Treatment of sterile panniculitis in a dog.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Y Sasaki.
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Aim of the present study was the investigation of the genotoxicity of amino-alpha-carboline (AalphaC) in human derived cells and of its organ-specific effects in laboratory rodents. This heterocyclic amine (HA) is contained in fried meat and fish in higher concentrations than most other cooked food mutagens. In the present experiments, AalphaC caused dose-dependent induction of micronuclei in the human derived hepatoma cell line HepG2 at concentrations > or =50 microM. In contrast, no significant effects were seen in Hep3B, another human hepatoma cell line, which may be explained by the concurrent lower activity of sulfotransferase (SULT), an enzyme playing a key role in the activation of AalphaC. A positive result was also obtained in the single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay in peripheral human lymphocytes, but the effect was only significant at the highest concentration (1000 microM). In Fischer F344 rats and ICR mice, the liver was the main target organ for the formation of DNA adducts (at > or =50 mg/kg bw), and in lungs and colon substantially lower levels were detected. Identical organ specificity as in the DNA adduct measurements was seen in SCGE assays with rats, whereas in mice the most pronounced induction of DNA migration was observed in the colon. Comparison of our results with data from earlier experiments indicate that the genotoxic potency of AalphaC is equal to that of other HAs, which are contained in human foods in much smaller amounts. Therefore, our findings can be taken as an indication that the human health risk caused by exposure to AalphaC is higher than that of other HAs that are formed during the cooking of meat and fish.
Human pregnancy represents a situation of semiallograft to maternal host. Therefore, it has been reported that tolerance to the fetal allograft represents a mechanism for maintaining a pregnancy. CD4(+)CD25(bright) regulatory T cells are known to play an important role in the development and maintenance of tolerance in peripheral tissues. However, the potential role of CD4(+)CD25(bright) T cells in maintaining human pregnancy has not been reported. In this study, we show that early human pregnancy decidua contains an abundance of CD4(+)CD25(bright) T cells, which express CD152(CTLA-4) at a high level. CD4(+)CD25(bright) T cells mediate potent inhibition of autologous T-cell proliferation by anti-CD3 stimulation. Furthermore, these cells inhibit the proliferation of autologous CD4(+)CD25(-) T cells in a dose-dependent fashion. This suppressive function of decidual CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells required cell-to-cell contact. The proportion of decidual CD4(+)CD25(bright) T cells was significantly lower in specimens from spontaneous abortion compared to those from specimens from induced abortions. These results suggest that decidual CD4(+)CD25(bright) T cells contribute to the mechanisms mediating maternal immune tolerance of conceptus antigens and therefore might contribute to the maintenance of pregnancy.
PURPOSE: The treatment of rectal prolapse in children is controversial. We report the results of injection sclerotherapy in children using phenol in almond oil (PAO) and discuss the occurrence of complications after the injection of PAO. METHODS: Nine children with rectal prolapse, aged from 2 years and 6 months to 14 years, were treated by PAO injection sclerotherapy between 1993 and 2000. The outcome of PAO injection sclerotherapy and the presence of complications were investigated from the point of anorectal function using anorectal manometry. RESULTS: All of the nine patients were cured after one to three injections without any complications. The manometric study showed that normal anorectal reflex and other parameters of the anorectum were found after injection sclerotherapy. Two of the 4 who had complained of constipation no longer had constipation after the therapy. CONCLUSIONS: PAO injection sclerotherapy is simple and should be recommended as a first method of treatment for rectal prolapse in children. PAO as a sclerosing agent did not cause any complications.
Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) generated based on characterization of clones isolated randomly from cDNA libraries are used to study gene expression profiles in specific tissues and to provide useful information for characterizing tissue physiology. In this study, two directionally cloned cDNA libraries were constructed from 60 day-old bovine whole fetus and fetal placenta. We have characterized 5357 and 1126 clones, and then identified 3464 and 795 unique sequences for the fetus and placenta cDNA libraries: 1851 and 504 showed homology to already identified genes, and 1613 and 291 showed no significant matches to any of the sequences in DNA databases, respectively. Further, we found 94 unique sequences overlapping in both the fetus and the placenta, leading to a catalog of 4165 genes expressed in 60 day-old fetus and placenta. The catalog is used to examine expression profile of genes in 60 day-old bovine fetus and placenta.
Recent studies suggest that pre-eclampsia is associated with a Th1 predominant state and may be considered a failure of tolerance. Granulysin is a cytotoxic granule protein of natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Recently, we developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system for detecting serum granulysin, and reported that serum granulysin is a useful marker to evaluate the cell-mediated immunity. In this study, we show that the serum levels of granulysin were significantly elevated in pre-eclamptic patients compared with those in normal pregnancy subjects. In addition, the serum granulysin levels in pre-eclamptic patients were well associated with mean blood pressure, percentage of peripheral blood Th1 cells and Th1/Th2 ratios. The present results suggest that the serum granulysin levels would be a useful and novel serum marker to evaluate the Th1/Th2 balance, especially Th1 type immunity in pre-eclampsia.
