A previously healthy 22-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Spontaneous circulation was restored prior to arrival at the hospital. However, the patient's vital signs remained unstable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo investigate the diffusive properties of water in hydrogels, molecular orbital and molecular dynamics calculations of poly-,-dimethylacrylamide-water systems were performed. The results show that the mean diffusion coefficient of water drastically decreases in the middle dehydration stage. In this stage, the mobilities of water are restrained because part of the water forms hydrogen bonds to bind polymer chains due to a glass transition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: produces numerous toxins, such as toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1) and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL). We isolated community-acquired methicillin-resistant (CA-MRSA) strains producing both TSST-1 and PVL isolated from severe necrotizing pneumonia cases in a Nepali family. Detection of these CA-MRSA strains is rare in the world, and infection with these strains can take a rapidly progressive and lethal course.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEstimating nutrient consumption and administering appropriate nutritional therapy is essential for improving clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. Various equations, such as the Harris-Benedict equation, have been developed to estimate the required calories. Previous equations, however, targeted Westerners, whose physical characteristics are likely different from those of Asians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA stable two-phase sheath flow using tetrahydrofuran (THF) for an inner flow and water for an outer flow was formed in a glass capillary, and worked as a stable liquid-core/liquid-cladding optical waveguide (THF/water LLW). Although THF and water were miscible with any ratio, the length of the stable THF/water LLW at 0.9 - 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hyperinflation (HI) is performed following open endotracheal suctioning (OES), whose goals include: to stimulate a cough, recover oxygenation and improve compliance. However, it may also induce unintended consequences, including: lung stress and strain, failure to maintain high distending pressure, and subsequently cycling recruitment and derecruitment. Here, our aim was to investigate the effects of hyperinflation after repeated OES on sequential alteration of arterial oxygenation and lung injury profile using a saline lavage-induced surfactant depleted ARDS rabbit model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTetrasilane-bridged bicyclo[4.1.0]heptasil-1(6)-ene 1 was synthesized by the reduction of 1,1,2,2-tetrachlorocyclohexasilane 2 in 12% yield as red-orange crystals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The aim was to study the differences in the effectiveness of two types of endothelin (ET) receptor antagonists (selective ET-A or dual ET-A/B antagonists) on the hearts of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats (type I diabetes) at functional and biochemical/molecular levels.
Main Methods: Citrate saline (vehicle) or STZ was injected into rats. The ET-A/B dual receptor antagonist (SB209670, 1mg/kg/day) and the ET-A receptor antagonist (TA-0201, 1mg/kg/day) were then administered to these rats.
Aims: Endothelin (ET)-1 is the best known potent vasoconstrictor and has been implicated in pathogenesis of sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (AKI) in human or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced AKI in animal models. We have previously shown that ET-1 is highly up-regulated in renal tissues and in plasma after LPS administration. Here, we investigated whether landiolol hydrochloride, an ultra-short-acting beta-blocker, can play an important role in ameliorating levels of LPS-induced up-regulation of renal HIF-1α-ET-1 system and inflammatory cytokines in a rat model of endotoxemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a mediator of various physiological and pathological processes, including vascular inflammation, cell proliferation and vasoconstriction. Attenuation of ET action using ET-1 antagonists reduces pulmonary vascular leakage and inflammation in several models of lung injuries and experimental acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Based on these earlier reports, the current study investigates the patterns of ET-1 levels in circulation and pulmonary tissues in an experimental model of lavage-induced surfactant-depleted lung injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Landiolol hydrochloride, an ultra-short-acting highly cardio-selective β-1 blocker, has become useful for various medical problems. Recent studies have demonstrated that co-treatment with landiolol protects against acute lung injury and cardiac dysfunction in rats of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced systemic inflammation, and was also associated with a significant reduction in serum levels of the inflammation mediator HMGB-1 and histological lung damage. Endothelin (ET)-1, a potent vasoconstrictor, has been implicated in pathogenesis of sepsis and sepsis-induced multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Sepsis is a cluster of heterogeneous syndromes associated with progressive endotoxemic developments, ultimately leading to damage of multiple organs, including the heart. However, the pathogenesis of sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction is still not fully understood. The present study is the first to examine alterations in expression of key angiogenic signaling system mediated by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in septic heart and the effects of endothelin dual blocker (ETDB) on it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA stable liquid/liquid optical waveguide (LLW) was formed using a sheath flow, where a 15% sodium chloride (NaCl) solution functioned as the core solution and water functioned as the cladding solution (15% NaCl/water LLW). The LLW was at least 200 mm in length. The concentration distributions of the liquid core and liquid cladding solutions in the LLW system were predicted by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to validate the characteristics of the waveguide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although endotracheal suctioning induces alveolar derecruitment during mechanical ventilation, it is not clear whether repeated endotracheal suctioning exacerbates lung injuries. The present study aimed to determine whether repeated open endotracheal suctioning (OS) exacerbates lung injury compared to closed endotracheal suctioning (CS) during mechanical ventilation in an animal model of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Methods: Briefly, thirty six Japanese white rabbits were initially ventilated in pressure-controlled mode with a constant tidal volume (6 mL/kg).
