Pediococcus lolii sp. nov., isolated from ryegrass silage.

A Gram-positive, coccus-shaped, lactic acid bacterium, strain NGRI 0510Q(T), was isolated from ryegrass silage produced in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The cell is non-spore-forming, non-motile, and occurs in pairs or tetrads. The strain is homofermentative and produces d- and l-lactic acid from glucose.

Repair of huge incisional hernias intentionally made during infantile living donor liver transplantation.

Background And Purpose: In some small infants who are transplanted with a large-for-size graft by living donor liver transplantation, an incisional hernia is intentionally made to decrease the tension on the graft. The procedure and timing for repair of this type of hernia were retrospectively evaluated.

Patients And Methods: Repair was carried out in 3 patients at 4 to 11 years after living donor liver transplantation.

Stimulation of expression of a silica-induced protein (Sip) in Thermus thermophilus by supersaturated silicic acid.

The effects of silicic acid on the growth of Thermus thermophilus TMY, an extreme thermophile isolated from a siliceous deposit formed from geothermal water at a geothermal power plant in Japan, were examined at 75 degrees C. At concentrations higher than the solubility of amorphous silica (400 to 700 ppm SiO(2)), a silica-induced protein (Sip) was isolated from the cell envelope fraction of log-phase TMY cells grown in the presence of supersaturated silicic acid. Two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed the molecular mass and pI of Sip to be about 35 kDa and 9.

An unusual cause of sciatic pain as a result of the dynamic motion of the obturator internus muscle.

Background Context: It has been reported that compression of the sciatic nerve because of any cause, including endometriosis, piriformis syndrome, abscess, tumor, adjoining uterus provoke sciatic pain. Some of these pathophysiologies have been diagnosed clinically and sometimes by exclusion.

Purpose: To discuss the clinical features of sciatic neuropathy under the belief that dynamic motion of the obturator internus muscle and tendon should be included in the differential diagnosis of sciatic neuropathy.

The strategy of immune globulin resistant Kawasaki disease: a comparative study of additional immune globulin and steroid pulse therapy.

Background: We compared the clinical utility of additional intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) therapy with the clinical utility of steroid pulse therapy in patients with IVIG-resistant Kawasaki disease.

Methods: We enrolled 164 patients with Kawasaki disease who were treated with a single dose of IVIG (2 g/kg) and aspirin (30 mg/kg per day). Twenty-seven of these patients (16%) were resistant to the initial IVIG treatment.

Parathyroid carcinoma with anaplastic feature: association of a p53 gene mutation with anaplastic transformation.

Parathyroid carcinoma is a rare neoplasm that accounts for only 1-3% of cases of primary hyperparathyroidism. Parathyroid carcinoma is a well-differentiated tumor that is sometimes difficult to differentiate histopathologically from its benign counterpart, parathyroid adenoma. The molecular mechanism of parathyroid carcinogenesis remains unknown, and investigators have reported that abnormalities of the p53 gene do not play a significant role in parathyroid carcinogenesis, unlike in other human malignancies.

Peripheral quantitative computed tomography is useful to monitor response to alendronate therapy in postmenopausal women.

A forearm fracture (Colles' fracture) is often the first sign of osteoporosis and may suggest underlying skeletal fragility. Therefore, establishment of a more accurate and reliable method for the measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) at the distal radius would be beneficial for patients who suffer from osteoporosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) to monitor the response to alendronate therapy at the distal radius in early postmenopausal Japanese women.

Selective recognition of unnatural imidazopyridopyrimidine:naphthyridine base pairs consisting of four hydrogen bonds by the Klenow fragment.

In this work, we investigated how thermally stable ImO(N):NaN(O) and ImN(O):NaO(N) pairs are recognized by the Klenow fragment (KF). As a result, these complementary base pairs, especially the ImN(O):NaO(N) pair, were recognized selectively due to the four hydrogen bonds between the nucleobases and the shape complementarity of the Im:Na pair similar to the purine:pyrimidine base pair.

Thromboangiitis obliterans with multiple large vessel involvement: case report and analysis of immunophenotypes.

Thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO, Buerger's disease) is an idiopathic, recurrent, segmental, nonatherosclerotic, inflammatory, occlusive vascular disease with a poorly understood pathogenesis. Intestinal or multi-organ involvement is rare. Recent immunohistochemical analyses of ordinary TAO have indicated an inflammatory and immunologic pathogenesis.

Induction of differentiation in k562 cell line by nicotinic acid-related compounds.

Nicotinic acid and nicotinamide belong to the water-soluble vitamins, and they have many physiological and pharmacological functions in various organisms. In this study, we investigated the differentiation-inducing ability of nicotinic acid-related compounds in chronic myelogenous leukemia K562 cell line. Proliferation of K562 leukemia cells was inhibited by several nicotinic acid-related compounds.

