Publications by authors named "Okamura N"

The tau protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF-tau) were examined in 27 patients with alcohol dependence (20 demented and 7 nondemented), 36 age and dementia severity-matched patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 23 age-matched normal control subjects. The CSF-tau levels in the demented alcoholic group (alcohol-induced organic brain disorders, 25.4 +/- 10.

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Plasmid analysis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were used to study the epidemiologic relationship among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains isolated at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital. We found that 263 of 276 MRSA isolates had plasmids, which could be classified into 30 different patterns according to the number and plasmid molecular weight. Strains which harboured a single plasmid of approximately 13.

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Antihistamines are the efficacious drugs to be used for the symptomatic relief of allergic diseases. The safety issue of antihistamines is of central importance because of their widespread use in current medical practice. Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to better understand the pharmacological effects of antihistamines on the central nervous system.

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NK-104 is a novel potent inhibitor of the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase, and has been shown to be a highly effective agent in lowering blood cholesterol. In the present study, NK-104 was orally administered to Wistar rats at a dose of 0.3, 1, 3 or 010 mg/kg for 6 months for examination of toxicity.

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We studied differences between the NADPH oxidase activation pathways triggered by pervanadate, a protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor, and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), a protein kinase C activator, in guinea pig neutrophils. Previously, pervanadate has been shown to activate NADPH oxidase via the tyrosine kinase-dependent pathway (Yamaguchi et al. Arch.

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Human placental 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase (HP2K) was phosphorylated by incubation with [gamma-32P]MgATP and cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) or protein kinase C (PKC). Approximately 0.8 mol of phosphate per mol subunit of HP2K was incorporated by either PKA or PKC.

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The dihydropyrimidinase-related protein (DRP) family, originally identified in humans by their homology to dihydropyrimidinase, contains at least four members. Genes of this family, and their counterparts in other mammals and chickens, are expressed mainly in fetal and neonatal brain, suggesting that the encoded proteins have a physiological role in the development of the central nervous system. In addition, the DRP-3 gene is expressed in testis as a shorter mRNA than the brain form.

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This study attempted to measure the physical load on national high school baseball umpires during games played at Koshien stadium under extremely hot and humid conditions in the summer. Thirty-one umpires participated in this study. Thirteen of them were evaluated twice while eighteen were evaluated only once.

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We examined the influence of physical load placed on high school baseball managers during midsummer games under extremely hot and humid conditions. The factors used to determine physical load were the following: body weight, oral temperature, amount of walking, pedometer count, heart rate, and serum biochemical elements. These factors were measured before and after the games.

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A flavonoid glycoside was isolated from Anthocepharus chinensis. Its structure was elucidated by spectral data and determined to be myricetin 3-O-(4"-acetyl)-alpha-fucoside. This flavonoid glycoside and its aglycone showed potent inhibition against rat and porcine lens aldose reductase.

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The expression of the human placental-type 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase (HP2K) in various human cells and cell lines was investigated at the levels of transcription and translation. Analyses by both Northern blotting and a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed that BeWo, U-937, SupT1, H9, HeLa, HepG2, and human mononuclear cells, as well as human placental chorionic cells, expressed HP2K mRNA. All the nucleotide sequences of RT-PCR products from these cell lines were identical to that of HP2K.

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We demonstrated that high glucose reduced H2O2 scavenge activity in human vascular smooth muscle cells. In the cells exposed to high glucose, the intracellular glutathione content decreased, although the NADPH content was unchanged. The rate of uptake of cystine, which is a rate-limiting precursor of the glutathione synthesis, decreased in the high glucose group compared with the control group.

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Typing studies on 271 clinical strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from the University Teaching Hospital were conducted to obtain their serotypes, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and plasmid profiles. These strain typing data were arranged through multivariate statistical analysis by computation to classify individual strains. Plots in the scatter diagrams obtained from both principal component analysis and quantification theory type III expressed the clinical strains of P.

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The cDNA encoding a mouse homologue of porcine epididymis-specific 135kDa alpha-D-mannosidase (MAN2B2, D28521) was cloned from the mouse testis cDNA library. It was found that 1018 amino acids were coded in its open reading frame, and 62% of the amino acid sequence was identical to that of porcine MAN2B2. In the adult mouse, testis contained higher amounts of mRNA encoding the MAN2B2 homologue than the epididymis, though porcine MAN2B2 was mainly expressed in the narrow region between the caput and corpus epididymis.

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The nucleotide sequence of 1981 bp cDNA containing the entire coding region of a human placental fructose-6-phosphate,2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase was determined. The sequence encodes 469 amino acids and, based on homology to the rat testis enzyme, appears to be the testis-type isozyme expressed in placenta. The enzyme was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) by using a T7 RNA polymerase-based expression system and purified to homogeneity.

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Lactoferrin has been for the first time purified from the porcine cauda epididymal fluid as a 70 kDa protein. Both Western and Northern blot analyses show that lactoferrin is synthesized in the regions from the distal caput to the cauda epididymis and secreted into the luminal fluid. Lactoferrin is first secreted as a 75 kDa glycoprotein and its carbohydrate moieties are gradually digested to form 70 kDa protein in the cauda epididymis.

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The epididymis-specific glutathione peroxidase was purified from the porcine cauda epididymal fluid in order to analyze its enzymatic activity and roles in the epididymis. The purified protein was found to consist of four identical 23 kDa subunits. The complementary DNA encoding the 23 kDa subunit was cloned from the cDNA library of the porcine proximal caput epididymis, only where the 23 kDa subunit is expressed.

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A full-length cDNA, which encodes a human placental fructose-6-phosphate,2-kinase/ fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase, was constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli. The expressed protein, purified to homogeneity, showed a molecular weight of 58,000 by gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions, compared to the deduced molecular weight of 59,410. The N-terminal sequence of 15 amino acids coincided with that of the deduced sequence.

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We examined the afferent pathways and terminations in the thalamus from the medial vestibular nucleus (MVe) and the spinal vestibular nucleus (SpVe) with anterograde transport of Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PHAL) and retrograde transport of wheat germ agglutinin conjugated horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP). Following PHAL injection into the MVe, many anterogradely labeled fibers and terminal-like boutons were recognized in the central lateral nucleus of the thalamus. Sparse projections were found in the zona incerta, the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus and the compact region of the laterodorsal thalamic nucleus.

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A closed gas-exchange system was developed to measure gross photosynthesis and respiration discriminately and simultaneously. The system developed in this study included a high performance mass spectral analyzer for gas measurements. The gas-exchange system consisted of a 3L assimilation leaf chamber, a 1L flexible metallic bag, gas supply apparatus, and a lighting system.

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The synthesis and secretion of proteins by the boar genital tract were studied in vitro by incubating epididymal tissues with [35S]methionine and cysteine. Characterization of the major neosynthesized proteins was performed electrophoretically by one- and two-dimensional PAGE analysis, and an epididymal protein cartography was established. Some of the proteins secreted were found to be unregionalized.

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The effects of sphingoid bases, sphingosine and dihydrosphingosine, which are protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors, on NADPH oxidase were examined in a cell-free system. The bases inhibited cell-free activation of NADPH oxidase by arachidonic acid at lower concentration than N-acetylsphingosine. Thus, positive charge in the molecules may play a critical role in inhibition of the oxidase.

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