Right-to-left interatrial shunt in rats with progressive pulmonary hypertension.

A right-to-left interatrial shunt may prolong survival in patients with pulmonary hypertension presumably because of decompression of the right side of the heart. To test this hypothesis, 74 rats with monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension were followed up weekly with cardiopulmonary exercise testing with a metabolic treadmill system for exercise tolerance, heart rate, oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide production, and survival until subsequent or induced death 8 weeks after monocrotaline treatment. In rats with an interatrial shunt, oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide production were higher and survival was better (n = 22, 27%) than those in rats without a shunt (n = 52, 0%; p < 0.

Identification of inbred rat strains by using DNA fingerprinting method.

DNA fingerprinting method was applied to identify inbred strains of laboratory rats. By Southern blot hybridization with core sequence of minisatellite DNA as a probe, typical hypervariable patterns of DNA fingerprint were obtained in inbred rat strains. The patterns were completely different among 15 rat strains examined, and the patterns of the DNA fingerprint of samples obtained from the same strain were completely identical.

PCR sexing and developmental rate differences in preimplantation mouse embryos fertilized and cultured in vitro.

A two-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was used to determine the sex of mouse preimplantation embryos obtained from oocytes fertilized and cultured in vitro, to investigate the differences in the developmental rates of mouse embryos according to the sex. All the in vitro developed embryos could be analyzed by this method. When the embryos were classified according to the time of morula to blastocyst transition as fast-intermediate- and slow-growing embryos, a significantly high percentage (78.

Pulmonary hypertension due to tumor emboli: a report of three autopsy cases with morphological correlations to radiological findings.

Three cases of pulmonary hypertension caused by tumor emboli to the lungs are described. Two of the three cases had a clinical diagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism until surgical embolectomy, and the other had a diagnosis of primary pulmonary hypertension. Autopsy disclosed chondrosarcoma, choriocarcinoma and gastric cancer as the primary tumors, respectively.

Monocrotaline-induced pulmonary vascular disease after contralateral lung transplantation in the rat.

To test a hypothesis that reduction in pulmonary perfusion pressure and flow affect underlying vascular disease, pulmonary pathology was studied in monocrotaline-treated rats undergoing single lung transplantation. Inbred rats were treated with 40 mg/kg (group T1, n = 6) and 80 mg/kg of monocrotaline (group T2, n = 9), received a left lung isograft 2 and 4 weeks after medication, and were killed 4 and 6 weeks after single lung transplantation, respectively. For each group, rats receiving the same amount of monocrotaline (M1, M2) or vehicle (N1, N2) served as controls.

A restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) locus of rat (Rattus norvegicus) linked to the Cs-1 locus of rat linkage group XIII.

A novel restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in inbred rats was revealed by Southern blot analysis with a clone arbitrarily chosen from a rat genomic library as a probe. A clone named alpha 403 showed interstrain variations in the length of the EcoRI and HindIII fragments. The EcoRI fragments were either 0.

Effect of a partial deletion of Y chromosome on in vitro fertilizing ability of mouse spermatozoa.

The effect of a partial deletion of Y chromosome on sperm fertilizing ability was investigated through an in vitro fertilization technique. Epididymal spermatozoa of a congenic line, B10.BR-Ydel, which is characterized by a high incidence of abnormal spermatozoa, revealed a significantly lower in vitro fertilization rate (22%) than that (79%) of its control strain (B10.

[Comparison of exercise capacity evaluated by cardiopulmonary exercise test and hemodynamic parameters in patients with atrial septal defect].

We evaluated the maximal exercise tolerance using cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and investigated the relation of the hemodynamic parameters such as mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAm) and pulmonic-to-systemic flow ratio (Qp/Qs) to exercise tolerance in 18 adult patients consecutively. All the patients had atrial septal defect (ASD). Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) averaged only 21.

A polymorphism detected in a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) of the seminal vesicle secretion (SVS) IV gene in inbred rats.

The second intron of the rat SVS IV gene contains a tandem repeat region of 20-bp sequences. This region was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction to detect variations. Three alleles, characterized by amplified fragments of 750, 490, and 390 bp, respectively, were found in 24 strains examined.

An orange-shaped aortic root aneurysm in aortitis syndrome with severe aortic regurgitation.

A 57-year-old man, who had undergone aorto-coronary bypass surgery 4 years before when the shape of the ascending aorta had been normal, had a unique orange-shaped aortic root aneurysm associated with severe aortic regurgitation and congestive heart failure. Replacement of the aneurysm and the aortic valve was successfully carried out, and histopathological examination revealed that the aneurysm was caused by aortitis syndrome.

Pulmonary arterial flow-pressure characteristics in dogs--effects of hypoxia and nitroglycerin.

To investigate the effects of hypoxia and nitroglycerin on pulmonary vascular tone, multipoint mean pulmonary arterial flow-pressure (Q-P relationship) plots were constructed by producing stepwise increments of pulmonary flow with a roller pump installed in a right ventricle-pulmonary artery shunt in 12 mongrel dogs under pentobarbital sodium anesthesia. The normal Q-P relationship was convex to the pressure axis when pulmonary flow was 0-0.2 L/min, but it became linear when pulmonary flow was over 0.

Sexing of mouse preimplantation embryos by detection of Y chromosome-specific sequences using polymerase chain reaction.

Detection of genes known to be present on the mammalian Y chromosome was adapted for sexing mouse early embryos using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Sry and Zfy genes located in the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome were chosen for Y-specific target sequences, and DXNds3 sequence on the X chromosome was chosen for control. The two-step PCR method using two pairs of primers for each of the target sequences was employed for detecting the sequences.

Polymorphic microsatellite loci of the rat (Rattus norvegicus).

The EMBL and GenBank DNA databases were searched for microsatellite sequences of the rat containing dinucleotide repeats of (CA)n and (GA)n. Among those obtained, 23 sequences were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction to examine the size variation of the amplified fragment in inbred rat strains. All of the 23 microsatellite sequences varied in size among the strains tested.

Cloning of an activated human ret gene with a novel 5' sequence fused by DNA rearrangement.

By transfecting a high-Mr DNA from human stomach cancer into NIH3T3 cells, a transforming sequence that showed homology with the human ret gene was identified. The transforming sequence was found to be generated by a DNA rearrangement in the human ret proto-oncogene. This rearrangement was suggested to have occurred during the transfection procedure.

[Preliminary criteria for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension in mixed connective tissue disease].

Based on analysis of data obtained from multicenter patients with collagen diseases (83 with pulmonary hypertension(PH) and 472 without PH), preliminary criteria for the diagnosis of PH in mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) were proposed by the Research Committee for MCTD of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan. The diagnosis of PH requires four or more out of six clinical and laboratory findings, including exertional dyspnea, systolic pulsation on the left sternum, increased 2nd pulmonary sound, dilatation of the pulmonary artery on chest X-ray, right ventricular hypertrophy on the electrocardiogram, and right ventricular enlargement on the echocardiogram. Alternatively, either an increase of mean pulmonary artery pressure over 25 mmHg measured by right ventricle catheterization, or the corresponding finding on Doppler echocardiography is also valid for the diagnosis of PH.

Recurrent epicardial fibrosarcoma which arose 12 years after the first resection.

Primary malignant tumours of the heart are very rare, with an incidence of only 0.0017%-0.03% in consecutive autopsy series.