Anti-inflammatory effects of perioperative intensive insulin therapy during cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Purpose: Recent studies have reported that controlling blood glucose with insulin can suppress systemic inflammation. In the present study, we evaluated how perioperative intensive insulin therapy (IIT) influences the inflammatory response in an artificial pancreas during cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Methods: We randomly divided the patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass into two groups: an IIT group (n = 13) and a conventional treatment (CT) group (n = 12).

Use of imaging agent to determine postoperative indwelling epidural catheter position.

Background: Epidural anesthesia is widely used to provide pain relief, whether for surgical anesthesia, postoperative analgesia, treatment of chronic pain, or to facilitate painless childbirth. In many cases, however, the epidural catheter is inserted blindly and the indwelling catheter position is almost always uncertain.

Methods: In this study, the loss-of-resistance technique was used and an imaging agent was injected through the indwelling epidural anesthesia catheter to confirm the position of its tip and examine the migration rate.

Age-dependent responses to renal ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Background: The incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in the elderly population has steadily increased in recent years. Functional recovery after AKI is also impaired in the elderly; however, the mechanism underlying these age-related differences is not well understood. In the present study, we assessed kidney morphology, function, and oxidative stress in young and aged rats after renal ischemia and reperfusion.

Insulin treatment of diabetic rats reduces cardiac function in a lipopolysaccharide-induced systemic inflammation model.

Background: Diabetes is a common comorbidity in patients with various medical conditions. Tight glucose control is known to improve systemic inflammation; however, whether it is effective in diabetic patients is unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine how strict glucose control affects systemic inflammation in diabetic patients.

ETS-GS, a new antioxidant, ameliorates renal ischemia-reperfusion injury in a rodent model.

Background: Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) contributes to acute kidney injury (AKI). On the other hand, anti-oxidative drugs help to prevent renal injury caused by I/R. The current study examined whether a new antioxidant, ETS-GS, inhibits reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and thereby prevents renal I/R injury in rodent models.

Cepharanthine improves renal ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.

Background: Acute renal damage has numerous causes, including renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. Due to its diverse actions, cepharanthine is used to treat many acute and chronic diseases, including pit viper bites, alopecia areata, and leucopenia in radiation therapy. In this study, we examined whether cepharanthine provides a renal-protective effect in a renal ischemia-reperfusion model.

Cepharanthine exerts anti-inflammatory effects via NF-κB inhibition in a LPS-induced rat model of systemic inflammation.

Background: Systemic inflammatory response syndromes involving sepsis continue to have extremely high mortality rates. Inflammation is difficult to control when it spreads throughout the body and often progresses into multiple organ dysfunction, eventually leading to death. Cepharanthine (CE) is a plant alkaloid that possesses bioactive properties, with various known actions.

Total synthesis of the bicyclic depsipeptide HDAC inhibitors spiruchostatins A and B, 5''-epi-spiruchostatin B, FK228 (FR901228) and preliminary evaluation of their biological activity.

The bicyclic depsipeptide histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors spiruchostatins A and B, 5''-epi-spiruchostatin B and FK228 were efficiently synthesized in a convergent and unified manner. The synthetic method involved the following crucial steps: i) a Julia-Kocienski olefination of a 1,3-propanediol-derived sulfone and a L- or D-malic acid-derived aldehyde to access the most synthetically challenging unit, (3S or 3R,4E)-3-hydroxy-7-mercaptohept-4-enoic acid, present in a D-alanine- or D-valine-containing segment; ii) a condensation of a D-valine-D-cysteine- or D-allo-isoleucine-D-cysteine-containing segment with a D-alanine- or D-valine-containing segment to directly assemble the corresponding seco-acids; and iii) a macrocyclization of a seco-acid using the Shiina method or the Mitsunobu method to construct the requisite 15- or 16-membered macrolactone. The present synthesis has established the C5'' stereochemistry of spiruchostatin B.

Activation of sensory neurons reduces ischemia/reperfusion-induced acute renal injury in rats.

Background: Prostaglandin I2 (PGI2) produced by endothelial cells improves ischemia/reperfusion-induced acute renal injury by inhibiting leukocyte activation in rats. However, the underlying mechanism(s) of increased PGI2 production is not fully understood. Activation of sensory neurons increases endothelial PGI2 production by releasing calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in rats with hepatic ischemia or reperfusion.

Olprinone reduces ischemia/reperfusion-induced acute renal injury in rats through enhancement of cAMP.

Activated leukocytes are implicated in development of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced organ injuries. Phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitors have anti-inflammatory effects by preventing cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) degradation. We examined the effects of olprinone, a specific phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitor, on I/R-induced acute renal injury model in rats.

[Cricoarytenoid arthritis diagnosed after tracheostomy in a rheumatoid arthritis patient].

A 65-year-old woman was scheduled for total knee replacement. She had been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for 22 years. She also had a history of occasional acute dyspnea, which had been diagnosed as asthmatic bronchitis.

[Bisphosphonate as an adjuvant therapy for the pain of bone metastases, 3 cases].

Pain from bone metastases limits mobility and may cause pathological fractures that can seriously impair the patient's quality of life. Conservative treatments such as orthopedic fixation, radiotherapy, and opioids sometimes fail to give satisfactory pain relief. Bisphosphonates have been reported to reduce the severity of pain from bone metastasis due to breast cancer, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma.