Palmoplantar pustulosis and pustulotic arthro-osteitis associated with multiple venous occlusion: A case report and literature review.

Pustulotic arthro-osteitis (PAO) is a rare chronic inflammatory arthropathy associated with palmoplantar pustulosis. The pathogenesis of PAO remains unclear. The most common musculoskeletal involvement in PAO is ossification of the sternoclavicular joints.

Diabetic Retinopathy as a Risk Factor Associated with the Development of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Background: The risk factors associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are still unclear. The aim of the present study was to identify such risk factors in NAFLD patients who developed HCC.

Methods: Between April 2000 and -December 2016, a total of 182 patients with NAFLD were enrolled in this study; of these, only 22 patients had HCC.

Altered expression of microRNAs in patients with pouchitis after restorative proctocolectomy.

Background And Purpose: Pouchitis is the most common long-term complication of restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis. We investigated alterations in the expression of microRNAs, noncoding RNAs that act as potent negative regulators of gene expression, in pouchitis.

Methods: The subjects of this study were 16 patients with diagnosed pouchitis and 48 patients without pouchitis after restorative proctocolectomy, performed for ulcerative colitis.

Delayed-onset enzootic bovine leukosis possibly caused by superinfection with bovine leukemia virus mutated in the pol gene.

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is the causative agent of enzootic bovine leucosis (EBL), to which animals are most susceptible at 4-8 years of age. In this study, we examined tumor cells associated with EBL in an 18-year-old cow to reveal that the cells carried at least two different copies of the virus, one of which was predicted to encode a reverse transcriptase (RT) lacking ribonuclease H activity and no integrase. Such a deficient enzyme may exhibit a dominant negative effect on the wild-type RT and cause insufficient viral replication, resulting in delayed tumor development in this cow.

An NA-deficient 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus mutant can efficiently replicate in cultured cells.

We identified a novel neuraminidase (NA)-deficient virus that was a 2009 pandemic influenza H1N1 virus mutant. The mutant virus had a deletion of 1,009 nt in the NA gene and lacked an enzymatic domain. Although the yield of the NA-deficient virus was limited, it formed large plaques when applied to MDCK cell cultures, indicating that the virus was able to spread to adjacent cells.

L233P mutation of the Tax protein strongly correlated with leukemogenicity of bovine leukemia virus.

The bovine leukemia virus (BLV) Tax protein is believed to play a crucial role in leukemogenesis by the virus. BLV usually causes asymptomatic infections in cattle, but only one-third develop persistent lymphocytosis that rarely progress after a long incubation period to lymphoid tumors, namely enzootic bovine leucosis (EBL). In the present study, we demonstrated that the BLV tax genes could be divided into two alleles and developed multiplex PCR detecting an L233P mutation of the Tax protein.

Comparative studies of human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A8 and 1A9 proximal promoters using single base substitutions.

  The nucleotide sequences of the proximal promoters of UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A8 and 1A9 genes are very similar. However, UGT1A8 and 1A9 are mainly expressed in extra-hepatic and hepatic cells, respectively. Using mutants of UGT1A8 and 1A9 proximal promoters, we revealed their critical differences in terms of promoter activity and the role of the T-repeat region (T-region) conserved in both promoters.

Phylogenetic analyses of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus in university students at Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan.

Pandemic influenza H1N1 virus (A[H1N1]pdm09) emerged in 2009. To determine the phylogeography of A(H1N1)pdm09 in a single population, 70 strains of the virus were isolated from university students or trainee doctors at Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan, between September and December 2009. The nucleotide sequences of the HA1 region of the HA genes and described phylogenetic relationships of the strains circulating among them were analyzed.

Genetic heterogeneity among bovine leukemia viruses in Japan and their relationship to leukemogenicity.

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection in cattle causes persistent lymphocytosis, and a few percent of infected animals develop lymphoid tumors, namely enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL). In this study, a 440-bp fragment of the env gene was amplified from 204 tumor samples collected from different regions of Japan and analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to determine the association of BLV with EBL. Of the seven RFLP types defined, types I, II, and III were dominant and found in 12.

Molecular epidemiology of bovine leukemia virus associated with enzootic bovine leukosis in Japan.

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection of cattle has been increasing yearly in Japan although several European countries have successfully eradicated the infection. In the present study, phylogenetic analysis on the env gene obtained from 64 tumor samples found in different regions in Japan was carried out in order to define the genetic background of BLV strains prevailing in the country. Most of the Japanese isolates were found to reside in the consensus cluster or genotype 1 of BLV strains (Rodriguez et al.

Full genomic amplification and subtyping of influenza A virus using a single set of universal primers.

Influenza A virus has eight-segmented RNA molecules as a genome and, among all strains of the virus, both ends of each segment have 13 and 12 nucleotide sequences conserved. In the present study, a simple RT-PCR method to amplify all eight segments of the virus and determine the HA and NA subtype using a single primer set based on the conserved terminal sequences has been established. This method is also capable of detecting subgenomic defective interfering RNA of the influenza A virus.

Curvature of cervical vertebra in 8020 achievers observed by lateral cephalogram.

The hypothesis of this research was that elderly people with many remaining teeth and good occlusion (8020 achievers) would be able to maintain proper head and body posture, despite aging. The purpose of this study, as a first stage, was to clarify the aging phenomenon of cervical curvature in 8020 achievers in comparison with that in young adults. Subjects consisted of twenty-eight 8020 achievers, with a mean age of 82.

Adrenomedullin/cyclic AMP pathway induces Notch activation and differentiation of arterial endothelial cells from vascular progenitors.

Objective: The acquisition of arterial or venous identity is highlighted in vascular development. Previously, we have reported an embryonic stem (ES) cell differentiation system that exhibits early vascular development using vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor-2 (VEGFR2)-positive cells as common vascular progenitors. In this study, we constructively induced differentiation of arterial and venous endothelial cells (ECs) in vitro to elucidate molecular mechanisms of arterial-venous specification.

Prospective identification of cardiac progenitors by a novel single cell-based cardiomyocyte induction.

Dissection of cardiomyocyte differentiation process at the cellular level is indispensable in the research for cardiac development and regeneration. Previously, we have established an embryonic stem cell differentiation system that reproduces early vascular development from progenitor cells that express Flk1, a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, by the combinatory application of 2-dimensional culture and flowcytometry. Here we show that cardiomyocytes can be successfully induced from a single Flk1+ cell on 2-dimensional culture, enabling the direct observation of differentiating cardiomyocytes and the prospective identification of cardiac progenitor potentials.