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Biomedical subjects

N Watanabe

Publications and source records attributed to N Watanabe.

At least 703 records · Page 39Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

[Clinical studies of arbekacin sulfate in the pediatric field].

UNLABELLED: A clinical investigation was carried out to evaluate arbekacin, an aminoglycoside, in the treatment of MRSA infections (pneumonia, septicemia, etc.) of pediatric patients. The obtained results are summarized as follows. 1. CLINICAL RESULTS: Excluding those patients who met the present exclusion criteria and withdrawal cases from a total of 18 patients, 10 patients (3, 6, and 1 cases of septicemia, pneumonia, and urinary tract infection, respectively) were subjected to clinical evaluation. These were composed of 1, 1, 6, and 2 cases of neonate, infants, pre- and school age children, respectively. Excellent, good and fair results were obtained in 5, 2, and 3 patients, respectively; thus, the efficacy rate was 70.0%. The efficacy rate by disease was 100%, 50.0% and 100% in septicemia, pneumonia, and urinary tract infection, respectively. The bacteriological eradication were obtained in 70.0% of the total patients; by disease, these rates were 100% and 50.0% in septicemia/urinary tract infection and in pneumonia, respectively. The MIC50 as well as the MIC80 against MRSA strains isolated from 9 patients were 0.39 microgram/ml and 1.56 micrograms/ml, respectively. No adverse reactions were observed in the 15 patients, while in laboratory test values, one case each out of 12 patients examined showed gamma-GTP elevation, proteinuria, and hematuria. 2. Pharmacokinetics: The pharmacokinetics of the agent was investigated in a total of 9 patients, which included 1 neonate and 4 cases each of pre- and school age children. The Cmax, 4.85-8.83 micrograms/ml, was observed immediately after the termination of the instillation. The T1/2's were 4.96 hours, 1.24-2.54 hours, and 1.78-1.88 hours in the neonate, the pre- and the school age children, respectively; in the neonate the half-life was longer. When 1.92-2.7 mg/kg were administered to 3 each of the pre- and school age children, urinary excretion rates in the first 6-8 hours were 40.1-56.5% of the dosages administered. In all cases, the urinary concentrations were highest in the first 2 hours, after the administration, and then gradually decreased. These results suggest that arbekacin is a useful antibiotic for treating MRSA infections in the pediatric field.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

[A quantitative approach to the rCBF response to acetazolamide using 99mTc-HMPAO and graphical analysis].

A simple noninvasive method for a quantitative measurement of brain perfusion is presented using intravenous radionuclide angiography with 99mTc-hexamethylpropylene amine oxime (HMPAO). Graphical analysis was employed for the evaluation of the unidirectional influx constant (ku) of the tracer from the blood to the brain and the initial distribution volume (Vn) for the tracer, which is the volume of the exchangeable region plus the plasma space. The ku and Vn values were standardized to provide objective and comparable values, brain perfusion indices (BPI) and corrected Vn (Corr. Vn), between subjects by setting the size ratio of ROI(brain) to ROI(aorta) at 10 and 1, respectively. BPI and Corr. Vn of the whole brain were measured before and 20 min after injection of 1 g acetazolamide. After acetazolamide administration, BPI and Corr. Vn increased in all eight subjects with cerebrovascular diseases and one with a pituitary adenoma, by a mean of x 1.26 and 1.24, respectively. Increase of BPI showed a significant correlation with increase of Corr. Vn. This technique is easy to apply as an adjunct to SPECT and may be helpful in the measurement of brain perfusion changes in the acetazolamide test.

Acetazolamide↗
PubMed1993

Fibrinogen Mitaka II: a hereditary dysfibrinogen with defective thrombin binding caused by an A alpha Glu-11 to Gly substitution.

