Characteristics of histamine release from cultured human mast cells.

Background: The mast cell is one of the important cells in the pathogenesis of allergic disorders. However, isolating human mast cells is a laborious procedure. Recently, cultured human mast cells raised from umbilical cord blood cells have become available.

[Quick radioimmunoassay for plasma immunoreactive gastrin--application for localizing occult gastrinoma(s) during operation].

A rapid method for determining gastrin, quick gastrin, has been developed. Separation/washing procedure has been improved and can be completed within three minutes. It required only 48 minutes for the assay of 22 blood samples.

Membranocystic changes in the panniculitis of dermatomyositis.

Clinically apparent panniculitis is rare in dermatomyositis. The common histopathological findings are infiltration of lymphocytes, epithelioid cells and plasma cells in the fat lobules, along with varying degrees of fat degeneration and fibrosis. We report a 65-year-old woman with dermatomyositis who developed panniculitis with a characteristic histological change known as a membranocystic lesion.

[Adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer].

For recent 40 years, many authors reported the results of adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer including 5-fluorouracil, uracil and tegafur, mitomycin C, cytosine arabinoside. OK-432 adriamycin, methotrexate, and cis-pltatin in solitary use of combinations. It is difficult to find a standard effective adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer in these reports.

Generalized morphea with vascular involvement. A case report and disaccharide analysis of the skin glycosaminoglycans.

We report a 69-year-old man with severe generalized morphea, who showed over 80% of skin involvement, while the internal organs were not affected. We performed histological examinations and analysis of skin disaccharides constituting chondroitinase-digestible glycosaminoglycans in the center and periphery of the sclerotic lesions and the clinically uninvolved skin. In both the central and peripheral parts of the sclerotic lesions, sclerotic fibrosis and a dense perivascular cell infiltration, consistent with morphea, were seen in the entire dermis and subcutis.

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies in patients with systemic sclerosis.

Perinuclear type of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (p-ANCA) have been found in patients with periarteritis nodosa, Churg-Strauss arteritis, or pauci-immune idiopathic crescentic glomerulonephritis. Recently, the association of p-ANCA and normotensive renal failure, in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), was reported. We have studied the incidence of p-ANCA in patients with SSc and have investigated its relationship to clinical and laboratory findings.

A new method of intra-arterial regional chemotherapy with more selective drug delivery for locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Background/aims: In order to deliver the anti-cancer drugs more selectively into the cancer tissues, we have developed a new method of intra-arterial regional chemotherapy for locally unresectable cancer of the exocrine pancreas.

Materials And Methods: This method involved placing the catheters selectively into the splenic artery and/or into the gastroduodenal artery during laparotomy. Postoperatively, via the catheter, we infused 50-100 mg of Methotrexate mixed with 10 micrograms of Angiotensin-II with an intent of increasing the blood flow in the tumor tissue but decreasing that to the non-tumor tissues.

Surgical technique, curability and postoperative quality of life in an extended pancreatectomy for adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

Background/aims: In the treatment of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas, we have succeeded in both decreasing the locoregional recurrence and improving the patient's survival by adding a wide range of lymphatic and connective tissue clearance to the conventional pancreatectomy. The present paper shows the detailed techniques of this procedure and the factors associated with long-term survival to provide a better understanding of the indications and limitations.

Materials And Methods: The postoperative survival rate in association with the background factors of the tumor and the quality of life is analyzed in 62 patients who received an extended pancreatectomy of ductal carcinoma of the pancreas.

Clinical features of small hepatocellular carcinomas as assessed by histologic grades.

Background: Ninety-seven patients with small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) measuring 3 cm or less in size and three patients with adenomatous hyperplasia who underwent radical hepatic resection were examined in this study.

Methods: The lesions were classified into four groups according to the following histologic grading criteria: group A, adenomatous hyperplasia (n = 3); group B, early HCC (n = 6); group C, well-differentiated HCC (wHCC) (n = 32); and group D, moderately or poorly differentiated HCC (n = 59). The involvement factors that seemed to be important or to characterize the progression of HCC and the survival rates were compared among the four histologic groups.

Absence of a mutation of the p21/WAF1 gene in human lung and pancreatic cancers.

The expression of a negative regulator of the cell cycle, p21WAF1 protein, is trans-activated by wild-type p53, but not by the mutant protein. Therefore, mutations of the p53 and WAF1 genes may be complementary. We examined DNAs from 70 human primary lung (63 of NSCLC and 7 of SCLC) and 24 pancreatic cancers (19 primary cancers and 5 cell lines) for mutations of the WAF1 gene.

Disaccharide analysis of human skin glycosaminoglycans in sun-exposed and sun-protected skin of aged people.

The total amount of main disaccharide units of skin glycosaminoglycans was compared between sun-exposed (n = 12) and sun-protected skin (n = 14) of aged people using high performance liquid chromatography after labeling with 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone. The total amount of main disaccharide units in sun-exposed skin was comparable to sun-protected skin presumably due to the diversity of individuals. Consequently, we compared sun-exposed skin with sun-protected skin in identical individuals (n = 6).

[Clinical value of carbohydrate antigens, sialyl Lewis-x and sialyl Lewis-a in gastrointestinal cancer].

To evaluate clinical importance of the expression of sialyl Lewis-X (sLe(x)) and sialyl Lewis-a antigen (sLe(a)) in gastrointestinal cancers, we examined immunohistochemically expression of the two antigens in esophageal, gastric, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer. Expression of sLe(x) and sLe(a) were associated with several clinicopathologic features which reflect tumor aggressiveness in esophageal, gastric and colorectal cancer, but not in pancreatic cancer. In esophageal and colorectal cancer, survival rate of the patients with sLe(x) positive tumors was significantly poorer than that of the patients with sLe(x) negative tumors, while in gastric cancer that with sLe(a) positive tumors was significantly poorer than that with sLe(a) negative.

