Biopsied specimens from 55 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity were examined immunohistopathologically as to the clinical significance of basement membrane (BM) deposition and T-cell infiltration at the tumor-stromal border using monoclonal anti-laminin and anti-CD3 antibodies. According to the immunoreactivity, all specimens could be divided into three groups: group A, a continuous linear pattern of positive staining for BM around tumor nests; group B, an alteration of BM deposition around tumor nests with T cell infiltration into those tumor nests; and group C, an alteration of BM deposition around tumor nests without T cell infiltration into those tumor nests. These groups were correlated with clinical manifestations, such as tumor size, tumor regression rate with induction chemotherapy, and regional lymph node metastatic rate. In these groups, tumors classified as group C showed a trend toward resistance to chemotherapy and high metastatic characteristics. Tumors classified as group B, which showed the same alteration of BM deposition as a result of T cell infiltration into the tumor nests, showed a sufficient tumor regression rate with chemotherapy. The visualization of the staining for BM laminin and T cells in oral SCC appeared not only to increase our understanding of the biologic and clinical behavior of individual tumors, but could be a prognostic indicator.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Reactivation-dependent changes in memory states in the terrestrial slug Limax flavus.

The change in memory state in the terrestrial slug Limax flavus was studied using cooling-induced retrograde amnesia. Slugs were first conditioned to avoid carrot odor and then a second conditioning procedure was applied 1, 3, 6, or 7 days after the first conditioning trial. Cooling the slugs to approximately 1 degrees C on day 7 immediately after the presentation of the odor used in the conditioning resulted in retrograde amnesia in the slugs that were subject to a second conditioning on day 6 or 7, but not in slugs that were subject to a second conditioning on day 1 or 3. Next, second-order conditioning was used as the second conditioning procedure to distinguish the memory acquired in the first conditioning from that acquired in the second conditioning and similar results were obtained. These results suggest that the reactivation of memory altered the memory state from a cooling-insensitive state to a cooling-sensitive one. A possible model for memory states is discussed.

Amnesia, Retrograde↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral modulation induced by food odor aversive conditioning and its influence on the olfactory responses of an oscillatory brain network in the slug Limax marginatus.

We compared behaviorally and physiologically the olfactory responses of slugs (Limax marginatus) that had been subjected to aversive, appetitive, or unpaired training with food odors (carrot or cucumber). In the aversive training, the slugs were exposed to the food odor as a conditioned stimulus (CS), and then quinidine sulfate solution as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) was immediately applied to the lip of the slugs. This training caused a decrease in preference level for the CS. The unpaired training, in which the CS and the UCS were presented to the slugs with a 5-min interval, induced no change in the preference level for the CS. In the appetitive training, the slugs were allowed to eat the CS odor source without UCS application. When we used nonstarved slugs, it was found that the preference level for the CS increased upon the appetitive training. These results indicate that each training changed the preference for the odors in a characteristic manner. In the physiological experiments, we used brain-inferior tentacular nose preparations isolated from slugs and investigated the olfactory responses of the oscillations in the local field potential (LFP) of the procerebral (PC) lobe. We found that odor presentation induced various types of changes in the LFP oscillation frequency, although the rate of occurrence of the frequency modulation differed between odors used in the aversive and the unpaired training (aversive-conditioned and unpaired odors). The aversive-conditioned odors induced a decrease in the oscillatory frequency. Unpaired odors did not change it. Moreover, odors used in the appetitive training (appetitive-conditioned odors) induced an increase in the frequency. Thus, it was considered that those modulations of PC lobe oscillatory activity were independent of odor and reflected learned preference for odors.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Mapping of interneurons that contribute to food aversive conditioning in the slug brain.