A new type of A alpha Glu-11 to Gly substitution has been identified in a congenitally abnormal fibrinogen, fibrinogen Mitaka II, derived from a 14-year-old female suffering from easy bruising since childhood. Plasma of the patient and fibrinogen purified therefrom were found to clot slowly by thrombin but in a normal fashion by ancrod, a thrombin-like snake venom enzyme. The ancrod-clotted fibrin gels were normally solid and turbid, whereas the thrombin-clotted gels were initially fragile and transparent but became gradually normalized during further incubation. On reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, there was an additional peptide group eluted distinctly later than the corresponding normal fibrinopeptide A in the clot-liquor of the patient's samples. Sequence analysis of these aberrant peptides and isolated A alpha chains of the patient's fibrinogen showed that Glu at position 11 of the abnormal A alpha chain had been replaced by Gly. Studies using 125I-labeled thrombin showed that the binding with thrombin was evidently reduced for her fibrinogen and the aberrant fibrinopeptide A as compared with that for the normal controls, indicating that A alpha Glu-11 may be critical for the fibrinogen-thrombin interaction. Indeed, A alpha Glu-11 of fibrinogen has recently been proposed to stabilize the local conformation, including the beta-turn, and to form a salt bridge between its side-chain carboxyl group and the guanidino group of Arg-173 of thrombin based on crystallographic analyses using analogs of fibrinopeptide A complexed with thrombin (Stubb et al, Eur J Biochem 206:187, 1992 and Martin et al, J Biol Chem 267:7911, 1992).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Targeted disruption of IRF-1 or IRF-2 results in abnormal type I IFN gene induction and aberrant lymphocyte development.

Interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1), a transcriptional activator, and its antagonistic repressor, IRF-2, were originally identified as regulators of the type I interferon (IFN) system. We have generated mice deficient in either IRF-1 or IRF-2 by gene targeting in embryonic stem cells. IRF-1-deficient fibroblasts lacked the normally observed type I IFN induction by poly(I):poly(C), while they induced type I IFN to similar levels as the wild type following Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infection. In contrast, IRF-2-deficient fibroblasts showed up-regulated type I IFN induction by NDV infection. A profound reduction of TCR alpha beta+CD4-CD8+ T cells in IRF-1-deficient mice, with a thymocyte developmental defect, reveals a critical role for IRF-1 in T cell development. IRF-2-deficient mice exhibited bone marrow suppression of hematopoiesis and B lymphopoiesis and mortality following lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Recombinant human soluble thrombomodulin delivers bounded thrombin to antithrombin III: thrombomodulin associates with free thrombin and is recycled to activate protein c.

Recombinant human soluble thrombomodulin (rhs-TM), having no transmembrane domain or chondroitin sulfate, was expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Interactions between rhs-TM, thrombin (Th), protein C (PC) and antithrombin III (ATIII) were studied. Equilibrium between rhs-TM and Th had no detectable time lag in clotting inhibition (Kd = 2.6 nM) or PC activation (Kd = 22 nM), while ATIII inhibited Th at a bimolecular rate constant = 5,200 M-1s-1 (Kd < 0.2 nM). A mixture of ATIII, Th and rhs-TM showed that ATIII reacted with Th slower than rhs-TM, whose presence did not affect the reaction between ATIII and Th. In a mixture of rhs-TM, ATIII and PC, the repeated addition of Th caused the repeated activation of PC; which was consistent with the simulation based on the assumption that rhs-TM is recycled as a Th cofactor. From these results, we concluded that upon inhibition of the rhs-TM-Th complex by ATIII, rhs-TM is released to recombine with free Th and begins to activate PC, while the Th-ATIII complex does not affect rhs-TM-Th equilibrium.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Evidence that the protein C activation pathway amplifies the inhibition of thrombin generation by recombinant human thrombomodulin in plasma.

Thrombomodulin (TM) is a cofactor for the thrombin-catalyzed activation of anticoagulant protein C. However, we have no evidence that thrombomodulin actually activates protein C during blood coagulation processing, nor do we know whether this activated protein C acts as an anticoagulant. We studied the inhibitory action of recombinant human soluble TM (rhs-TM) on thrombin generation in whole plasma. Human plasma was activated with small amounts of tissue factor using phospholipid vesicles in place of activated platelets. Thrombin generation was observed. The addition of only 2 nM of rhs-TM prevented rapid generation of thrombin and reduced the total amount of thrombin generated. In order to study the influence of the protein C activation pathway on this inhibitory action of rhs-TM, protein C-depleted plasma was used. rhs-TM had little inhibitory effect on protein C-depleted plasma. However, the addition of protein C caused a delay in thrombin generation and a reduction of the maximum thrombin concentration. We concluded that the anticoagulant activity of rhs-TM was amplified by the protein C activation pathway.