A case of periodontitis in a young adolescent Japanese girl with Down's syndrome is presented in this report. The patient received a monthly preventive course of dental care consisting of mechanical plaque control and oral hygiene instruction. After 2.5 years she recovered from progression of periodontal disease both clinically and microbiologically. The importance of clinical care for periodontitis in Down's syndrome patients is discussed.
How secondary palate formation is affected in the cleft lip genotype remains poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to analyze regional patterns of cell proliferation in CL/Fr mouse embryos with or without cleft lip. Pairs of palatal shelves were dissected at E13.5 from CL/Fr normal embryos (CL/Fr-N), CL/Fr embryos with bilateral cleft lip (CL/Fr-BCL), and a control strain of C57BL embryos (C57BL). The explants were examined histologically after 48 hrs of organ culture. Cell kinetics for proliferation in the palatal shelves was examined at E13.5 by the bromodeoxyuridine method in vivo. The CL/Fr-BCL palates fused as well as the CL/Fr-N palates in vitro. There were inter-group differences in the absolute number of BrdU-positive cells and the ratio of positive/(positive+negative) cells in the palate's mesenchyme (C57BL > CL/Fr-N > CL/Fr-BCL) and epithelium (C57BL > CL/Fr-N = CL/Fr-BCL). These findings indicate that a cleft palate follows reduced cell proliferation of secondary palatal mesenchyme in CL/Fr mice.
We report a case of the mediastinal teratoma associated with acute cardiac tamponade followed by emergency operation. This tumor causes a variety of complications, but reports of acute cardiac tamponade have been rare. 20-year-old male admitted into our hospital with complaint of the chest pain, who was diagnosed with mediastinal tumor. She was admitted due to sudden fever up, and 5 days after admission, the complaint of severe epigastralgia and abdominal swelling were occurred. A chest X-ray film and chest computed tomography (CT) revealed cardiac tamponade. We carried out emergency surgical pericardial drainage and extirpation of the tumor. The tumor was composed of cystic part involving of dark green fluid macroscopically. The amylase level in this fluid was 42 U/l. We observed a small hole on the pericardial sac beside the base of ascending aorta. The amylase level in pericardial effusion was 19 U/l. Histopathological diagnosis was mature teratoma perforating into pericardiac sac, which included skin, bronchus and pancreatic tissue. We concluded that the progress of the tumor and the mechanical inflammation were major cause of perforation of the tumor into the pericardial sac, and autodigestion by enzyme from pancreas was minor cause of perforation.
Activation of 5-fluorouracil into its nucleotides requires phosphorylation by three pathways involving orotate phosphoribosyl-transferase (OPRT), uridine phosphorylase (UP), or thymidine phosphorylase (TP). In this study, we investigated the association between gene expressions of these three enzymes and antitumour effect. Gene expressions in primary colorectal tumours were analysed by a real-time reverse transcriptional-polymerase chain reaction method in 37 patients receiving oral treatment of tegafur-uracil and leucovorin for metastatic diseases. The median values of OPRT mRNA expressions were 1.39 and 0.85 for responding tumours and nonresponding tumours, respectively, showing a statistically significant difference (P=0.0008). Responding tumours had statistically lower expressions of TP mRNA than nonresponding tumours (P=0.006). However, there was no difference in UP mRNA expression between responding and nonresponding tumours. Patients with high OPRT (>/=1.0) gene expression survived longer than those with low OPRT (<1.0) expression. Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) gene expressions were measured. Responding tumours had a statistically higher OPRT/DPD ratio than the nonresponding ones (P=0.003). When the median value of the OPRT/DPD ratio was selected as the cutoff value, patients with a high OPRT/DPD ratio survived statistically longer than those with a low ratio (P=0.0014). In conclusion, both the expression of OPRT gene and the OPRT/DPD ratio might be useful as predictive parameters for the efficacy of fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer.
We have measured temperature dependences of sound velocity for both longitudinal and transverse sound in nuclear-ordered U2D2 solid 3He with several crystal orientations along the melting curve. The sound velocity change was proportional to T4 for all sound modes and crystal orientations and was attributed to the nuclear-spin part of the internal energy. We extracted six-independent elastic stiffness of the nuclear-spin part and obtained Grüneisen constants of the spin wave velocity for four-independent strains. Grüneisen constants for compressional strain were larger than those for shear strain. Using the multiple-spin-exchange model, we explain the anisotropy of Grüneisen constants in tetragonal symmetry.
We report a case of body stalk anomaly arising in the second baby of a triplet pregnancy after in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). Body stalk anomaly or limb-body wall complex is a rare congenital anomaly with a series of similar clinical manifestations and poor prognosis. IVF-ET is an effective treatment for various types of infertility. We summarize and discuss herein the relation with the sequence of genesis for such malformations and multiple pregnancies after IVF-ET.
The host range of most poliovirus (PV) strains is restricted to simians. This host range specificity is believed to be determined by the interaction between PV and its receptor molecule. To elucidate the molecular basis of this species-specific infection of PV, we cloned orthologs of the PV receptor (PVR) gene ( pvr) as well as those of PV receptor-related genes 1 and 2 ( prr1 and prr2) from various mammalian species. These three genes are widely present in mammalian genomes including those of non-susceptible species. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences of PVR orthologs revealed that the NH(2)-terminal immunoglobulin-like domain (domain 1), which is the virus binding site in the human PVR, is highly variable among species, whereas that of PRR1 is highly conserved. Domain 1 of the PVR orthologs for the ring-tailed lemur and rabbit, which are not susceptible to PV, show only 51 and 61% amino acid sequence identity to that of human PVR, respectively. Chimeric PVR proteins that have the domain 1 of the ring-tailed lemur and rabbit PVRs failed to serve as receptors for PV. These results suggest that rapid changes in the domain 1 sequence during mammalian evolution determined the host range restriction of PV.
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In this study we have examined the effect of systemic administration of T helper (Th) 2 cytokines on reovirus type-2 (Reo-2)-triggered Th1-mediated autoimmune insulitis with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in DBA/1J suckling mice. We have demonstrated clearly that the systemic administration of both interleukin (IL)-4-expressing plasmid DNA (pIL-4) and recombinant IL-4 (rIL-4) inhibited the development of insulitis with IGT in a dose dependent manner as compared to untreated groups in Reo-2-infected DBA/1J suckling mice. The inhibitory effects of IL-4 on the development of insulitis with IGT and the advantages of pIL-4 as compared to rIL-4 in this model are discussed.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To date there has been no published report on a systematic evaluation of the heat sensitivity of human parvovirus B19 (B19) and the related safety of the plasma-derived fractionated products. In this study, we examined the heat sensitivity of B19 by using the infectivity assay with cultured cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The heat sensitivity of B19 was examined by measuring the reduction in viral infectivity titres after heating liquid containing B19 at 60 degrees C. Viral infectivity was assayed by detection of viral antigens or viral mRNA in infected cells. As a control, canine parvovirus (CPV) was also heat-treated. RESULTS: B19 displayed quite different inactivation kinetics to CPV when both were heated in liquid at 60 degrees C. In sharp contrast to the latter, B19 was rapidly inactivated within 1 h when the virus was suspended in 5% or 25% human serum albumin solution, phosphate-buffered saline, or complete medium. However, B19 appeared to be resistant to heat inactivation in liquid containing 60% sucrose. CONCLUSIONS: The heat sensitivity of B19 in liquid was clearly different from that of CPV. Significantly, the efficiency to inactivate B19 and reduce its infectivity following heating in liquid was mainly affected by the composition of the solutions used for virus suspension.
Chromosomal mapping of expressed sequence tags for HSPCB and MYL1 expressed abundantly in the bovine fetus was performed by analyzing bovine/murine somatic cell hybrid DNAs with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers specific for those 3'-untranslated regions. HSPCB and MYL1 were assigned to bovine chromosomes 23 and 2, respectively.
BACKGROUND: To compare the efficacy, safety and tolerability of letrozole, an advanced non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor, and fadrozole hydrochloride, an older-generation drug in this class, we conducted a randomised double-blind trial in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred and fifty-seven postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive letrozole or fadrozole in a multicentre, randomised double-blind trial in Japan. One hundred and fifty-four eligible patients were treated with either letrozole 1.0 mg once daily (n = 77) or fadrozole 1.0 mg twice daily (n = 77), for a minimum of 8 weeks. RESULTS: Letrozole showed a significantly higher overall objective response rate [complete response (CR) + partial response (PR)] than fadrozole (31.2% and 13.0%, respectively; P = 0.011, Fisher's exact test). Clinical benefits defined as CR, PR and stable disease (no change in status for more than 24 weeks) were also higher in patients treated with letrozole (50.6%) than fadrozole (35.1%). Letrozole was significantly superior to fadrozole in terms of the dominant lesion in soft tissue, bone and viscera (P = 0.011, stratified Mantel-Haenszel test). Median time to progression was 211 days in the letrozole group and 113 days in the fadrozole group with no significant difference (P = 0.175, log-rank test). Letrozole markedly reduced the estradiol, estrone and estrone sulfate levels in peripheral blood within 4 weeks. The suppressive effect of fadrozole on these hormone levels was insufficient. Adverse drug reactions were observed in 35.9% of the patients treated with letrozole and in 39.5% of those treated with fadrozole with no significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.74, Fisher's exact test). Most of the adverse drug reactions were rated as grade 1 or 2. CONCLUSIONS: The results show letrozole at a dose of 1.0 mg once daily to be more effective in treating postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer than fadrozole at 1.0 mg twice daily, with similar safety and tolerability profiles.