Structure-photodynamic effect relationships of 24 glycoconjugated photosensitizers in HeLa cells.

The photodynamic effect of the glycoconjugated photosensitizer library containing 16 glycoconjugated 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrins and 8 glycoconjugated 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylchlorins were examined in HeLa cells, and analyzed by two approaches, namely, physiological properties (cellular uptake and reactive oxygen species (ROS)) and structural features of glycoconjugated photosensitizers. All glycoconjugated photosensitizers showed no cytotoxicity in the dark at a concentration of 5 muM. The photocytotoxicity profiles poorly related to the amount of cellular uptake of the photosensitizers.

Biliary reconstruction for infantile living donor liver transplantation: Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy or duct-to-duct choledochocholedochostomy?

Hepaticojejunostomy is a standard biliary reconstruction method for infantile living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), but choledochocholedochostomy for infants is not generally accepted yet. Ten pediatric recipients weighing no more than 10 kg underwent duct-to-duct choledochocholedochostomy (DD) for biliary reconstruction for LDLT. Patients were followed up for a median period of 26.

Quantitative assessment of pulmonary vascular resistance and reactivity in children with pulmonary hypertension due to congenital heart disease using a noninvasive method: new Doppler-derived indexes.

We assessed the usefulness of transthoracic Doppler-derived indexes obtained in the proximal pulmonary artery (PA) branch for estimating pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) in 45 children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and 23 normal control subjects. The acceleration time, inflection time (InT), deceleration index, and peak velocity, which were measured from the systolic PA flow velocity curve obtained at the sites of the main PA, and right and left PA, were compared with the PVR in patients with CHD. In addition, changes in either Doppler-derived indexes or PVR during 100% oxygen administration were compared in 22 patients showing a baseline PVR >or=4.

Nonviral retrograde gene transfer of human hepatocyte growth factor improves neuropathic pain-related phenomena in rats.

Peripheral nerve injury occasionally causes chronic neuropathic pain with hyperalgesia and allodynia. However, its treatment is difficult. Here, we used a chronic constriction injury (CCI) model in rats to investigate the effects on experimental neuropathic pain of the human hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene delivered into the nervous system by retrograde axonal transport following its repeated intramuscular transfer, using liposomes containing the hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ).

Pulmonary localized AA type amyloidosis with cyst-like structures and marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of the MALT type coexisting independently in the left upper lung.

A 77-year-old man was found to have an abnormal shadow on chest X-ray. Chest CT indicated four lesions in both lungs. One was located in the left S1+2.

YIPF5 and YIF1A recycle between the ER and the Golgi apparatus and are involved in the maintenance of the Golgi structure.

Yip1p/Yif1p family proteins are five-span transmembrane proteins localized in the Golgi apparatus and the ER. There are nine family members in humans, and YIPF5 and YIF1A are the human orthologs of budding yeast Yip1p and Yif1p, respectively. We raised antisera against YIPF5 and YIF1A and examined the localization of endogenous proteins in HeLa cells.

Solitary peripheral ciliated glandular papillomas of the lung: a report of 3 cases.

We report 3 cases of solitary papillomas located in peripheral regions of the lung that are extremely rare in the literature. The patients were 75-year-old and 72-year-old men and a 53-year-old woman. One patient complained of recurrent hemoptysis.

3-D thermodynamic analysis of superhydrophobic surfaces.

Some microtextured surfaces strongly repel water. In particular, surfaces with contact angle (CA) higher than 150 degrees are called superhydrophobic surfaces and many studies to obtain such surfaces have been reported. However, none of them could be a guide to achieve superhydrophobicity and the thermodynamic mechanisms are not well understood.

Decrease in prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection during a 10-year period in Brazilian children.

Background: Decreasing prevalence of H pylori infection has been reported in some countries.

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in a 10-year period in children submitted to upper digestive endoscopy.

Methods: It was a retrospective observational study.

A synthetic peptide corresponding to residues 301-320 of human Wnt-1 promotes PC12 cell adhesion and hippocampal neural stem cell differentiation.

Wnt signaling cascades play a crucial role in the maintenance of stem cell niches in many tissues as well as in embryonic patterning and cell-fate determination. Wnt signaling pathways have been well studied; however, the precise binding mechanism of Wnt protein to its receptor has not yet been clarified. Here we show the design and synthesis of seven novel peptide candidates for a receptor-binding site of human Wnt-1 based on its hydrophilicity and beta-turn profiles.

Expression of occludin and claudins 1, 3, 4, and 7 in urothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract.

The contacts between epithelial cells are maintained mainly by adherens junctions and tight junctions (TJs). However, the role of TJ proteins in cancer is not well understood. We studied the expression of occludin and 4 claudins to assess their importance in the progression of urothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract (UC-UUT).