Isolation and characterization of rice phytochrome A mutants.

To elucidate phytochrome A (phyA) function in rice, we screened a large population of retrotransposon (Tos17) insertional mutants by polymerase chain reaction and isolated three independent phyA mutant lines. Sequencing of the Tos17 insertion sites confirmed that the Tos17s interrupted exons of PHYA genes in these mutant lines. Moreover, the phyA polypeptides were not immunochemically detectable in these phyA mutants.

In vitro assembly of phytochrome B apoprotein with synthetic analogs of the phytochrome chromophore.

Phytochrome B (PhyB), one of the major photosensory chromoproteins in plants, mediates a variety of light-responsive developmental processes in a photoreversible manner. To analyze the structural requirements of the chromophore for the spectral properties of PhyB, we have designed and chemically synthesized 20 analogs of the linear tetrapyrrole (bilin) chromophore and reconstituted them with PhyB apoprotein (PHYB). The A-ring acts mainly as the anchor for ligation to PHYB, because the modification of the side chains at the C2 and C3 positions did not significantly influence the formation or difference spectra of adducts.

Clarification of the active gelatinolytic sites in human ovarian neoplasms using in situ zymography.

Tissues from 26 human ovarian common epithelial tumors were examined to determine where and how gelatinolytic activity was present, in relation to tumor-stromal interaction and histologic types. For this purpose, we used in situ zymography, a newly developed technique using gelatin-coated film. Gelatinolytic activity was evident in ovarian carcinomas and in borderline tumors.

Anti-angiogenic treatment for peritoneal dissemination of pancreas adenocarcinoma: a study using TNP-470.

We established peritoneal dissemination-prone subcultures (PCI-43p3) using nude mice by a repetitive in vivo selection of intraperitoneally inoculated PCI-43, a pancreas adenocarcinoma cell line. The subcultures showed upregulated expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, but not MMP-2 in culture supernatants. They also produced increased amounts of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which was not associated with alterations in isoforms of VEGF mRNA.

Clinical and pharmacological studies on liver diseases treated with Kampo herbal medicine.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection frequently causes chronic hepatitis, which is linked to the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Most physicians who practice Kampo medicine in Japan have observed that Kampo medicine can be as effective as interferon therapy in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. In the present study, to evaluate the effect of Kampo medicine on chronic hepatitis C, clinical treatment was assessed in short-term and long-term study, and it was shown that ninjin-yoei-to (Formula ginseng compositae: TJ-108) was very effective.

Phytochrome regulation of nuclear gene expression in plants.

The photoregulation of gene expression in higher plants was extensively studied during the 1980s, in particular the light-responsive cis -acting elements and trans -acting factors of the Lhcb and rbcS genes. However, little has been discovered about: (1) which plant genes are regulated by light, and (2) which photoreceptors control the expression of these genes. In the 1990s, the functional analysis of the various photoreceptors has progressed rapidly using photoreceptor-deficient mutants, including those of the phytochrome gene family.

Glutathione and a UV light-induced glutathione S-transferase are involved in signaling to chalcone synthase in cell cultures.

UV irradiation stimulates expression of the gene encoding the key enzyme chalcone synthase (CHS), which leads to the generation of protective flavonoids in parsley cell cultures. CHS transcripts increase after 3 to 4 hr, and early genes are involved in the signal transduction to the CHS promoter. By using the fluorescent differential display technique in a large-scale screening, several early UV light-induced genes were isolated.

Expression of matrix metalloproteinases and related tissue inhibitors in the cyst fluids of ovarian mucinous neoplasms.

Objectives And Methods: The growth of an ovarian cystic neoplasm often involves its invasion into and destruction of the extracellular matrix. We examined neoplastic cysts of ovarian mucinous tumors for the presence of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs) using zymography (in situ zymography, gelatin zymography, and casein zymography) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results: Matriolytic activity was detected within the cystic contents and cytoplasm of the lining epithelial cells of the cyst by in situ zymography.

Light-induced nuclear translocation of endogenous pea phytochrome A visualized by immunocytochemical procedures.

Although the physiological functions of phytochrome A (PhyA) are now known, the distribution of endogenous PhyA has not been examined. We have visualized endogenous PhyA apoprotein (PHYA) by immunolabeling cryosections of pea tissue, using PHYA-deficient mutants as negative controls. By this method, we examined the distribution of PHYA in different tissues and changes in its intracellular distribution in response to light.

Fluorescent differential display identifies circadian clock-regulated genes in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Circadian rhythms in gene expression were first observed in plants more than 13 years ago, but the underlying mechanism controlling rhythmic gene expression is still not understood. The isolation of novel circadian clock-controlled genes (ccgs) is likely to provide new tools for studying circadian rhythms. Fluorescent differential display (FDD) was used to screen Arabidopsis thaliana mRNAs for cycling transcripts.

Characterisation of Bangladeshi Leishmania isolated from kala-azar patients by isoenzyme electrophoresis.

To identify the prevalent Leishmania species in Bangladesh, a total of nine patients aged 4-35 years, were studied; six (66.7%) of them were below 20 years of age. All the patients were clinically diagnosed to have visceral leishmaniasis; their haematological profile was in accordance with leishmaniasis and all were improved after treatment with sodium stibogluconate.

Rat extracorporeal circulation model for evaluation of systemic immunotoxicity.

We have applied a rat extracorporeal circulation (EC) model as an evaluation system for the immunotoxicity of medical devices in contact with the blood stream. Combining popular hemodialysis (HD) membranes [a non-biocompatible membrane, Cupurophane (CUP), and more biocompatible membranes, Cu-ammonium rayon (CAR) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN)] with rat EC, we evaluated the elicitation of acute and delayed immunological responses, as well as the effect of repeated EC. Acute effect markers such as the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and complement activity during EC, and delayed effect markers such as beta2-microglobulin (beta2-M), IgG, and complement 3 levels, were monitored.

Lipoid pneumonia in children: clinical and imagenological manifestations.

Background: Oil-aspiration pneumonia is still a health problem in countries where infants are forced to receive vegetable or animal oil due to traditional habits. The aim of this paper is to present clinical and imagenological characteristics of lipoid pneumonia (LP) in children and a review of the literature. Distinguishing features of and differences between other series are presented.

Use of urine samples from healthy humans, nephritis patients or other animals as an alternative to foetal calf serum in the culture of Leishmania (L.) donovani in vitro.

The effect of supplementing in-vitro cultures of Leishmania donovani with urine was investigated. The parasites were isolated from Bangladeshi patients with visceral leishmaniasis. The urine samples used were collected from healthy human donors, patients with nephrotic syndrome, diabetic nephritis (DN) or diabetes mellitus, a dog and a cow.

Elementary processes of photoperception by phytochrome A for high-irradiance response of hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis.

Elementary processes of photoperception by phytochrome A (PhyA) for the high-irradiance response (HIR) of hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis were examined using a newly designed irradiator with LED. The effect of continuous irradiation with far-red (FR) light could be replaced by intermittent irradiation with FR light pulses if given at intervals of 3 min or less for 24 h. In this response, the Bunsen-Roscoe law of reciprocity held in each FR light pulse.

Identification by large-scale screening of phytochrome-regulated genes in etiolated seedlings of Arabidopsis using a fluorescent differential display technique.

Phytochrome A (PhyA)-regulated genes in 6-d-old etiolated seedlings of Arabidopsis Landsberg erecta were identified by fluorescent differential display. To screen for PhyA-regulated genes, mRNA fingerprints of the wild type and the phyA-201 mutant were compared from samples prepared 4 h after far-red light irradiation. Approximately 30,000 bands of cDNA were displayed by fluorescent differential display, and 24 differentially expressed bands were observed.

