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Biomedical subjects

T Kusunoki

Publications and source records attributed to T Kusunoki.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Chemoarchitectonics of the brainstem in infrared sensitive and nonsensitive snakes.

The crotaline snake Agkistrodon possesses infrared receptors, whereas the colubrid Elaphe quadrivirgata does not. We compared the histochemical activity of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), monoamine oxidase (MAO), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the brainstem of these 2 species, by the method of Nachlas et al. (1957), Glenner et al. (1957), and Koelle and Friedenwald (1949), respectively, and made the following observations. Visual system: The tectum opticum (TO) exhibited strong or moderate AChE and SDH activity in areas receiving retinal projections, i.e. the str. zonale (sz), str. fibrosum et griseum superficiale (sfgs), and narrow areas between small tight fasciculi of the tr. opticus. The sfgs was divided into 2 sublayers, a superficial and a deep, by the intensity of AChE activity. The deep sublayer of the sfgs and sfc of Agkistrodon were stained more strongly than other layers. Numerous fibers within the TO showed MAO activity. The entire sfgs of Agkistrodon was thinner than in Elaphe. The nucl. posterodorsalis showed moderate AChE, and weak SDH and MAO activity in Agkistrodon, but lack of AChE, weak SDH, and moderate MAO activity in Elaphe. Infrared system: This system was present only in Agkistrodon. The nucl. of the lateral descending trigeminal tract (dlV) and the nucl. reticularis caloris (rc) showed to moderate SDH activity in the main neuropil and/or perikarya. These nuclei were not conspicuous in AChE preparations. The marginal neuropil of the dlV had weak SDH, and moderate AChE and MAO activity. Common sensory trigeminal system: Moderate activity of the 3 enzymes was seen in the nucl. tr. descendens n. trigemini (dl). In the dorsomedial part of the nucl. interpolaris, the round limited portion was stained strongly for SDH and AChE. Cells of the nucl. tr. mesencephalicus n. trigemini showed strong SDH and AChE activity. Other regions: In Elaphe, there was strong to moderate AChE and SDH activity in the nucl. of the fasciculus longitudinalis medialis, nucl. centralis superior, raphe nuclei, and reticular nuclei, but only weak activity in Agkistrodon. We also found the following similarities in the 2 species. Strong to moderate AChE and SDH activity was observed in the motor nuclei of the cranial nerves, pretectal nuclei excepting the nucl. posterodorsalis, nucl. opticus basalis, and nucl. posterolateralis tegmentalis. Strong to moderate activity of the 3 enzymes together was detected in the nucl. interpeduncularis as found in other animals previously studied, and in the nucl. commissurae cornae dorsalis, nucl. cochlearis angularis, and the molecular and granular layer of the cerebellum.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1986

Organization of the trigeminal and facial motor nuclei in the hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri: a retrograde HRP study.

We studied the trigeminal and facial motor nuclei of the hagfish by the retrograde HRP method. We distinguished 4 components in a single column of the motor nuclei of the trigeminal nerve and the facial nerve, viz., the pars magnocellularis of the trigeminal motor nucleus (mVm), the anterior part of the pars parvocellularis of the trigeminal motor nucleus (mVp1), the posterior part of the pars parvocellularis of the trigeminal motor nucleus (mVp2) and the facial motor nucleus (mVII). Although in Nissl preparations only the mVm could be distinguished from the rest of the nucleus, the boundaries of the other 3 components were clearly demarcated in HRP preparations. Intramuscular injections into two representative antagonistic jaw muscles revealed that there was no apparent topological organization of the neurons pertaining to the opening and closing muscles in the mVm and mVp1, but both antagonistic muscles were innervated bilaterally. Although the hagfish does possess a cartilaginous jaw, the organization pattern of the motor nuclei of the jaw muscles seems to be the most primitive of all living vertebrates.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Granule cell deficit in the mouse cerebellum after total asphyxia.

The cerebellar granule cell continues to proliferate after birth in the mouse as well as in the human being. Total asphyxia in the neonatal period in 40 mice resulted in a 13% reduction in the granule cell number and a 7% reduction in the Purkinje cell number. Differential effects on granule cell and Purkinje cell populations were noted when particular cerebellar lobules were examined.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Dendritic development of cortical neurons of mice subjected to total asphyxia: a Golgi-Cox study.

The effect of total asphyxia on dendritic development of the pyramidal cells in the mouse cerebrum was investigated using the Golgi-Cox method. Although neonatal asphyxia did not alter the number of basal dendrites arising from the cell bodies, the dendrites in the 20-day-old treated animals were significantly shorter than those in the controls. Even at 60 days, the number of longer dendrites in the treated mice was significantly less than that in the controls.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Morphological and cell proliferative study on the growth of visceral organs in monosodium L-glutamate-treated obese mice.

