Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Shin-ichi Takeda

Publications and source records attributed to Shin-ichi Takeda.

42 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Cardiac-restricted ankyrin-repeated protein is differentially induced in duchenne and congenital muscular dystrophy.

Cardiac ankyrin-repeated protein (CARP) has been shown to associate with a transcription factor, YB-1, that may activate expression of the ventricular myosin light chain-2 gene during cardiogenesis. CARP is induced in the adult hypertrophic heart subjected to pressure overload, suggesting that CARP may play important functional roles in both embryonic and adult hearts. Although CARP expression was initially believed to be restricted to the heart, we found recently that CARP is induced strongly in human fetal skeletal muscle and in experimentally denervated skeletal muscle, leading us to speculate that CARP may also play important roles in skeletal muscle. In the present study, we found that in rats initially damaged by a single injection of bupivacaine, CARP expression was induced strongly in regenerating muscles with a peak 3 days after the injection, followed by down-regulation to undetectable levels after 28 days. Although CARP was coexpressed with embryonic myosin heavy chain (MHC) in regenerating myofibers, CARP expression persisted even after down-regulation of embryonic MHC expression, whereas it began to decrease before the onset of slow or fast MHC expression, suggesting that CARP is expressed at a specific differentiation stage during muscle regeneration. We analyzed the expression of CARP in muscle biopsy specimens from 14 patients with muscular dystrophy (MD) and detected high expression of CARP in 13 of the 14 cases. CARP-positive myofibers were detected more often in congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD) than in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). We found that CARP was expressed exclusively, and at a high level, in small regenerating myofibers that express embryonic MHC in DMD, which suggested that CARP could be used as a marker of muscle regeneration in DMD. On the other hand, in CMD, expression of CARP was not limited to regenerating fibers, being detectable in myofibers expressing embryonic MHC and those expressing mature-type MHC. These findings suggest that the differentiation stage of CARP-positive myofibers in DMD and CMD may differ.

Animals↗

Serum carcinoembryonic antigen level in surgically resected clinical stage I patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: There is little general agreement concerning the effectiveness of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as a prognostic indicator for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in clinical stage I patients. We conducted a retrospective study to investigate the relationship between serum CEA level and survival. METHODS: We assessed 297 consecutive patients with clinical stage I NSCLC who underwent surgical resection at Toneyama National Hospital from 1985 to 1998. Serum CEA levels were measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit with the upper limit of normal defined as 7.0 ng/mL based on the 95% specificity level for benign lung disease, in our hospital. RESULTS: There were 56 (19%) patients with serum CEA greater than 7.0 ng/mL. The high CEA group had a median survival time of 50 months and a 5-year survival rate of 49% compared with a 5-year survival rate of 72% (p < 0.0001) for the normal CEA group (n = 241). Patients with postoperatively high CEA levels (n = 15) had the worse prognosis (median survival time 35 months, and 5-year survival 18%) compared with patients whose levels returned to normal (n = 41, median survival time 8.8 months, and 5-year survival 68%; p = 0.01). These differences were also observed in patients with pathologic stage I or II tumors but not in those with pathologic stage III or IV tumors. CONCLUSIONS: Serum CEA level is a useful predictor of survival for patients with clinical stage I NSCLC, and a persistently high CEA level after surgery is an especially strong indicator of a very poor prognosis.

Aged↗

p38 MAPK phosphorylation and NF-kappa B activation in human crescentic glomerulonephritis.

BACKGROUND: p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) followed by the activation of NF-kappa B participates in the intracellular signal transduction and production of cytokines and chemokines. The pathophysiological roles of p38 MAPK and NF-kappa B in human glomerulonephritis, however, remain to be investigated. METHODS: We investigated the phosphorylated p38 MAPK (p-p38 MAPK) and activated NF-kappa B immunohistochemically in the kidneys of 34 patients with crescentic glomerulonephritis and 26 control patients with thin basement membrane disease and minimal change nephrotic syndrome. We also explored the co-localization of p-p38 MAPK with CCR5, the signal of which leads to p38 MAPK activation. Furthermore, urinary levels of MIP-1 alpha, the cognate ligand for CCR5, were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: p-p38 MAPK-positive cells and activated NF-kappa B-positive cells were mainly detected in crescentic lesions, tubular epithelial cells, and interstitial mononuclear infiltrates. The number of p-p38 MAPK-positive cells in patients with crescentic glomerulonephritis was higher than that in control patients. The number of p-p38 MAPK-positive cells in glomeruli was well correlated with the percentage of cellular crescents, the number of CD68-positive cells, and urinary MIP-1 alpha levels. In addition, the number of activated NF-kappa B-positive cells was well correlated with the number of p-p38 MAPK-positive cells in glomeruli. Dual staining revealed that most of CCR5-positive cells were positive for p-p38 MAPK. Finally, p-p38 MAPK-positive cells and activated NF-kappa B-positive cells decreased during glucocorticoid therapy-induced convalescence. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK associated with the activation of NF-kappa B may be involved in the upregulation of intrarenal MIP-1 alpha and the utilization of CCR5 signalling, which may result in human crescentic glomerulonephritis.

Female↗

Isolated autonomic cardiovascular neuropathy in a patient with primary Sjögren syndrome: a case of successful treatment with glucocorticoid.

Autonomic failure is rare in patients with Sjögren syndrome (SS). We report the case of a 46-year-old woman with severe autonomic cardiovascular failure, manifested by incapacitating postural hypotension, as the first symptom of primary SS. Treatment with glucocorticoid resulted in a dramatic improvement of her symptoms and objective findings of autonomic cardiovascular dysfunction. We suggest that SS should be considered in patients with idiopathic autonomic cardiovascular neuropathy, especially in those with idiopathic orthostatic hypotension. Furthermore, glucocorticoid therapy seems to be very efficacious in the treatment of SS-associated autonomic cardiovascular neuropathy.

Autonomic Nervous System Diseases↗

Novel drug delivery system by surface modified magnetic nanoparticles.

In the recent progress of gene and cell therapy, novel drug delivery system (DDS) has been required for efficient delivery of small molecules/drugs and also the safety for clinical usage. We have already developed the unique transfection technique by preparing magnetic vector and using permanent magnet. This technique can improve the transfection efficiency. In this study, we directly associated plasmid DNA with magnetic nanoparticles, which can potentially enhance their transfection efficiency by magnetic force. Magnetic nanoparticle, such as magnetite, its average size of 18.7 nm, can be navigated by magnetic force and is basically consisted with oxidized Fe that is commonly used as the supplement drug for anemia. The magnetite particles coated with protamine sulfate, which gives a cationic surface charge onto the magnetite particle, significantly enhanced the transfection efficiency in vitro cell culture system. The magnetite particles coated with protamine sulfate also easily associated with cell surface, leading to high magnetic seeding percentage. From these results, it was found that the size and surface chemistry of magnetic particles would be tailored to meet specific demands on physical and biological characteristics accordingly. Overall, magnetic nanoparticles with different surface modification enhance the association with plasmid DNA and cell surface as well as HVJ-E, which potentially help to improve the drug delivery system.

Animals↗