cytologic features based on the expression of E-cadherin and catenins in lung adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between E-cadherin-associated cell-to-cell adhesion and cytologic features in preoperative cytologic lung adenocarcinoma specimens. STUDY DESIGN: Evaluation of the relationship between cell-to-cell adhesion, formation of cellular clusters and frequency of single cells in 31 cases of primary lung adenocarcinoma, collected by brush and needle cytology preoperatively. RESULTS: Most cases with remarkable overlapping of cells in compact cellular clusters and a few solitary cells maintained cell-to-cell adhesion. Cellular clusters that had a slight tendency to overlap, a small cell-to-cell adhesion area and a high frequency of solitary cells tended to lack E-cadherin-associated cell-to-cell adhesion. CONCLUSION: Formation of cellular clusters and the appearance of solitary cancer cells are closely related to E-cadherin-associated cell-to-cell adhesion. Therefore, it is highly likely that cytologic features may indicate malignant behavior, such as local invasion and lymph node metastasis, in primary lung adenocarcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cardiac abnormalities in ischemic cerebrovascular disease studied by two-dimensional echocardiography.

In the study of cardiac abnormalities responsible for the development of cerebral embolism two-dimensional echocardiography was performed on 350 patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease. The results were compared with those obtained from 350 controls without any history of stroke. Atrial fibrillation was detected on ECG in 115 cases (33%) of the patients and in 35 cases (10%) of the controls (p less than 0.001). The structural cardiac diseases observed in stroke patients were: rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in 37, congestive cardiomyopathy (CCM) in 7, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in 19, mitral annulus calcification (MAC) in 29, mitral valve prolapse (MVP) in 9, and myocardial infarction (MyI) in 10 patients. Controls were found to have these lesions in 11, 2, 3, 12, 4 and 9 patients respectively. RHD (p less than 0.001), HCM (p less than 0.01) and MAC (p less than 0.01) were significantly more frequent in patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease, but not MyI, CCM or MVP. Intracardiac thrombi were diagnosed in 29 cases of patients and in 4 cases of controls (p less than 0.001). Our data suggested that nonrheumatic heart diseases such as MAC and HCM could also be considered as causes of embolic stroke. The reasons for the variable frequencies of cardiac abnormalities reported in the literature for stroke patients are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of iso and xeno fetal liver fragments transplantation on acute and chronic liver failure in rats.

Isogeneic (rat) and xenogeneic (swine) fetal liver fragments (FLF) transplantation into the omentum was performed for D-galactosamine (D-Gal)-induced acute and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced chronic hepatic failure in rats. The recipients that had iso or xeno FLF showed higher survival rates than the nontransplanted controls on a lethal dose (2.6 g/kg body weight) of D-Gal (survival rates: Iso 70%, Xeno 80%, and control 9.1%). On a sublethal dose (1.0 or 1.2 g/kg) of D-Gal, iso, or xeno FLF caused marked improvement of the values of GPT, GOT, and total bilirubin (T.Bil); at 72 h after D-Gal injection they went significantly lower than those of controls (Iso vs. control; p < 0.01, Xeno vs. control; p < 0.05). Histological examination of the livers revealed severe damage in controls, however, only a slight damage was found in iso or xeno FLF transplanted rats. Iso grafts were fairly well preserved in the omentum at 72 h posttransplants, however, xeno graft had almost changed into a necrotic tissue. CCl4 was administered subcutaneously for 14 wk to induce chronic hepatic failure and then iso FLF were transplanted 3 days after the last CCl4 injection. Iso FLF transplanted rats showed higher improvement of GPT and GOT values at 12 days posttransplants compared with controls (GPT p < 0.01, GOT p < 0.05), although histological improvement was not so remarkable in both group. Iso grafts formed nodules with many hepatocytes in the omentum 12 days posttransplant. The results indicate that iso or xeno FLF transplantation could be an alternative approach for incurable liver insufficiencies.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

In vitro and in vivo grafting of xeno pig fetal liver fragments using ultrafiltration membrane.