The growth pattern of visceral organs was investigated in monosodium L-glutamate (MSG)-treated obese mice with hypothalamic lesions. Male Jcl-ICR strain mice were subcutaneously injected with MSG, 2 mg/g of body weight daily, for five days after birth. The MSG-treated mice became obese after 4 weeks of age. According to patterns of weight gain compared with those in the control mice, the visceral organs in the MSG-treated mice were classified into three groups as follows: The first group of organs (heart, lungs, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, testes, brain and submandibular glands) remained absolutely lower in weight throughout their growth. The second group of organs (liver and stomach) was low in weight until 12 weeks of age, but became identical to that of the control mice after 16 weeks of age. The third group of organs (epididymal fat, small intestine and colon) showed lower weight until 4 weeks of age and were significantly heavier than those in the control mice after 8 weeks of age. The heart in the first group of organs apparently had hypertrophic muscle cells after 8 weeks of age and became significantly hypoplastic due to decreased cell production as was revealed by the continuous suppression of mitotic activity and DNA synthesis by [3H]thymidine autoradiography. The liver in the second group of organs became significantly hypoplastic due to decreased cell production and showed the same weight with the control mice due to the development of fatty liver. The small intestine in the third group of organs became hypoplastic due to decreased cell production in the crypts until 4 weeks of age, and became hypertrophic and hyperplastic by the acceleration of cell production in the crypts from 4 to 8 weeks of age. From these findings, in the MSG-treated mice with specific growth patterns of visceral organs, it is suggested that low energy expenditure results in a relatively excessive energy supply and leads to obesity, because most of the important organs with major physiological functions became hypoplastic. Moreover, it seems that hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the intestine suggest a possible acceleration of the absorptive function.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Primary vestibular projections in the hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri.

The VIIIth cranial nerve projections in the hagfish, which has only one circular canal in the ear, were studied by transganglionic HRP transport. This nerve has two branches, the nervus utricularis (N. utr.) and the nervus saccularis (N. sac.), each with its own ganglion, the ganglion utriculare (G. utr.) and the ganglion sacculare (G. sac.), respectively. Although the G. sac. has uniformly small cells, the G. utr. consists of two separate cell masses, a ventral mass of large cells and a dorsal mass of small cells. The small cells were labeled in both ganglia after horseradish peroxidase (HRP) injection into the endolymphatic space. The greater part of the terminal areas of these two branches overlapped in the ventral nucleus of the area acoustico-lateralis, but the terminals of the N. sac. extended slightly further in a caudal direction. No projections to the primordial cerebellum and no retrogradely labeled cells in the brain were found. The large cells in the ventral part of the G. utr. seem to be general cutaneous neurons, and the dorsal part of the area acousticolateralis seems to receive lateral line input.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Rimmed vacuoles in biopsied muscle of nemaline myopathy.

A case of nemaline myopathy with rimmed vacuoles was presented. Muscle biopsy revealed type I fiber predominance with type grouping, thus suggesting that neurogenic factors played a pathologic role in the degenerative change.

Biopsy↗
PubMed1985

Primary malignant lymphoma of the appendix.

A 70-year-old Japanese woman with primary malignant lymphoma in the appendix was treated. The diagnosis was established after surgery. Histologically, the tumor was malignant lymphoma, lymphocytic, well differentiated, according to the Rappaport's classification which is a good prognostic type of extranodal malignant lymphoma. The patient was treated by ileocecal resection and without radiochemotherapy. The 36-month follow-up revealed neither evidence of recurrence nor metastases.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

Therapeutic effects of human leukocyte interferon on chronic active hepatitis B in children.

Seven children with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and one child with persistently abnormal results of liver function test due to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection were treated with human leukocyte interferon (Hu-alpha-IFN). Five of them were positive for eAg and two of the three who were measured for DNA polymerase (DNAP) activity in sera showed moderate elevations of its levels. Hu-alpha-IFN was injected intramuscularly daily or once weekly at doses of 0.05-1 X 10(6) IU. The total dose per patient varied from 10.5-54 X 10(6) IU. After administration of Hu-alpha-IFN, rapid loss of eAg was observed in two of the five eAg patients, and DNAP activity reverted to normal ranges in the two patients with moderate elevations of its levels. One of the patients who lost eAg has retained normal serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase levels for more than 2 years after therapy with Hu-alpha-IFN. Serial hepatic biopsies were performed in only one patient. In the second biopsy, 3 months after therapy with Hu-alpha-IFN, infiltration of inflammatory cells in the portal region was improved compared with earlier findings. Immediate and/or prolonged adverse side effects were not observed during or after administration of Hu-alpha-IFN. For the present, we propose these six conditions for use of Hu-alpha-IFN in children with HBV infection. Children should: (a) be more than 1 year old; (b) have abnormal liver function for more than 6 months; (c) have a liver biopsy demonstrating CAH; (d) have moderate elevation of DNAP activity; (e) be eAg positive; and (f) be unresponsive to other treatments.

