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Biomedical subjects

M Tashiro

Publications and source records attributed to M Tashiro.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources

Evidence of proteolytic activation of Sendai virus in mouse lung.

A device was made to analyze the pneumotropism of Sendai virus in mouse. Minced lung blocks were prepared from the mouse intranasally infected with Sendai virus for 2 hours and cultured in a CO2 incubator. This culture system provided a suitable in vitro model of Sendai virus infection in mice in terms of the distribution of the viral antigens and histopathological findings. The progeny virus recovered from the lung culture was already activated and was accompanied by the cleavage of F glycoprotein into F1 and F2. This fact demonstrates that the activating mechanism is reversed in the lung culture as found in vivo infection of mouse lung. The viral activation and the cleavage of F glycoprotein were simultaneously inhibited by tosyllysylchloromethylketone, leupeptin, soybean trypsin inhibitor and antipain, but not by tosylamidophenylethylchloromethyl-ketone, chymostatin, pepstatin, iodoacetamide, phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride and p-chloromercuribenzoate. These results show that the activating enzyme of Sendai virus found in the lung culture was similar to trypsin. The existence of the activating enzyme may support the replication of Sendai virus in mouse lung in multiple-step and also result in the lung pathology.

Animals↗

Potentiation of halothane hepatotoxicity by chronic ethanol administration in rat: an animal model of halothane hepatitis.

To determine if chronic ethanol administration modifies the effect of halothane on the liver, fourteen male Wistar rats were pair-fed nutritionally adequate liquid diets containing either ethanol (36% of calories) or isocaloric carbohydrate (controls) for 6 weeks. After halothane anesthesia of these animals under different oxygen concentration, the livers were examined light microscopically as well as biochemically. The livers from rats fed ethanol which received halothane at low oxygen concentration showed multifocal or patchy necrosis primarily in the centrilobular regions with parenchymal lipid accumulation, whereas no such lesions were not observed in pair-fed controls. Hepatic necrosis was also seen after halothane anesthesia even at ambient oxygen concentrations, although the degree of necrosis was much milder. Hepatic microsomal cytochrome P450 content was increased by 30% after ethanol but was decreased following halothane anesthesia. These data suggest that halothane is hepatotoxic to liver of rats chronically pretreated with ethanol, especially under hypoxic condition.

Alcoholism↗

Pneumotropism of Sendai virus in relation to protease-mediated activation in mouse lungs.

The pneumotropism of Sendai virus in mice was studied in relation to the activation and replication of the virus in the lung. Inactive Sendai virus grown in LLC-MK(2) cells, which possessed an uncleaved precursor glycoprotein, F, and was noninfectious to tissue culture cells, neither grew nor caused pathological changes in the lung of mice. When trypsin treatment was made which cleaved F into F(1) and F(2) subunits, the virus became activated so that it could initiate replication in the bronchial epithelium of the lung. In this case, the progeny virus was produced in the activated form and multiple-cycle replication occurred successively. A parallel relationship was found between the degree of the viral replication and that of clinical signs of the respiratory disease, body weight loss, and histopathological changes in the lung. A protease mutant, TR-2, which was able to be activated only by chymotrypsin but not by trypsin, could also initiate replication in the bronchial epithelium, when activated by chymotrypsin before inoculation into mice. The progeny virus, however, remained inactive, and the replication was limited to a single cycle, which resulted in the limited lung lesion. The overall results suggest that some activating mechanism for the progeny virus of wild-type Sendai virus exists in the lung of mice and the principle (activator) responsible for this phenomenon has a character similar to trypsin. The possible location of the activator is discussed.

Animals↗

Nutritional significance of a rice bran concentrate with trypsin inhibitor activity.

A rice bran protein concentrate (RBPC) was prepared from de-fatted rice bran by extraction with a 1% sodium chloride solution and by acetone-precipitation. This protein concentrate contained 45% protein, which was as good as casein in terms of protein quality being judged from the results of amino acid analysis. On the other hand, RBPC possessed the trypsin inhibitor activity corresponding to the complete inhibition of about 6 mg of bovine trypsin per 1 g of dry material. The activity was, however, completely destroyed by autoclaving RBPC for 30 min at 121 degrees C. In vitro digestion tests showed that RBPC was easily digested by pepsin but was resistant to the attack by trypsin, compared with autoclaved RBPC. Concerning in vivo digestion, however, there was no significant difference in apparent nitrogen digestibility between RBPC and the heated RBPC. In growth experiments with weanling rats fed a 10% level of protein diet, growth depression and the tendency of slight pancreatic hypertrophy were observed in rats receiving a RBPC diet. It is presumed that one of the reasons which explains these phenomena is the presence of trypsin inhibitor in RBPC.

Amino Acids↗

Absence of Carp's agent in sera of patients with multiple sclerosis in Japan.

A study was devised to test for Carp's agent in the sera of Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The sera were obtained from 17 patients with definite MS and six patients with possible MS. Strain C3H mice were given an intraperitoneal injection of 0.1 mL of each serum. One week before and 1, 3, and 6 weeks after inoculation, blood drops from tail tip were smeared and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNLs) were counted. Although the experimental animals were kept under careful control, substantial fluctuation in the number of PMNLs occurred, and the variations of PMNL count in the experimental groups were all within the normal range. We conclude that there is no Carp's agent in the sera of patients with MS in Japan.

Animals↗

Fetal growth and perinatal viability in California.

To produce more appropriate information for evaluating fetal growth and viability, vital records data were used to compute percentile curves and perinatal, neonatal, and fetal mortality rates at specific birth weights and gestational ages. Percentile values were in good agreement with previous studies, and the large number of births (2,288,806) allowed for a more precise determination of fetal viability at various weight-age combinations than has been previously available. Mortality rates were found to be much more sensitive to birth weight than to gestational age, especially for small-for-gestational age fetuses. Optimal weight-age combinations were found to be up to 500 g and 2 weeks greater than the average combination. The results consistently emphasize the importance of rapid and sustained fetal growth at all gestational ages.

Birth Weight↗