X-linked dominant chondrodysplasia punctata with decreased dihydroxyacetone phosphate acyltransferase activity.

Background: We examined an 18-month-old girl with typical clinical features of X-linked dominant chondrodysplasia punctata (CDPX2) with decreased activity of dihydroxyacetone phosphate acyltransferase (DHAP-AT), previously reported in CDPX2. On the other hand, steroid sulfatase, whose activity is deficient or decreased in X-linked ichthyosis and X-linked recessive chondrodysplasia punctata, has been reported to be normal in CDPX2, although all of these diseases have ichthyotic skin changes.

Objective: We measured the activity of DHAP-AT and steroid sulfatase of the patients fibroblasts to confirm the DHAP-AT abnormality in CDPX2.

Expression of autocrine motility factor receptor in cutaneous malignant melanoma.

Background: The autocrine motility factor receptor (AMFR), a specific receptor for AME, is considered to be related to the metastatic potential of tumor cells.

Objective: We investigated whether AMFR is expressed on cutaneous malignant melanoma cells and has any relationship to clinical stage and metastatic ability.

Methods: We performed an immunohistochemical study on 20 cases of cutaneous malignant melanoma using anti-AMFR antibody.

Flow cytometric DNA content analysis on squamous cell carcinomas according to the preceding lesions.

DNA-ploidy in primary cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas which had developed from different preceding clinical lesions was examined by flow cytometry using paraffin-embedded blocks. DNA-aneuploidy was detected in none of 15 squamous cell carcinomas arising from a burn scar. On the other hand, 12 of 26 squamous cell carcinomas arising from sun-damaged skin in the elderly, and two of four arising from chronic radiodermatitis, showed aneuploid patterns.

Treatments for second malignancies after gastrectomy for stomach cancer.

Background/aims: Metachronous primary cancers after stomach cancer were reported as a cause of late death. It is necessary to treat these second malignancies to improve the result of surgical treatment for gastric cancer.

Material And Methods: Among 3,570 patients who underwent gastrectomy during 1961-1986, 160 second primary malignancies were observed as of December of 1991.

The emergence of Sézary cells during the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

A 52-year-old man with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma presented with Sézary syndrome-like features including exfoliative erythroderma, lymphadenopathy and leukaemic change without the presence of Sézary cells. Southern blot hybridization analysis revealed T-cell receptor beta-chain gene rearrangements, both in the peripheral blood and in the lymph node. Atypical large cells with convoluted nuclei (Sézary-like cells) first appeared during combined chemotherapy.

Occupational scleroderma. A 17-year follow-up study.

Two patients with a scleroderma-like disorder induced by epoxy resins were reported from the Department of Dermatology, Gunma University School of Medicine, Japan in 1980. Here, we describe the clinical and laboratory characteristics of these patients after 17 years' follow-up from 1976 to 1993. Their systemic manifestations and indurated sclerotic skin changes disappeared within 5 years.

The role of pancreatic islets in experimental pancreatic carcinogenicity.

Our previous studies have suggested that the presence of intact islets is essential for the induction of pancreatic exocrine tumors in the Syrian hamster model. To validate this, we investigated the effect of the carcinogen, N-nitrosobis(2-oxo-propyl)amine (BOP) in hamsters, in which homologous isolated intact islets were transplanted into the submandibular gland (SMG). Freshly isolated pure islets from hamster donors were transplanted into the left SMG of 20 female host hamsters.

Measurement of skin elastic properties with a new suction device (I): Relationship to age, sex and the degree of obesity in normal individuals.

We measured skin elastic properties (distension ability, retraction ability, and the skin elasticity) of 4 different body sites, finger, hand, forearm, and chest, in 191 normal individuals by means of a new suction device and investigated the correlation of skin elastic properties with sex, site, age, and the degree of obesity. Neither sex nor the degree of obesity were correlated with skin elastic properties. The skin elastic property of the chest was significantly higher than those of the other three sites.

Enhancement of in vitro tumor-cell transcellular migration by tumor-cell-secreted endothelial-cell-retraction factor.

To investigate the factors affecting endothelial-cell retraction, we have studied the interaction of tumor cells with endothelial cells in 2 human pancreatic cancer cell lines, PSN-1 and MiaPaca-2. The extent of endothelial-cell retraction measured by the amount of intercellular junctional transport of FITC-dextran through an endothelial monolayer was increased by the addition of a conditioned medium (CM) from both cell lines, while CM from PSN-1 cells was 2 to 3 times more potent than that from MiaPaca-2 cells. After the treatment of endothelial monolayer with CM of PSN-1 cells, the ability of both PSN-1 cells and MiaPaca cells to adhere to or invade the monolayer increased.

Surgical techniques of cytology-guided pancreatectomy for occult neoplasm of the pancreas.

Background/aim: In recent years, we have succeeded in treating an occult cancer of the pancreas by making the most of cytodiagnosis for the pure pancreatic juice.

Materials And Methods: Even for the patients in whom obvious tumor was not depicted by imaging techniques, the pure pancreatic juice was collected during endoscopic retrograde pancreatography and it was cytologically examined.

Results: When cancer cell was detected, both the location of occult lesion and the range of pancreatectomy were determined by the intraoperative cytology for the pancreatic juice which was collected separately from the cranial and caudal segments (2-segmental cytology).