Cutaneous endothelial cell activation in normal skin of patients with dermatitis herpetiformis associated with increased serum levels of IL-8, sE-Selectin, and TNF-alpha.

The mechanisms that lead to the development of skin lesions in patients with dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) are not known. We hypothesized that an ongoing immune response in the gut of patients with DH would result in an increase in circulating cytokines and be associated with endothelial cell activation, creating a proinflammatory environment in the skin. Skin biopsies from the normal-appearing inner arm of 11 DH patients, with no active skin lesions, and 12 normal subjects were analyzed for E-selectin (E-sel) and ICAM-1 mRNA.

Cephalometric study of elderly with nearly intact dental arches.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the craniofacial morphology of elderly people with many remaining teeth using cephalometric analysis.

Subjects And Methods: The subjects were 30 Japanese elderly who participated in the '8020 campaign 2001' in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, organised by The Dental Association of Tokyo, as well as 30 Japanese young adults with normal occlusion. Lateral cephalograms of all subjects were analysed using the Coben method.

Selective perturbation of the intravesicular heme center of cytochrome b561 by cysteinyl modification with 4,4'-dithiodipyridine.

Cytochrome b(561) from bovine adrenal chromaffin vesicles contains two hemes b with EPR signals at g(z) = 3.69 and 3.14 and participates in transmembrane electron transport from extravesicular ascorbate to an intravesicular monooxygenase, dopamine beta-hydroxylase.

Effectiveness of vaccination strategies for infectious diseases according to human contact networks.

Mathematical modeling of infectious disease transmission aims to predict the spread of infection and the effectiveness of containment strategies. For the case of infectious diseases that transmit between human, one key factor becomes the modeling of contacts between individuals through which the disease is potentially transmitted. We review several formulations of such contacts with emphasis on the recently investigated scale-free network, and also discuss the effectiveness of vaccination strategies.

Growth inhibition by tungsten in the sulfur-oxidizing bacterium Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans.

Growth of five strains of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, including strain NB1-3, was inhibited completely by 50 microM of sodium tungstate (Na(2)WO(4)). When the cells of NB1-3 were incubated in 0.1 M beta-alanine-SO(4)(2-) buffer (pH 3.

Enhanced expression of CD69 and CD25 antigen on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells by prolactin.

Several clinical reports have suggested that prolactin (PRL) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We have investigated the influence of PRL on immune system, by evaluating the effects of PRL on the expression of CD69 and CD25 on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Human PBMCs obtained from healthy female volunteers were incubated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) in the presence or absence of various concentrations of PRL.

Whole-genome sequencing of staphylococcus haemolyticus uncovers the extreme plasticity of its genome and the evolution of human-colonizing staphylococcal species.

Staphylococcus haemolyticus is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that colonizes human skin and is remarkable for its highly antibiotic-resistant phenotype. We determined the complete genome sequence of S.haemolyticus to better understand its pathogenicity and evolutionary relatedness to the other staphylococcal species.

Existence of an iron-oxidizing bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans resistant to organomercurial compounds.

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans MON-1 which is highly resistant to Hg2+ could grow in a ferrous sulfate medium (pH 2.5) with 0.1 microM p-chloromercuribenzoic acid (PCMB) with a lag time of 2 d.

Noncompetitive inhibition by L-cysteine and activation by L-glutamate of the iron-oxidizing activity of a mixotrophic iron-oxidizing bacterium strain OKM-9.

A mesophilic, mixotrophic iron-oxidizing bacterium strain OKM-9 uses ferrous iron as a sole source of energy and L-glutamate as a sole source of cellular carbon. Uptake of L-glutamate into OKM-9 cells is absolutely dependent on ferrous iron oxidation. Thus, the Fe(2+)-dependent L-glutamate uptake system of strain OKM-9 is crucial for the bacterium to grow mixotrophically in iron medium with L-glutamate.

Existence of a tungsten-binding protein in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans AP19-3.

A tungsten-binding protein was purified from a plasma membrane preparation of the iron-oxidizing bacterium, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans AP19-3 in an electrophoretically homogenous state. The protein was composed of two subunits with apparent molecular masses of 12 and 20.7 kDa.

Volatilization and recovery of mercury from mercury wastewater produced in the course of laboratory work using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans SUG 2-2 cells.

The iron-oxidizing bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans SUG 2-2 is markedly resistant to mercuric chloride and can volatilize mercury (Hg0) from mercuric ion (Hg2+) under acidic conditions. To develop a microbial technique to volatilize and recover mercury from acidic and organic compound-containing mercury wastewater, which is usually produced in the course of everyday laboratory work in Okayama University, the effects of organic and inorganic chemicals on the mercury volatilization activity of A. ferrooxidans cells were studied.

Cytochrome c oxidase purified from a mercury-resistant strain of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans volatilizes mercury.

We suggested in our previous study that the plasma membrane cytochrome c oxidase of the mercury-resistant iron-oxidizing bacterial strain Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, SUG 202, is involved in Fe2+-dependent mercury volatilization. To study the involvement of A. ferrooxidans cytochrome c oxidase in mercury reduction, the cytochrome c oxidase was extracted from mercury-resistant and mercury-sensitive strains and purified.

Isolation and some properties of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans strains with differing levels of mercury resistance from natural environments.

Fifty iron-oxidizing bacteria isolated from natural environments were screened for resistance to mercuric ions (Hg2+). Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Funis 2-1, the strain found to show the greatest resistance to Hg2+ among the fifty isolates, gave a cell yield of 7.0 x 10(7) cells/ml after 8 d cultivation in an Fe2+-medium (pH 2.