Transplantation of xeno fetal liver fragments (FLF) could be an alternative or supplementary therapy for acute and chronic liver failure not resolved by routine medical therapies. However, the xenografts themselves are rejected by the host immune system. To overcome these problems, immunoisolate capsules with various cutoff points, from 50,000 (YM30) to 500,000 (ZM500) were tested for their protective effects on FLF graft survival. In an in vitro study, the capsule with the smallest cutoff size (YM30) had an excellent protective effect on the grafts it contained, and showed the lowest GOT values in the culture supernatant and the normal histological structure. In an in vivo study using rats, the same capsule enabled a FLF graft to survive as long as 21 days, even with severe IgG deposition on and within the graft. In another in vivo study, which used beagle dog, however, it did not improve the natural course of survival of the graft, which had totally degenerated by day 7. In conclusion, 1) Immunocapsules, especially those with the smallest cutoff values, impeded the infiltration of the (xeno) humoral attacking factor, but the blocking effect was not complete, as shown by the immunoglobulin (IgG) deposit on the grafts they contained. 2) The FLFs with capsules survived longer than those without capsules--only in rats, not in beagles. This difference may be attributable to the difference of the extent of humoral or nutritional response to the xenografts.

Alanine Transaminase↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Beneficial effects of immunoisolated fetal and neonatal pig liver fragments on acute liver failure in a large animal.

Xenogeneic cell (fragment) transplantation may be used as an interim therapy until the organ allotransplanation. Immunologic rejection, however, constitutes the major hurdle. To overcome this problem, "xeno" fetal and neonatal liver fragments (FLF, NLF) were encapsulated into separate micropore devices that protect them from immunological attack by the recipient. The FLF or NLF were then transplanted into beagles with hepatic failure to observe their biological effects. In Experiment 1 (n = 5) beagles were injected IV with D-galactosamine (D-gal, 1.0 g/kg) on day 0 and then received FLF grafts (0, 0.3, 0.8, 1.0, 2.0 g/kg). In Experiment 2 (n = 6) beagles received NLF grafts (1.8 g/kg) and on the following day were injected with D-gal (1.0 g/kg). In Experiment 1 only the high dose of xeno-FLF (2.0 g/kg) decreased the elevated ALT (GPT) and T. Bil. levels. Histologic examination showed that some of the hepatocytes of the host liver survived only in the high-dose graft. In Experiment 2, at 36 and 48 h after D-gal injection, the transplanted group had a significantly lower AST (GOT) level than the control. The grafted NLF survived for 14 days, according to histologic examinations. Thus, encapsulated FLF and NLF xenotransplantation can prevent liver dysfunction in a large animal hepatic failure model.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Detection of the circulating lung cancer marker LCAP with a new monoclonal antibody TRD-L1.

Lung Cancer Associated Protein (LCAP) is a high molecular weight glycoprotein defined by the monoclonal antibody (MAb) DF-L1 prepared against a primary adenocarcinoma of the lung. Previous studies have demonstrated that LCAP circulates at elevated levels in patients with lung cancer. However, a suitable assay for monitoring LCAP levels has not been available. The present work describes the development of a double-determinant LCAP assay using MAb TRD-L1 as the capture antibody and MAb DF-L1 as the tracer. In 60 normal subjects, the mean LCAP level was 4.8 U/ml with 2 (3.3%) subjects having values > 12 U/ml (mean + 2SDS). By contrast, 37 of 67 (55.2%) patients with lung cancer had LCAP levels > 12 U/ml. Moreover, only 14 of 203 (6.9%) patients with benign lung disease had elevated levels. LCAP levels were most commonly elevated (62.7%) in patients with adenocarcinoma of the lung and with advanced disease. These results indicate that LCAP as detected by MAb TRD-L1 is a potentially useful marker for the evaluation of patients with lung cancer.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (CDDP) and cis-diammine (1,1-cyclobutanedicarboxylate) platinum (CBDCA) on thermotolerance development and thermosensitivity of the thermotolerant cells.

The interactive effects of combined treatment with heat and CDDP (0.5 micrograms/ml) or CBDCA (10 micrograms/ml) were examined on the surviving fractions of V-79 cells. Both CDDP and CBDCA treatment induced a slight enhancement in thermosensitivity of thermotolerant cells. The development of thermotolerance during step-up heating was partially inhibited by simultaneous treatment with CDDP or CBDCA throughout the heating process. Simultaneous heat treatment at 42 degrees C with either drug showed marked interactive effect and inhibited the thermotolerance developed during 42 degrees C heating.

Animals↗