Adrenaline is one of the most commonly used drugs in anesthesia, intensive care and pain medicine. This organic substance was first isolated by a Japanese scientist, Jokichi Takamine, with an ingenious technical assistance by Keizo Uenaka. Although 111 years have passed from their success, the brightness of this achievement has never faded.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe compared the recovery time from neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium combined with sugammadex versus succinylcholine during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Anesthesia was induced using propofol, followed by succinylcholine (1 mg/kg) or rocuronium (0.6 mg/kg).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 77-year-old woman visited our hospital with the chief complaint of left supraclavicular lymph node redness and swelling. Needle biopsy revealed metastatic, epithelial, undifferentiated carcinoma. However, the primary tumor remained unknown despite further thorough examinations, FDG-PET showed abnormal FDG accumulation at the lymph nodes of para-aortic and left external iliac artery area in addition to left supraclavicular lymph node.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroblastoma is a common solid tumor of children that arises from the sympathetic nervous system. Much work has consequently focused on the possibility of inducing marked cell death in neuroblastoma, and the new effective drugs are required. We have newly synthesized LB-18, closely related to lembehyne A (LB-A), a polyacetylene derived from a kind of marine sponge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report here that lysocellin, a polyether antibiotic from a streptomycete, induces G1 phase arrest in human osteosarcoma MG63 cells. Lysocellin up-regulates p21WAF1/Cip1 and down-regulates cyclin D1 at the mRNA level. In addition, cyclin D1 is down-regulated by the proteasome-dependent signal pathway in MG63 cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochim Biophys Acta
September 2005
A series of molecular pathological investigations of the molecules that stimulate the cyclin dependent kinases (CDK1, 2, 4, and 6) have led to enormous accumulation of knowledge of the clinical significance of these molecules for cancer diagnosis. However, the molecules have yet to be applied to clinical cancer diagnosis, as there is no available technology for application of the knowledge in a clinical setting. We hypothesized that the direct measurement of CDK activities and expressions (CDK profiling) might produce clinically relevant values for the diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe p73 gene encodes a protein that shares structural and functional homologies with the p53 tumor suppressor protein. To investigate the mechanism of transcriptional regulation of the p73 gene, we isolated a genomic DNA fragment spanning the 5' upstream region of the human p73 gene and characterized the promoter region. Unlike the p53 gene promoter, the human p73 gene promoter contained a putative TATA-box, and did not exhibit any extended homology to the p53 gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVitamin D(3) promotes myeloid leukemic cell lines to differentiate terminally into monocytes/macrophages. It has been reported that overexpression of the cdk inhibitor p27(Kip1) results in the differentiation of the myelomonocytic U937 cell line and that this gene is the target of vitamin D(3). To identify the sequences required for the positive regulation of p27(Kip1) transcription by vitamin D(3), a 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbnormally low levels of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27Kip1 are found frequently in human carcinomas, and these levels correlate directly with both histological aggressiveness and patient mortality. p27Kip1 is haplo-insufficient for tumor suppression. Thus, p27Kip1 may be a useful molecule for the development of cancer therapies.
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