To determine the distribution of neurons that contribute to memory formation induced by odor-taste associative conditioning in the slug's brain, we examined neuronal activity of the central nervous system of the slug Limax marginatus using a fluorescent activity marker [Lucifer yellow (LY)]. When LY was injected into the body cavity just after the conditioning, many of the procerebral (PC) interneurons were labeled. The PC lobe was considered to play important roles in the olfaction of the slug, because the olfactory afferent fibers from both the inferior and the superior tentacular noses innervate it. Such strong dye-uptake activity of PC interneurons was not observed when LY was injected just after unpaired control treatment. Thus, it was suggested that enhancement of dye-uptake activity upon conditioning was caused by the association of a conditioning stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). The distribution patterns of PC interneurons that were labeled by LY after conditioning showed a characteristic feature: They usually formed a belt-shaped cluster parallel to the dorsoventral axis. This feature of the distribution was maintained when different odors were used as a CS. Furthermore, the number of the clusters reflected the number of CS odors but not the number of conditioning sessions. From these observations, we considered that enhancement of the neural activity involving dye uptake in each belt-shaped cluster contributed to formation of each odor memory.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Optical recording analysis of olfactory response of the procerebral lobe in the slug brain.

We studied the oscillatory properties and the olfactory responses of the procerebral (PC) lobe of the cerebral ganglion in the terrestrial mollusc Limax marginatus. The PC lobe, a central olfactory organ in Limax, is a highly interconnected network of local interneurons that receives olfactory inputs from the inferior and superior tentacular noses. We used an optical recording technique with a voltage-sensitive dye to record the activity of the PC lobe from either the posterior or the dorsal surface. The recordings revealed that almost all PC interneurons showed spontaneous oscillatory activities that had been entrained with each other. Upon presentation to the nose of odors to which the slugs had been aversively conditioned, the basal level of the oscillation changed biphasically. In the early phase of the response, depolarization in the basal level of the oscillation occurred in one or more belt-shaped regions parallel to the dorsoventral axis. In the late phase of the response, hyperpolarization of basal potential level of the PC lobe oscillations occurred in a wider area. Such spatial and temporal modulation was not observed when the unpaired control odors were presented to the preparation, whereas the same preparations responded to the aversively conditioned stimuli. Thus, it was considered that the spatial and temporal response in the basal level of oscillation was specific to the aversively conditioned odors. Furthermore, the spatial pattern of the depolarization modulation in the early phase was repeatable in multiple trials performed using the same odor, although different odors produced different spatial patterns of the modulation. From these results, we conclude that in the PC lobe learned odors are represented as spatial and temporal activity patterns of oscillators that constitute a coherent network.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Serological studies on schistosomiasis mansoni in the northeast Brazil (I).

Sera from the patients (N = 10) with schistosomiasis mansoni of the hospital of Federal University of Pernambuco, the Schistosoma mansoni egg-positive (N = 51) and -negative (N = 452) inhabitants in Cabo City area, out-patients (N = 37) of the IMIP hospital and Japanese immigrants (N = 127) in Petrolina City area of northeast Brazil as well as Japanese healthy subjects (N = 30) were examined by serological tests including an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with antigens prepared from eggs (ELISA-egg) and adult worms (ELISA-adult). The ELISA with egg or adult antigen correctly identified 100% of the uninfected individuals lived in non-endemic area of schistosomiasis. Moreover, when examined cross-reactivity of our ELISA with sera isolated from 78 subjects infected with various intestinal parasitic infections, only one of these sera reacted with the egg and adult antigens. On the examination of 51 sera from the egg-positive subjects, the ELISA-egg revealed the highest sensitivity (98.0%), whereas a large number of false negative reactions of ELISA-adult, Ouchterlony method using adult antigen, circumoval precipitation and immediate intradermal skin test were observed. A low sensitivity of these serologic tests except for ELISA-egg appears to be primarily due to their inability to detect antibody in the sera from egg-positive infantiles. There was no positive correlation between the absorbance values of these two types of ELISA among the sera isolated from ELISA-positive subjects. Rather, by the reactivity of these sera to egg or adult antigen, they could be divided into two subgroups; one reacted more positively with egg antigen and the other with adult antigen. Moreover, it was confirmed that the sera from young subjects (under 20 years old) appear to be highly reactive to the egg antigen than did aged ones. These data suggest that the ELISA with egg antigen, but not with the adult antigen, appears to be useful for the serological survey of schistosomiasis mansoni in the endemic area of northeast Brazil.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A clinical method for the prediction of closure of the central diastema.

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Child↗