Blood Coagulation Tests↗
PubMed1993

[Cerebral edema extending to the posterior limb of the internal capsule on MR imaging].

The features of edema extending to the posterior limb of the internal capsule (PLIC) were investigated in a review of MR imaging (MRI), with the following results. Edema was seen along the lateral and medial margins of the PLIC, although the PLIC itself was resistant to edema. The edema along the lateral and medial margins tended to extend into the lentiform nucleus and thalamus, respectively, and was considered to be edema of the extrapyramidal and thalamocortical tracts. When edema was abundant, the PLIC was traversed by many edematous tracts which seemed to connect the lentiform nucleus with the thalamus. The PLIC looked like a comb, and this finding was a good anatomical landmark on MR T 2-weighted images. We have used the term "comb appearance" to describe this finding.

Brain↗
PubMed1993

A novel cAMP-dependent regulatory region including a sequence like the cAMP-responsive element, far upstream of the human CYP21A2 gene.

Deletion mutants in the 5' upstream sequence of the human CYP21A2 gene demonstrated a novel regulatory DNA element responsible for cAMP-dependent expression of the gene in the transient expression system using Y-1 cells (mouse adrenocortical tumor cell line). This regulatory element (-2574 to -2489 bp) was also found to exhibit a strong enhancer activity through heterologous promoters in response to cAMP and to contain a sequence like the cAMP-responsive element (CRE) and a CAAT-like sequence. The CRE-like sequence has a five-base motif (5'-TGACG-3') of the palindromic CRE consensus (TGACGTCA). Competitive gel mobility shift assays using nuclear extracts of bovine adrenal cortex with sequences typical of the binding sites for the binding proteins of CRE and the CAAT-like sequence revealed that these binding proteins, or related factors, bound to their cognate DNA binding sites in the upstream enhancer region of the CYP21A2 gene. These two enhancer elements and their cognate binding factors cooperate with previously identified tissue-specific enhancers (adrenal-specific protein factor and Ad4-like sequences) and their binding factors to express a high level of cAMP-responsive expression of the CYP21A2 gene.

Adrenal Cortex↗
PubMed1993

Structure-activity relationship of a series of phenylureas linked to 4-phenylimidazole. Novel potent inhibitors of acyl-CoA:cholesterol O-acyltransferase with antiatherosclerotic activity. 2.

In our continuing search to find systemically bioavailable ACAT (acyl-CoA:cholesterol O-acyltransferase) inhibitors with more potent antiatherosclerotic effect than N-[2-(dimethylamino)-6-[3-(5-methyl-4-phenyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)propoxy] phenyl]-N'-pentylurea (3), a series of phenylureas linked to 4-phenylimidazole were synthesized and evaluated for in vitro inhibitory activity toward both aortic and intestinal ACATs, and for in vivo hypocholesterolemic activity. The structure-activity relationships (SARs) were studied by strategic modification of five regions in the molecule of 3, i.e., by introducing functional groups or exchanging carbon atoms for heteroatoms. The SAR studies allowed us to select optimum substituents in the five regions, as follows. (1) Dimethylamino was convertible into nitro, methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, and chloro. On the basis of preliminary pharmacokinetic studies, the methyl group in the ortho-position of the phenylurea was selected. (2) Butyl, pentyl, isopentyl, and neopentyl were better substituents in the urea moiety. (3) Propoxy was the optimal moiety in the bridging portion. (4) Proton, methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, hydroxymethyl, and chloro were better substituents at the 5-position of the imidazole moiety. (5) An unsubstituted phenyl ring was selected as the phenyl group of phenylimidazole. The subsequent comparison studies of compounds containing various combinations of the optimum substituents in each region resulted in the selection of two compounds (67, 68) for further pharmacological and toxicological testing. These compounds were orally bioavailable, and possessed potent in vitro aortic ACAT inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.16 and 0.012 microM, respectively) and in vivo cholesterol lowering effect (46% and 52% at 1 mg/kg po, respectively). In particular, 68 was 10-fold more potent in the in vitro aortic ACAT assay and 5-fold more potent with respect to hypocholesterolemic activity in vivo than 3.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Interleukin-6 activates and regulates transcription factors of the interferon regulatory factor family in M1 cells.

