Distribution and diversity of thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria within a Cu-Pb-Zn mine (Toyoha, Japan).

The distribution and diversity of thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria at the Cu-Pb-Zn Toyoha underground mine, Japan, were investigated using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene, and sequence analysis of the dissimilatory sulfite reductase gene. Hydrothermal waters from different boreholes penetrating the Cu-Pb-Zn sulfide veins were collected and concentrated with a sterile filter (pore size: 0.2 mum) at sites A (64 degrees C), B (71 degrees C), and C (48 degrees C).

[Determination of medullasin levels for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis].

Medullasin levels in granulocytes of patients with neurological diseases and healthy volunteers were determined by the enzyme immunoassay using mouse monoclonal antibodies against human medullasin and o-phenylenediamine-H2O2 as the detection system of the enzyme activity. One hundred twenty-one out of 159 patients with multiple sclerosis (76.1%) showed positive results (above means of normals + 2SD) in this test, while only 16.

Induction of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) expression in rat brain after focal ischemia/reperfusion.

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), a glycolytic enzyme, has been recently identified to be involved in the initiation of neuronal apoptosis. To investigate the serial changes and cellular localization of GAPDH expression, and its role in ischemia/reperfusion-induced neuronal apoptosis, the authors analyzed immunohistochemically brain areas of rats subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and reperfusion. Nuclear overexpression of GAPDH was noted in the ischemic core area after 2 hours of MCAO without reperfusion.

Effects of gradual bone lengthening on the rabbit tibial nerve.

Little is known about the effect of gradual bone lengthening on peripheral nerves. In the present study, an external fixation device was applied to the rabbit tibia, which was then divided. After seven days, the tibia was subjected to 0.

Combination chemotherapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma complicated by major portal vein thrombosis.

Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have a poor prognosis, and the development of new therapeutic strategies is necessary. Here we report the efficacy of combination chemotherapy in our biochemical modulation. Synergistic effects of interferon-alpha-2b on 5-fluorouracil or cisplatin were demonstrated in Huh7 cells.

An AAV-derived Apaf-1 dominant negative inhibitor prevents MPTP toxicity as antiapoptotic gene therapy for Parkinson's disease.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector delivery of an Apaf-1-dominant negative inhibitor was tested for its antiapoptotic effect on degenerating nigrostriatal neurons in a 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) model of Parkinson's disease. The wild-type caspase recruitment domain of Apaf-1 was used as a dominant negative inhibitor of Apaf-1 (rAAV-Apaf-1-DN-EGFP). An AAV virus vector was used to deliver it into the striatum of C57 black mice, and the animals were treated with MPTP.

Polymorphism of the lipoprotein lipase gene and risk of atherothrombotic cerebral infarction in the Japanese.

Background And Purpose: Lipid and lipoprotein abnormalities have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ischemic cerebrovascular disease and atherosclerosis. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) plays an important role in plasma lipoprotein metabolism. Several studies have recently reported the presence of a relationship between Ser447Stop mutation of LPL and coronary artery disease.

Adenomyomatosis of the papilla of Vater: a case illustrating diagnostic difficulties.

Aims: To describe the extremely rare case of an adenomyoma of the papilla of Vater.

Case Report: A 42-year-old woman was hospitalized for epigastralgia and high fever. The clinical presentation and endoscopic, biochemical, and radiologic findings led to the diagnostic impression of a dysfunction of the papilla of Vater.

Importance of achieving complete necrosis during the first treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma to prevent bone metastasis: a prospective study.

Background And Aims: Recent advances in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have changed the importance of bone metastasis during the follow up of such patients. In the present study, we investigated risk factors for bone metastasis after treatment for HCC.

Methods: Two hundred and two patients with HCC were diagnosed as free of bone metastasis by technecium 99m-methylene diphosphonate bone scintigraphy and were followed prospectively after treatment of the primary lesions (follow-up period 2-146 months; median 20 months).

Asymmetric cortico-cortical inhibition in patients with progressive limb-kinetic apraxia.

Objectives: To evaluate the activity of cortico-cortical (intracortical) inhibitory circuits within the motor cortex in patients with progressive asymmetric limb-kinetic apraxia.

Materials And Methods: We studied 4 patients with progressive limb-kinetic apraxia whose clinical diagnosis was corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and 7 control subjects. Cortico-cortical inhibition was measured using the technique of double pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation over the motor cortex.

Determination of medullasin levels for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Objectives: To obtain a simple and reliable clinical parameter for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis among patients with neurological diseases.

Patients And Methods: Heparinized peripheral blood was obtained from patients with multiple sclerosis and those with non-inflammatory neurological diseases and healthy volunteers. A new enzyme immunoassay method determining medullasin levels in human granulocytes was developed by using mouse monoclonal antibody against medullasin.

Accumulation of 4-hydroxynonenal-modified proteins in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons precedes delayed neuronal damage in the gerbil brain.

It has been proposed that reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation have a role in the delayed neuronal death of pyramidal cells in the CA1 region. To explore the in situ localization and serial changes of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal-modified proteins, which are major products of membrane peroxidation, we used immunohistochemistry of the gerbil hippocampus after transient forebrain ischemia with or without preconditioning ischemia. The normal gerbil hippocampus showed weak immunoreactivity for 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal-modified proteins in the cytoplasm of CA1 pyramidal cells.

