Effective solitary hyperthermia treatment of malignant glioma using stick type CMC-magnetite. In vivo study.

Various kinds of hyperthermic treatment for malignant glioma had been inhibited due to both their incomplete feverish action and strict cooling effect of the brain. The author shows an effective results of hyperthermia for the treatment of malignant glioma in an in vivo study using stick type carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)-magnetite, a newly manufactured magnetite-product. A stick type CMC-magnetite, containing magnetite particles, was inserted into the T-9 glioma in the rat brain stereotactically, and the rats were exposed to an alternative magnetic field (AMF).

Prostate-specific antigen levels and prognosis in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer treated with low-dose dexamethasone.

Objective: The efficacy of low-dose dexamethasone (DXM) therapy in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) was evaluated.

Patients And Methods: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response and survival following DXM therapy were analyzed in 27 Japanese patients exhibiting HRPC. Concurrent therapies and antiandrogen withdrawal syndrome, which may affect PSA levels and palliative effects, were excluded from the study.

Effect of functional magnetic particles on radiofrequency capacitive heating: an in vivo study.

Specific heating of magnetic particles in radiofrequency (RF) capacitive hyperthermia and its hyperthermic effect were investigated in an in vivo study. Magnetite cationic liposomes (MCLs) were injected into a rat tumor on the femur and 8 MHz-RF capacitive heating was applied to the rat under "mild heating" conditions. Although the input power of RF capacitive heating was low under the same power conditions, the MCLs-injected tumor was heated over 43 degrees C, whereas it was only heated to 41 degrees C in the case of the rats not injected with MCLs.

Augmentation of MHC class I antigen presentation via heat shock protein expression by hyperthermia.

Heat shock proteins are recognized as significant participants in immune reactions. In this study, we have demonstrated that the cell surface presentation of MHC class I antigen was increased in tandem with increased heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) expression and the immunogenicity of rat T-9 glioma cells was enhanced by hyperthermia. T-9 cells showed growth inhibition for 24 h after the heat treatment at 43 degrees C for 1 h in vitro, but then resumed a normal growth rate.

Targeting hyperthermia for renal cell carcinoma using human MN antigen-specific magnetoliposomes.

Magnetoliposomes (MLs) conjugated with an antibody fragment to give specificity to a tumor were applied to hyperthermia for cancer. The Fab' fragment of the G250 antibody, which binds to MN antigen on many types of human renal cell carcinoma, was cross-linked to N-(6-maleimidocaproyloxy)-dipalmitoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (EMC-DPPE) in liposomal membrane. The targetability of the G250-Fab' fragment-conjugating MLs (G250-FMLs) was investigated using the mouse renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and MN antigen-presenting cell, MN-mRCC.

Heat-inducible TNF-alpha gene therapy combined with hyperthermia using magnetic nanoparticles as a novel tumor-targeted therapy.

Heat-induced therapeutic gene expression is highly desired for gene therapy to minimize side effects. Furthermore, if the gene expression is triggered by heat stress, combined therapeutic effects of hyperthermia and gene therapy may be possible. We combined TNF-alpha gene therapy driven by the stress-inducible promoter, gadd 153, with hyperthermia using magnetite cationic liposomes (MCLs).

Congenital absence of the portal vein and role of liver transplantation in children.

Background/purpose: Congenital absence of the portal vein (CAPV) is a subtype of congenital portosystemic shunt, which can cause a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations. The authors report on 4 patients with CAPV including a boy with CAPV-associated encephalopathy, which was resolved effectively by liver transplantation (LT).

Methods: The case records of 4 pediatric patients with CAPV who were referred to the author's institution between 1984 and 1999 were reviewed.

Construction of tumor-specific cells expressing a membrane-anchored single-chain Fv of anti-ErbB-2 antibody.

Cells expressing a membrane-anchored single-chain fragment variable (scFv) domain against a tumor-specific antibody were fabricated. These cells were able to bind to cells of a human colon cancer line (BM314) expressing the erbB-2 proto-oncogene. A plasmid, pMFverbB, was first constructed in which the anti-ErbB-2 scFv gene was cloned in-frame between a signal peptide sequence and the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) transmembrane domain gene to express scFv on the cell surface.

Clinicopathological study of a hilar nodule in the livers of long-term survivors with biliary atresia.

With the application of liver transplantation for patients with biliary atresia (BA), we have had the opportunity to review the clinicopathologic features of the native livers from 10 transplanted BA patients. A single large nodule at porta hepatis (hilar nodule) was noted in three of 10 patients, and an ill-defined nodule-like lesion at porta hepatis was present in two other patients. The three BA patients with hilar nodules were long-term survivors, compared to the patients with nodule-like and those without nodules.

