Metyrosine-associated endocrinological changes in pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma.

Objective: Metyrosine (alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine) effectively reduces catecholamine levels in patients with pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma. However, improvements in physiological and metabolic parameters and changes in endocrine function associated with metyrosine administration should be validated in comparison to surgery. This study was performed to confirm the effects of metyrosine on the physiological, metabolic, and endocrinological functions of patients with pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma in the perioperative period.

Effects of Elobixibat, an Inhibitor of Ileal Bile Acid Transporter, on Glucose and Lipid Metabolism: A Single-arm Pilot Study in Patients with T2DM.

Purpose: The ileal bile acid transporter inhibitor elobixibat was recently approved in Japan for use in the treatment of patients with chronic constipation. Elobixibat has been associated with increased plasma glucagon-like peptide 1 level through Takeda G protein receptor 5, which is a membrane receptor of bile acids. The present study assessed the metabolic effects of elobixibat in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)-related constipation.

Thyroid-related ophthalmopathy development in concurrence with growth hormone administration.

Background: Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor and local infiltrate lymphocytes have been considered as major pathological factors for developing thyroid-related ophthalmopathy. Overexpression of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) receptor has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for refractory patients. However, the relationship between activation of growth hormone (GH)/IGF-I receptor signaling and development or exacerbation of thyroid ophthalmopathy has not been elucidated.

Masked Diabetes Insipidus Hidden by Severe Hyponatremia: A Case of Pituitary Metastasis of Lung Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND Hyponatremia is an electrolyte disorder frequently encountered by clinicians. Secondary adrenal insufficiency due to pituitary metastatic tumors should be considered as an alternative diagnosis when clinicians encounter patients with lung cancer who demonstrate hyponatremia. However, masked central diabetes insipidus should also be considered to prevent critical dehydration when glucocorticoid replacement therapy will be initiated.

[A Case of Bacteremia Which Followed a Urinary Tract Infection by Oligella urethralis].

An 82-year-old bedridden man with sequelae from a cerebral infarction was admitted to a welfare institution for the elderly. He developed a high fever and hematuria and was prescribed levofloxacin for the treatment of a suspected urinary tract infection. Although his condition improved, the symptoms subsequently recurred; therefore, levofloxacin was again administered.

Pleural metastasis of thyroid carcinoma diagnosed by thoracoscopy under local anesthesia.

A 79-year-old male patient with no symptoms was referred to us with incidentally detected pleural effusion and nodules. He had previously been diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and had undergone left subtotal thyroidectomy 12 years before his referral. Four years after the operation, he experienced a relapse limited to the cervical lymph node and was treated with neck dissection.

Generation of Bradyrhizobium japonicum mutants with increased N2O reductase activity by selection after introduction of a mutated dnaQ gene.

We obtained two beneficial mutants of Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA110 with increased nitrous oxide (N(2)O) reductase (N(2)OR) activity by introducing a plasmid containing a mutated B. japonicum dnaQ gene (pKQ2) and performing enrichment culture under selection pressure for N(2)O respiration. Mutation of dnaQ, which encodes the epsilon subunit of DNA polymerase III, gives a strong mutator phenotype in Escherichia coli.

DNA-binding specificity, transcriptional activation potential, and the rin mutation effect for the tomato fruit-ripening regulator RIN.

The RIN gene encodes a putative MADS box transcription factor that controls tomato fruit ripening, and its ripening inhibitor (rin) mutation yields non-ripening fruit. In this study, the molecular properties of RIN and the rin mutant protein were clarified. The results revealed that the RIN protein accumulates in ripening fruit specifically and is localized in the nucleus of the cell.

[A case of meningeal carcinomatosis from lung cancer successfully treated with aggressive multimodal therapy].

A 44-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of brain metastasis and intrapulmonary exacerbation of lung adenocarcinoma. Systemic chemotherapy (PAC + CBDCA) was administered, but neurological symptoms (muscle weakness of limbs and disorientation) appeared. Lumbar puncture and enhanced MRI of lumber vertebrae revealed meningeal carcinomatosis.

[Pseudotumor by asymptomatic pulmonary infarction diagnosed by video-assisted thoracic surgery].

Two cases of asymptomatic pulmonary infarction were diagnosed by open lung biopsy with video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). Case 1: A pulmonary nodule in right S8b was pointed out in a 62-year-old man undergoing hemodialysis on chest x-ray film and CT. Case 2: A 50-year-old woman had undergone left mastectomy for mammary cancer 3 years previously and total hip replacement 1 year before.

Tracheal stenosis caused by retrosternal dislocation of the right clavicle.

A 17-year-old woman was admitted to our institution because of tracheal stenosis. She had undergone tracheostomy after a traffic accident, but the stenosis had persisted. Chest computed tomography showed retrosternal dislocation of the right sternoclavicular joint and compression of the trachea by the medial head of the right clavicle.

Ethylene biosynthesis regulation in tomato fruit from the F1 hybrid of the ripening inhibitor (rin) mutant.

We have previously shown a significant decrease in the ethylene production in tomato fruit from the RIN/rin genotype. In this present study, we evaluated the amount of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) and the gene expression and enzymatic activities of ACC synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO) to find which type of regulation influenced this low ethylene production. The results suggest that the decreased ethylene production was due to transcriptional regulation of the ACS and ACO genes by the heterozygous effect of the rin gene.

Reduction of allergenic proteins by the effect of the ripening inhibitor (rin) mutant gene in an F1 hybrid of the rin mutant tomato.

The ripening inhibitor (rin) mutant tomato yields non-ripening fruit, and the rin hybrid fruit (RIN/rin) shows an intermediate phenotype between the wild and mutant fruit, that is, red-ripe and extended shelf life. We found by a microarray analysis that the genes encoding possible allergenic proteins were expressed at a significantly lower level in the rin hybrid fruit than in the wild-type fruit. These allergenic proteins, which were beta-fructofuranosidase and polygalacturonase 2A (PG-2A), were confirmed to accumulate at a lower level in the rin hybrid fruit than in the wild-type fruit.