[A 73-year-old woman with familial Parkinson's disease].

We report a 73-year-old Japanese woman with familial Parkinson's disease. The patient was well until her 67 years of the age, when she noted rest tremor in her right hand. Soon after her gait became short stepped.

Adrenal insufficiency due to metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.

A 73-year-old man with general malaise and nausea following a common cold diagnosed by a local physician was found to have multiple hepatocellular carcinomas with enlarged bilateral adrenal glands, combined with adrenal insufficiency. Hydrocortisone replacement improved the symptoms and laboratory findings. Autopsy findings revealed that each adrenal gland was completely replaced by the tumor measuring 11 cm in diameter, and no adrenal tissue was recognized.

Interferon-alpha modulates resistance to cisplatin in three human hepatoma cell lines.

We investigated the expression of the drug resistance-related genes, multidrug resistance gene 1 (MDR1), multidrug resistance associated protein gene (MRP), and the DNA topoisomerase IIalpha, DNA topoisomerase IIbeta, and glutathione-S-transferase pi gene (GST-pi) in three human hepatoma cell lines (HepG 2, HuH 7, SK-Hep-1) with or without drug treatment with interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and cisplatin (CDDP), by a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method and a competitive PCR method. The signals of the MDR1, MRP, topoisomerase IIalpha, and topoisomerase IIbeta genes in HepG2 were weakened when IFN-alpha was added to CDDP. In SK-Hep-1, the administration of CDDP alone increased the signals of MDR1 while the addition of IFN-alpha decreased the signals, and the signals of GST-pi were decreased by IFN-alpha plus CDDP.

[Primary progressive limb-kinetic apraxia: a case report with an electrophysiological study].

We report a 53-year-old right handed woman with a 5-year history of slowly progressive clumsiness of her right hand. Neurologic symptoms was otherwise unremarkable except for mild dysarthria. Brain CT and MRI revealed a focal atrophic change in the left precentral gyrus.

Glucose metabolism in cholinoceptive cortical rat brain regions after basal forebrain cholinergic lesion.

To address the question whether the changes in cortical glucose metabolism observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease are interrelated with, or consequences of, basal forebrain cholinergic cell loss, an experimental approach was employed to produce cortical cholinergic dysfunction in rat brain by administration of the cholinergic immunotoxin 192IgG-saporin. [14C]D-glucose utilization in brain homogenates, D-glucose-displaceable [3H]cytochalasin B binding to glucose transporters (GLUT). Northern and Western analyses, as well as in vivo [14C]2-deoxyglucose autoradiography were used to quantify the regional glucose metabolism.

Simple and sensitive analysis of nereistoxin and its metabolites in human serum using headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A simple method for the analysis of nereistoxin and its metabolites in human serum using headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is developed. A vial containing a serum sample, 5M sodium hydroxide, and benzylacetone (internal standard) is heated to 70 degrees C, and an SPME fiber is exposed for 30 min in the headspace of the vial. The compounds extracted by the fiber are desorbed by exposing the fiber in the injection port of the GC-MS.

Gastrointestinal amyloidosis secondary to hypersensitivity vasculitis presenting with intestinal pseudoobstruction.

A 22-year-old woman developed sudden hepatic encephalopathy and severe intestinal bleeding. She was diagnosed with acute fatty liver and hypersensitivity vasculitis and was successfully treated with whole plasma exchange, methylprednisolone pulse therapy, and transcatheter arterial embolization. Twenty-seven months later, she began complaining of lower abdominal fullness, tenderness, and nausea and vomiting.

Colocalization of Bcl-2 and 4-hydroxynonenal modified proteins in microglial cells and neurons of rat brain following transient focal ischemia.

Bcl-2 has a role in suppressing the production of reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation. To explore the in situ localization of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE)-modified proteins and the Bcl-2 oncoprotein, we used double immunofluorescence labeling and confocal imaging in the rat brain after 3 h of middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion followed by reperfusion. Immunoreactivity for HNE or Bcl-2 was not detected at 1 h, but appeared in some intact neurons in the boundary between the infarcted and non-infarcted zones at 12 h.

[An 81-year-old woman with progressive motor disturbance, extrapyramidal features, dementia, and oculomotor palsy].

We report an 81-year-old woman who presented with motor disturbance in her right hand which was followed by parkinsonism, dementia, and supranuclear gaze palsy. She was well until her age of 73 (1989) when she had an onset of difficulty in using her right hand; she did not have weakness. She also developed small step gait.

Effects of lidocaine and diltiazem on ventricular tachyarrhythmia and dispersion of conduction during severe myocardial ischemia in canine hearts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of lidocaine and diltiazem on ventricular tachyarrhythmia and dispersion of conduction during severe myocardial ischemia in dogs. Myocardial ischemia was produced by a 10-min occlusion of the left anterior descending artery by the retrograde blood flow technique. Saline, lidocaine, and diltiazem were infused intravenously before and during occlusion in groups A (n = 16), B (n = 22) and C (n = 13), respectively.