Activation of (2'-5') A synthetase gene expression in interleukin-6 (IL-6)-treated myeloleukemic M1 cells correlates with protein binding to the interferon response sequence enhancer (IRS). A new interferon response sequence complex, F6, is induced by IL-6 independently of interferon and is identified here as comprising the interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1) and IRF-2, by use of specific antibodies in DNA mobility shift assays with probes containing IRF binding sites. IRF-1 and IRF-2 have, respectively, positive and negative transcriptional effects on interferon-beta and interferon-inducible genes. In the IL-6-treated M1or cells, IRF-1 binding is activated early and maximally at 1 h, whereas the onset of IRF-2 binding is delayed. In a cell variant M1res, where (2'-5') A synthetase is no more induced, IRF-2 binding is constitutive, and IRF-1 binding is not seen before or after IL-6 treatment. In sensitive M1or cells, IL-6 rapidly induces IRF-1 mRNA, but in M1res cells, IRF-1 mRNA is constitutively high and not changed by IL-6. IRF-2 mRNA levels are also constitutive and not inducible by IL-6 even in M1or cells. The dissociation between induction of mRNAs and of protein binding observed suggests that the activity of the IRF proteins is regulated by IL-6. Transcripts of a third member of the IRF gene family, ICSBP, encoding a protein known to act as repressor, were found to be strongly down-regulated by IL-6. The rapid activation of IRF-1 and the modulation of the other transcription factors of this family may play a role in the early phase of IL-6 action on the M1 cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Expression of multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein on peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with granular lymphocyte-proliferative disorders.

Some patients with granular lymphocyte-proliferative disorders (GLPD) have been reported to have an aggressive clinical course with a poor prognosis and to be refractory to chemotherapy. In this study, expression of multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 11 patients with GLPD was examined by staining with MRK 16, a monoclonal antibody that binds to an external epitope of P-glycoprotein, and with the dye rhodamine, a known substance to be excreted from the cells through P-glycoprotein. Among those tested, the PBMC of six of eight patients with T-cell-type GLPD as well as those of three of three patients with natural killer cell-type GLPD expressed P-glycoprotein significantly. Furthermore, PBMC of two of two patients were also poorly stained with the dye rhodamine, and the treatment of PBMC with either verapamil or quinidine, multidrug resistance-reversing agents, led to their increased staining, suggesting that these PBMC actively release chemotherapeutic agents.

ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Mem↗
PubMed1993

[A case of bilateral aldosterone-producing adrenal adenomas].

A 43-year-old female was admitted to our hospital for high blood pressure control. She showed hypokalemia with increased urinary potassium excretion, high plasma aldosterone concentration (33.9ng/dl, normal range; 2-12ng/dl) and reduced plasma renin activity (trace, normal range; 0.83-5ng/ml/hr). Bilateral adrenal tumors were revealed by abdominal computed tomography, and left adrenalectomy and right partial adrenalectomy were performed. Cytochromes p-450 and other enzymes involved in aldosterone synthesis were found predominantly in the tumor portions but not in the zona glomerulosa of the attached adrenals, which histopathologically showed paradoxical hyperplasia. This was a rare case of bilateral aldosterone-producing adrenal adenomas, which we could differentiate from idiopathic hyperaldosteronism by employing immunohistochemical analysis of steroidogenic enzymes.

Adenoma↗
PubMed1993

A novel negative selection for homologous recombinants using diphtheria toxin A fragment gene.

In producing mutant mice by gene targeting in embryonic stem (ES) cells, the efficient isolation of the homologous recombinants is still a critical step. We previously reported on a negative selection using the diphtheria toxin A (DT-A) fragment gene for homologous recombinants (1). It was efficient but limited to gene loci expressed in ES cells. For wider applicability of this negative selection to many gene loci not expressed or expressed at low levels in ES cells, we exploited a novel targeting vector composed of a polyA-less neo gene, a mRNA destabilizing signal, a pausing signal for RNA polymerase II from the minute virus of mice, and the DT-A gene. There was about a 30-fold decrease in frequency of G418-resistant colonies with this strategy against that using only the neo gene in the vector, and homologous recombinants were obtained at frequencies of more than 1/50 among G418 resistant cells at fyn, csk, c-mos, and insulin receptor substrate-1 gene loci.

Animals↗