Early prediction of long-term survival and the timing of liver transplantation after the Kasai operation.

Background/purpose: The aim of this study was to determine early prognostic indicators for the prediction of long-term survival rate and timing of the liver transplantation after the Kasai operation.

Methods: A retrospective chart study was performed on 142 patients with biliary atresia (BA). The patients were divided in a success and a failure group, according to whether the patients serum bilirubin levels returned to normal (less than 1.

Evaluation of prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus by endoscopic ultrasonography.

Background/aims: For pretherapeutic staging of squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus, endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is considered the most profitable modality because it can provide cross sectional imaging of the tumour. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between prognosis and EUS findings, especially tumour area, in squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus.

Patients/methods: A total of 113 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus underwent EUS for pretherapeutic examination at Nagoya University Hospital.

Macrophage-derived transforming growth factor-beta1 induces hepatocellular injury via apoptosis in rat severe acute pancreatitis.

Background: The mechanism of acute pancreatitis-induced hepatocellular injury is unclear. We have observed hepatocyte apoptosis in rat acute necrotizing pancreatitis. These studies were designed to determine the mediator(s) responsible for hepatocyte apoptosis and to clarify the significance of macrophages as its source.

Hepatocyte growth factor increases in injured organs and functions as an organotrophic factor in rats with experimental acute pancreatitis.

We previously reported that serum hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) levels are elevated in patients with acute pancreatitis and that pancreatitis-associated ascitic fluid (PAAF) contains cytotoxic factor(s) inducing apoptosis on Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. In this study, plasma HGF levels and HGF tissue distribution were investigated in rats with experimental acute pancreatitis, and the effects of HGF on the cytotoxic activity and apoptosis-inducing activity of PAAF also were examined. Plasma HGF levels were elevated in rats with two experimental pancreatitis models of different grades of severity.

Synthesis of an artificial glycoconjugate polymer carrying Pk-antigenic trisaccharide and its potent neutralization activity against Shiga-like toxin.

Fluorescence-labeled glycoconjugate polymers carrying carbohydrate segments of a globotriaosyl ceramide (Gb3) were synthesized and subjected to biological assays using Escherichia coli O-157 strains and Shiga-like toxins (Stx-I and Stx-II). For the fluorescence labeling, a new polymerizable fluorescent monomer with a TBMB carbonyl chromophore (Ex. 325 nm, Em.

Effect of functional magnetic particles on radiofrequency capacitive heating.

Magnetic particles (magnetite) were used to make radiofrequency (RF) capacitive hyperthermia effective to a specific site. In an agar phantom experiment, a magnetite-containing agar piece was buried in a large agar phantom and heated by an 8 MHz-RF capacitive heating device. The magnetite-containing agar piece was heated more than the magnetite-free agar phantom, and the specific adsorption rate in the phantom was increased 1.

Synergism between mild hyperthermia and interferon-beta gene expression.

In the present study, the synergistic effect of mild hyperthermia in combination with gene expression of interferon-beta (IFN-beta) was examined in vitro in the human glioma cell line U87MG. The cells transiently expressed the IFN-beta gene under the control of the mouse mammary tumor virus promoter and were then subjected to temperature elevation (41 degrees C for 1 h). In terms of the cell killing effect, the optimum scheme was obtained by transfection for 4 days before hyperthermia, i.

[Transrectal ultrasound guided transperineal systematic prostate biopsy].

We retrospectively reviewed the files of patients who had transperineally undergone a systematic six sextant prostate biopsy under guidance of transrectal ultrasound in longitudinal transsection by using Biopsy needle with the spring-roaded Biopsy gun. Of the 442 patients with suspicious glands visiting our clinic between May in 1992 and February in 1998, 486 biopsies were taken and pathological diagnosis was made to be prostate cancer in 153 (34.6%) patients, benign prostate hyperplasia in 270 and prostatitis in 19.

[Determinants of long-term outcome for operative survivors of acute aortic dissection].

Predictability of aorta-related complications and survival was examined in 79 operative survivors of acute aortic dissection. Follow-up was 94.9% complete and totaled 458 patient-years.

Antitumor immunity induction by intracellular hyperthermia using magnetite cationic liposomes.

Induction of antitumor immunity to T-9 rat glioma by intracellular hyperthermia using functional magnetic particles was investigated. Magnetite cationic liposomes (MCLs), which have a positive surface charge, were used as heating mediators for intracellular hyperthermia. Solid T-9 glioma tissues were formed subcutaneously on both femurs of female F344 rats, and MCLs were injected via a needle only into the left solid tumors (treatment side).