Cytochrome b561 protein family: expanding roles and versatile transmembrane electron transfer abilities as predicted by a new classification system and protein sequence motif analyses.

Cytochrome b561 family was characterized by the presence of "b561 core domain" that forms a transmembrane four helix bundle containing four totally conserved His residues, which might coordinate two heme b groups. We conducted BLAST and PSI-BLAST searches to obtain insights on structure and functions of this protein family. Analyses with CLUSTAL W on b561 sequences from various organisms showed that the members could be classified into 7 subfamilies based on characteristic motifs; groups A (animals/neuroendocrine), B (plants), C (insects), D (fungi), E (animals/TSF), F (plants+DoH), and G (SDR2).

MCP-1 overexpressed in tuberous sclerosis lesions acts as a paracrine factor for tumor development.

Patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) develop hamartomatous tumors showing loss of function of the tumor suppressor TSC1 (hamartin) or TSC2 (tuberin) and increased angiogenesis, fibrosis, and abundant mononuclear phagocytes. To identify soluble factors with potential roles in TSC tumorigenesis, we screened TSC skin tumor-derived cells for altered gene and protein expression. Fibroblast-like cells from 10 angiofibromas and five periungual fibromas produced higher levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) mRNA and protein than did fibroblasts from the same patient's normal skin.

Association of TAP1 and TAP2 gene polymorphisms with systemic sclerosis in Korean patients.

We sought to determine whether transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) gene polymorphism is associated with susceptibility to systemic sclerosis (SSc). TAP1 and TAP2 gene polymorphisms were analyzed in 61 Korean patients with SSc and 100 ethnically matched healthy Koreans by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1 genotyping data of the patients from our previous study was used for the assessment of independent role of TAP genes to SSc susceptibility.

The genetic contribution of the TNFa11 microsatellite allele and the TNFb + 252*2 allele in Japanese RA.

Objectives: The contribution of the microsatellite polymorphisms of TNFa and TNFb, and the TNFB + 252 (TNFB) dimorphism to the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was studied among Japanese patients.

Methods: The TNFa and TNFb microsatellite polymorphisms, and the TNFB dimorphism were determined in Japanese RA patients and normal subjects using electrophoresis followed by specific PCR amplification. HLA-DRB1*04 typing was carried out by the PCR-SSCP method.

Rosmarinic acid inhibits the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in RAW264.7 macrophages.

Antioxidant action of Rosmarinic acid (Ros A), a natural phenolic ingredient in many Lamiaceae herbs such as Perilla frutescens, sage, basil and mint, was analyzed in relation to the Ikappa-B activation in RAW264.7 macrophages. Ros A inhibited nitric oxide (NO) production and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) protein synthesis induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and also effectively suppressed phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-induced superoxide production in RAW264.

Genetic contribution of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) B + 252*2/2 genotype, but not the TNFa,b microsatellite alleles, to systemic lupus erythematosus in Japanese patients.

The contribution of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) B + 252 (TNFB) dimorphism and microsatellite polymorphisms of TNFa and TNFb to the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was studied in Japanese patients. The TNFB dimorphism was determined using the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method with NcoI digestion followed by specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. TNFa and TNFb microsatellite polymorphisms were determined using the DNA sequencer and GeneScan program (Applera Corporation, Foster City, CA) followed by specific PCR amplification.

Structural comparison of ten serotypes of staphylocoagulases in Staphylococcus aureus.

Staphylocoagulase detection is the hallmark of a Staphylococcus aureus infection. Ten different serotypes of staphylocoagulases have been reported to date. We determined the nucleotide sequences of seven staphylocoagulase genes (coa) and their surrounding regions to compare structures of all 10 staphylocoagulase serotypes, and we inferred their derivations.

Functional identification of the primary motor area by corticospinal tractography.

Objective: For quick and stable identification of the primary motor area (PMA), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were acquired and corticospinal tractography was mathematically visualized.

Methods: Data sets of DTI, anatomic magnetic resonance imaging, and functional magnetic resonance imaging with finger-tapping tasks were acquired during the same investigation in 30 patients with a brain lesion affecting the motor system. Off-line processing of DTI data was performed to visualize the corticospinal tract, placing a seed area in the cerebral peduncle of the midbrain, where the corticospinal tract is densely concentrated.

Linkage disequilibrium grouping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) reflecting haplotype phylogeny for efficient selection of tag SNPs.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been proposed to be grouped into haplotype blocks harboring a limited number of haplotypes. Within each block, the portion of haplotypes is expected to be tagged by a selected subset of SNPs; however, none of the proposed selection algorithms have been definitive. To address this issue, we developed a tag SNP selection algorithm based on grouping of SNPs by the linkage disequilibrium (LD) coefficient r(2) and examined five genes in three ethnic populations--the Japanese, African Americans, and Caucasians.

Genetic characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

The genome structure of Staphylococcus aureus is analyzed. The genome is composed of two domains. The first domain, descendent from an ancestral bacterial species, contains house-keeping genes that showed highest homology to those of Bacillus species.

Magnetoencephalographic analysis of secondary bilateral synchrony.

To assess the clinical value of magnetoencephalography (MEG) in investigating the origin of secondary bilateral synchrony (SBS) in patients with partial epilepsy. MEG and simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) were recorded with a 204-channel whole-head MEG system in 2 patients. The equivalent current dipoles (ECDs) for epileptic discharges on MEG were calculated according to a single dipole model.