Biomedical subjects

T Imai

Publications and source records attributed to T Imai.

1,121 records · Page 63Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Subcortical neurofibrillary tangles, neuropil threads, and argentophilic glial inclusions in corticobasal degeneration.

This report concerns an autopsy case of corticobasal degeneration (CBD). The patient was a 64-year-old woman with slowly progressing clumsiness and gait disturbance who died approximately 7 years after the onset of symptoms. The salient neuropathological findings were focal loss of neurons of the cerebral cortex, ballooned neurons and gliosis of the subcortical white matter, thalamus, and basal ganglia. In addition, there were marked neuronal loss and gliosis in the substantia nigra. The ballooned neurons were positively immunostained for phosphorylated neurofilament, alpha B-crystallin and synaptophysin; staining for the latter was intraneuronal. The examination of silver impregnated and Tau immunostained preparations revealed numerous basal neurofibrillary tangles, neuropil threads, and glial inclusions; their presence was most pronounced in the brainstem tegmentum, basal ganglia, and thalamus. Neurofibrillary tangles consisting of straight tubules with a diameter of approximately 13-15 nm and constricted tubules were identified in the substantia nigra. The results of the present study indicate that the cytopathology of the subcortical gray matter and brainstem in CBD patients resembles that of progressive supranuclear palsy.

Axons↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with dementia and Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase-positive Lewy body-like inclusions.

This report concerns a case of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with dementia and Lewy body-like hyaline inclusions (LBHIs). The patient was a 70-year-old woman who initially showed memory disturbance and later developed bulbar palsy, muscle atrophy and weakness. The total clinical course was 51 months. The postmortem examination revealed superficial sponginess and subcortical gliosis in the frontotemporal cortices. Ubiquitin-positive intraneuronal inclusions were found in small cortical neurons of the frontotemporal lobe. Neuronal loss was marked in the spinal anterior horn with degeneration of the pyramidal tracts. The anterior horn cells had ubiquitin-immunoreactive skein-like inclusions and Bunina bodies. LBHIs were present in the lumbar horn; ultrastructurally they were composed of randomly arranged thick filamentous structures studded with granules. The LBHIs were intensely stained with anti-ubiquitin antibody. As in familial ALS and in certain cases of sporadic ALS, some of these inclusions reacted with an antibody against Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase, the enzyme whose gene was recently found to be mutated in some forms of familial ALS.

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PubMedDate not supplied

Increased concentration of soluble E-selectin in the sera of breast cancer patients.

E-selectin which is expressed on endothelial cells plays an important role in the adhesion of cancer cells to the vascular endothelium, being the ligand for a carbohydrate antigen expressed on cancer cells. In this study, the clinical usefulness of this protein was examined. E-selectin was expressed on the endothelial cells of the small vessels adjacent to the cancer nests in 63 of the 104 (60.6%) primary tumors of breast cancer. The expression of E-selectin in locations adjacent to the cancer nests was more pronounced than that in distant ones. The mean value of serum soluble E-selectin (ng/ml) was 38.3 in benign breast disease, 47.8 in those with no evidence of recurrence, 49.4 in stage I/II primary breast cancer, 75.8 in stage III/IV primary breast cancer, and 93.7 in recurrent breast cancer. The mean value of serum soluble E-selectin was 106.2 ng/ml in patients with distant metastases, and 50.4 ng/ml in those with no evidence of distant metastases. Thus, the concentration of soluble E-selectin was significantly elevated in the sera of patients with distant metastases. These findings suggested that cancer cells induced the expression of E-selectin on endothelial cells and, that serum soluble E-selectin is useful as a tumor marker having a close relationship to metastasis in breast cancer.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Masseter reflex potentials in olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy.

We recorded masseter reflex potentials to examine the correlation between the masseter reflex and the muscle stretch reflexes of limbs in 19 patients with olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy (OPCA). The patients were subdivided into hyper- (n = 5), normo- (n = 7) and hypo- (n = 7) reflexia groups according to the degrees of the conventional deep tendon jerks in the upper limbs. The masseter reflex potentials, elicited by tapping the chin with a reflex hammer, were recorded from the bilateral masseters using a pair of surface electrodes. The latency of the potentials in the hyporeflexia was significantly longer than in the other groups, while the amplitude of those in the hyperreflexia group was significantly higher than in the other groups. These results indicate that in patients with OPCA the magnitude and latency of the masseter reflex correlates with the status of the muscle stretch reflexes of the limbs in contrast with Friedreich's ataxia where the masseter reflex has been reported to be normal or hyperactive despite hyporeflexia in the limbs.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Parahippocampal pathology in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

BACKGROUND: The hippocampal lesions in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) have been reported to be characteristically mild, but it has not been well known how the lesions change pathologically from the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampus. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was designed to clarify the ambiguity attending the parahippocampal lesions in CJD. Fourteen cases with pathologically diagnosed CJD were studied. They were classified into 2 groups: group I, which did not have cortical status spongiosus (SS) and included 5 cases; and group II, which had cortical SS and included 9 cases. Neuronal loss, astrocytosis, and spongiform change were studied in lesions in the entorhinal cortex, parasubiculum, presubiculum (external and internal principal laminae), subiculum, and prosubiculum, respectively. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that in group I neuronal loss and astrocytosis were more severe in the parasubiculum and the external principal lamina of the presubiculum than in the other regions including the entorhinal cortex, and in group II the lesions in the entorhinal cortex, parasubiculum, and the external principal lamina of the presubiculum were more severe than in the other regions. In both groups in this study the lesions from the internal principal lamina of the presubiculum through the prosubiculum in the direction of the hippocampus were mild, which could be the least vulnerable in the parahippocampal gyrus in CJD. CONCLUSION: On the contrary, our findings also raise the possibility that the parasubiculum and the external principal lamina of the presubiculum may be the structures most vulnerable to early lesions in the parahippocampal gyrus in CJD. To know the pathogenesis of these lesions may be the clue to delineate the mechanisms by which the neurons could be spared.

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