Child↗
PubMed1985

A comparison of alprazolam, gefarnate and their combination in treatment of peptic ulcer patients--an application of life table analysis.

One hundred and thirty-nine patients with endoscopically confirmed peptic ulcers (gastric and duodenal) entered a double blind comparative evaluation of alprazolam (1.2 mg/day), gefarnate (300 mg/day) and their combination in treatment of peptic ulcer. Healing of ulcers was confirmed by endoscopic examinations. For evaluation of the treatment effect, the "life table" method was applied to the analysis of the data. The results revealed that ulcer healing with the combination was faster by two weeks than that with alprazolam or gefarnate alone. The difference did not reach the statistical significance in all the subjects who fulfilled the entry criteria. There was, however, a statistical difference between treatments in the patients having manifest psychic symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia and depressive mood (p less than 0.05 by generalized Kruskal-Wallis test and p less than 0.1 by Logrank test). The rate of patients who had psychic symptoms before entry and had not been cured of ulcers at the 4th week of treatment was 61% on the combination treatment as compared to 96% on the gefarnate treatment and 93% on the alprazolam treatment.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1985

Changes in cell proliferation kinetics in the mouse cerebellum after total asphyxia.

This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of neonatal asphyxia on brain development, with special reference to the kinetics of neuronal proliferation by using autoradiography. For 30 minutes, two-day-old suckling mice, Jcl:ICR strain, were put into a chamber which was constantly flushed with 100% CO2 gas. After the exposure to asphyxia, 29% of the mice survived. Cell cycle studies were carried out at two days and at seven days on the external matrix cells, the precursor of the granule cells, at the external granular layer of the cerebellum from CO2-exposed and control mice by 3H-thymidine autoradiography. At two days the generation time of the control mice was about 15 hours, whereas that of the asphyxiated mice was about 17 hours. The prolongation of the generation time in the asphyxiated mice was caused mainly by a delay in the G2 phase. This prolongation was apparent for about five days and thereafter growth caught up. These results suggest that neonatal asphyxia has an adverse effect on cerebellar neuronal proliferation that may revert to normal spontaneously in older animals.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Neuroblastoma. Mass screening for early detection and its prognosis.

Since July 1973, the authors began developing a mass screening system using a VMA (vanilmandelic acid) spot test on 6-to-7 month-old infants for early detection of neuroblastoma in Kyoto city, Japan. Using this method, six infants with this tumor were discovered; five of the six infants were cured, and one is under treatment. These patients showed a favorable prognosis on early diagnosis. In this article, 57 neuroblastoma patients from the Department of Pediatrics, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, treated during the last 20 years, from July 1962 to June 1982, are evaluated. Since the mass screening program has run smoothly since July 1974, clinical findings are compared between 35 neuroblastoma cases before mass screening from the 12-year period from July 1962 to June 1974 and 22 cases after mass screening, during the 8-year period from July 1974 to June 1982. Before mass screening, only 20% (7/35) of the patients were discovered with neuroblastoma younger than 12 months of age and 68.6% were older than 2 years of age. After mass screening, 54.6% (12/22) of the patients were younger than 12 months of age and only 31.8% (7/22) were older than 2 years of age. Before mass screening, 17.1% (6/35) survived with five of the six surviving patients being younger than 12 months of age at the time of diagnosis; 72.7% (16/22) of the patients detected after mass screening are living now. Eleven of the 16 patients have already been cured, and the remaining 5 patients are presently undergoing treatment. A marked improvement of their prognoses is dependent on the early detection of this tumor by mass screening. To date, using the VMA spot test for early detection in infancy is convenient and effective for improvement of its prognosis.

Abdominal Neoplasms↗
PubMed1984

Incidence of neuroblastoma in infancy in Japan.

Since 1974, we have been mass screening for neuroblastoma in 6-month-old infants using a VMA (vanilmandelic acid) spot test in Kyoto City. Fifteen (48.4%) of the 31 childhood neuroblastoma cases registered in this city during the recent 8-year-period, 1974-1982, were under 1 year of age. The annual number of cases per year was 3.9 cases under 15 years with 1.9 cases under 1 year of age. As the number of children under 15 years of age in this city was 292,000 according to the National Census of the Human Population in 1975, the annual incidence of this tumor in childhood was 3.9/292,000 (13.3/million). And as the number of live births was 161,153, the annual detection rate for this tumor in infancy increased to 15/161,153 (93/million) from 1974 to 1982. We found that many neuroblastomas could be detected in infancy by a VMA spot test and/or a careful physical examination.

Humans↗