Publications by authors named "Shoji Iijima"

An 18-year-old woman was admitted because of sore throat and pain in the epigastric region. On admission, she presented with swollen tonsils and hepatosplenomegaly. Blood examinations revealed the presence of atypical lymphocytes, liver damage and anti-VCA IgM and IgG antibodies.

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Expression of aquaporin (AQP) 4 in the surface membranes of skeletal myofibers is well established; however, its functional significance is still unknown. The alterations of AQP4 expressions in dystrophic muscles at RNA and protein levels have been reported in various dystrophic muscles such as dystrophinopathy, dysferlinopathy, and sarcoglycanopathy. We are interested in the relationship between the severity of dystrophic muscle degeneration and the expression of AQP4.

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One of the most important physiological roles of brain astrocytes is the maintenance of extracellular K(+) concentration by adjusting the K(+) influx and K(+) efflux. The inwardly rectifying K(+) channel Kir4.1 has been identified as an important member of K(+) channels and is highly concentrated in glial endfeet membranes.

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Neurologic manifestations, such as myoclonus, asterixis, seizures and altered level of consciousness, may be induced in patients with impaired renal function receiving β-lactam antibiotics, which stem in part from drug accumulation because of altered pharmacokinetics. Because of its long half-life and easy penetration into the cerebrospinal fluid, the third generation cephalosporin, ceftriaxone (CTRX), is often chosen to treat patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Here, the authors describe 4 patients with ESRD complicated with bacterial infection and choreoathetosis after the administration of CTRX.

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Progressive muscular dystrophies are genetic diseases with various modes of transmission. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is caused by the defect of dystrophin, and Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD) is caused by an abnormal fukutin gene leading to the glycosylation defect of alpha-dystroglycan. Dystrobrevin is one member of the dystrophin glycoprotein complex and its binding partners include dysbindin, syncoilin, and beta-synemin (desmuslin).

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The examination was performed whether aquaporin (AQP) 9 is expressed in normal skeletal muscle at mRNA and protein levels. Gel electrophoresis of the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) product of total RNA samples of human normal muscles by oligonucleotide primers for human AQP9 showed a band of 221 basepairs, which corresponded to the basepair length between two primers of AQP9. The nucleotide sequence of RT-PCR product coincided with that of human AQP9.

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Dysbindin was first identified by the yeast two hybrid assay as a binding partner of dystrobrevin which is a cytoplasmic member of dystrophin glycoprotein complex. Immunolocalization of dystrobrevin in the astrocyte endfeet and endothelial cells in the rat cerebellum was reported. Therefore, we were interested in the expression and localization of dystrobrevin binding protein dysbindin in the mouse brain capillary wall and its surrounding astroglial endfeet.

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