[Nutritional therapy for ulcerative colitis].

Despite its supplementary role for a remedy of the Ulcerative Colitis, nutritional therapy performs the important role as well as medicine. In the active state, the aim of nutrition therapy is to reduce the activity of the disease. In the remission state, the aim is to keep the condition and to supply elements of nutrition which the disease causes these deficiency such as vitamins or minerals.

[Comparison of effects of verapamil and those of nicardipine on myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury: a study in an in situ rabbit model].

This study was designed to investigate whether two L-type calcium antagonists, verapamil and nicardipine reduce the myocardial necrosis (infarct size) following ischemia and reperfusion. Rabbits (n = 52) were subjected to regional myocardial ischemia by 30 min of the left anterior descending artery occlusion followed by 3 hrs of reperfusion under ketamine/xylazine anesthesia. The animals were randomly assigned to a control group, and verapamil or nicardipine treatment groups.

Rare germinal unequal crossing-over leading to recombinant gene formation and gene duplication in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Small, multigene families organized in a tandem array can facilitate the rapid evolution of the gene cluster by a process of meiotic unequal crossing-over. To study this process in a multicellular organism, we created a synthetic RBCSB gene cluster in Arabidopsis thaliana and used this to measure directly the frequency of meiotic, intergenic unequal crossing-over between sister chromatids. The synthetic RBCSB gene cluster was composed of a silent DeltaRBCS1B::LUC chimeric gene fusion, lacking all 5' transcription and translation signals, followed by RBCS2B and RBC3B genomic DNA.

Analysis of matrix metalloproteinases and related tissue inhibitors in cystic fluids of ovarian tumors.

Proteolytic activity of cystic neoplasms of the ovary appears to play a role in destruction of the extracellular matrix and tumor invasion. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the enzymatic activities reflect the degrees of tumor malignancy. The author examined the activity and quantity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of MMP (TIMPs) in cystic fluids of both benign and malignant epithelial ovarian tumors.

Intraoperative spasm of coronary and peripheral artery--a case occurring after tourniquet deflation during sevoflurane anesthesia.

A 68-yr-old man with a 9-yr history of hypertension presented for hemiglossectomy, segmental resection of the mandible, and the radial forearm free flap grafting. Intraoperatively, facial artery spasm was observed during microvascular suturing of the radial artery to the facial artery. Simultaneously, systolic blood pressure decreased from 100 to 80 torr and the ST segment elevated to 15 mm from the base line.

Genetic identification of FIN2, a far red light-specific signaling component of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Phytochrome A (PhyA) mediates most, if not all, various plant responses to far-red (FR) light. Here, we report a novel genetic mutation that impairs a variety of responses in the PhyA-signaling pathway of Arabidopsis thaliana. The mutation was isolated by screening seedlings that show reduced sensitivity to continuous far-red (FRc) light irradiation, but not to continuous red (Rc) light irradiation.

Squamous odontogenic tumor of the maxilla: report of a case.

A case of squamous odontogenic tumor (SOT) of the maxilla related to an embedded tooth in a 42-year-old Japanese woman is described. The patient felt a slight pain of her left maxilla 2 months before visiting our dental hospital. Histologically, the tumor consisted of a proliferation of round and elongated epithelial islands of well-differentiated squamous epithelium separated by a fibrous stroma.

Comparative studies of the detection rates of Leishmania parasites from formalin, ethanol-fixed, frozen human skin specimens by polymerase chain reaction and Southern blotting.

In this study, detection rates of Leishmania parasites from human skin were compared among three different types of specimens, formalin-fixed, ethanol-fixed, and frozen, by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blotting. For this purpose, we used biopsy specimens collected from 19 leishmaniasis patients and performed PCR and Southern hybridization with the probe specific for Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis complex. Among these 19, 16 specimens were from cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), one, diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis (DCL) and 2, mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) and were formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded.