Enhanced expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in human skin epidermal cancer cells: evidence for growth suppression by inhibiting COX-2 expression.

Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 is one of the rate-limiting enzymes in the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins and other eicosanoids. Recent studies have shown enhanced expression of COX-2 in cancer cells of several tissues. We investigated the expression of COX-2 and prostaglandin (PG) E((2)) production in two human skin epidermal cancer cell lines: cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, HSC-5, and eccrine carcinoma, EcCa.

Sorsby's fundus dystrophy in two Japanese families with unusual clinical features.

Purpose: To describe two Japanese families with Sorsby's fundus dystrophy (SFD) with unusual clinical features.

Methods: Two families from Kagoshima Prefecture with senile-onset macular dystrophy were examined. Three affected individuals through three successive generations of one family and three affected siblings in another family were examined and followed.

[Introduction to genetics in ophthalmology. Value of family studies].

This paper reviews the author's personal experience with genetic eye diseases and discusses the significance of family studies in providing key information for the advancement of molecular research. CHOROIDEREMIA: This disease has long been known as an X-linked progressive tapetoretinal degeneration, but it was first described in Japan in 1974 after finding asymptomatic fundus changes in heterozygous female carriers that are compatible with X chromosomal inactivation. Mutations in the disease-causing gene (REP-1) provide a clue to the diagnosis and pathophysiology of the disease.

A longitudinal study of cycloplegic refraction in a cohort of 350 Japanese schoolchildren. Anisometropia.

The intereye difference of cycloplegic refraction was determined in a cohort of 350 rural Japanese schoolchildren aged 6 to 11 years. The intereye spherical difference remained statistically unchanged throughout 5 years, with mean value ranging from 0.21 to 0.

A longitudinal study of cycloplegic refraction in a cohort of 350 Japanese schoolchildren. Cycloplegic refraction.

We performed a 5 year longitudinal study of cycloplegic refraction in a cohort of 350 Japanese schoolchildren from 6 to 11 years of age in a rural area of southwestern Japan. The spherical refraction was measured under cycloplegia with an infrared autorefractometer. The grouped data from 350 right eyes showed leptokurtic frequency distributions, and the median was +0.

Effectiveness of preoperatively obtained autologous platelet concentrates in open heart surgery.

Background: Autologous blood components have been widely introduced in open heart surgery. However, the effectiveness of autologous platelet products remains controversial.

Methods: Autologous platelet concentrates (PC) were collected from patients (n = 35) scheduled for primary valvular heart surgery 1 to 3 days before the operation and were transfused immediately after cardiopulmonary bypass.

[Clinical and genetic features of choroideremia].

Background: Choroideremia is an X-linked hereditary eye disease that causes progressive degeneration of the choroid and retina and frequently leads to legal blindness in later life. Recent molecular genetic studies have revealed mutations involving the Rab escort protein (REP-1) gene localized at Xq 21.

Clinical Features: The clinical picture and rate of progression may vary among affected individuals in different families and within the same family.

Clinical course of HTLV-I-associated uveitis.

Purpose: To define the long-term clinical course and visual outcome of human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated uveitis (HAU).

Methods: We reviewed the clinical data on 96 eyes of 70 patients, 26 men and 44 women, with HAU, with specific reference to recurrence of the disease and long-term visual outcome. The mean follow-up period was 83 months (range, 12-276 months).

Influence of preoperative nutritional state on inflammatory response after surgery.

To investigate whether the preoperative nutritional state influences the postoperative inflammatory reaction and immunity, we grouped patients whose postoperative nutritional support was performed by total parenteral nutrition into the good nutritional state group (group I) and the latent protein-calorie malnutrition suggested group (group II) based on the preoperative rapid turnover protein (RTP). Nutritional markers markedly decreased after surgery and recovered almost to preoperative levels on postoperative day (POD-) 7 in groups I and II. Nutritional markers on POD-7 in group II were significantly lower than those in group I (RTP, P < 0.

A case of sarcoidosis involving the tongue.

Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disorder which commonly affects the skin. Involvement of the tongue is rare; a review of the previous literature over the last 30 years revealed only six cases of sarcoidosis affecting the tongue. We studied a case of sarcoidosis involving the tongue in a 32-year-old Japanese woman with characteristic clinical and pathological findings.

Adhesion to fibronectin regulates expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 on eosinophilic cells.

Background: Adhesion molecules may play an important role in eosinophilic activation as well as adherence of extracellular matrix (ECM) including fibronectin (FN) in the inflamed focus. Tissue eosinophils expressed inter-cellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, CD54), whereas peripheral blood eosinophils did not. The molecular mechanisms of ICAM-1 expression on eosinophils are not clear.

Inhibitory effects of propofol on acetylcholine-induced, endothelium-dependent relaxation and prostacyclin synthesis in rabbit mesenteric resistance arteries.

Background: Propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol) modulates endothelium-dependent relaxation in some arterial preparations. The effect of propofol on endothelium-dependent, prostacyclin-mediated responses in mesenteric resistance arteries has not yet been clarified.

Methods: The effect of propofol was examined on acetylcholine-induced membrane potential changes in the presence of N(G)-nitro-L-arginine (L-NOARG) in endothelium-intact rabbit mesenteric resistance arteries in vitro.

A novel truncating mutation of cytochrome P4501B1 (CYP1B1) gene in primary infantile glaucoma.

Purpose: To report a novel mutation of the CYP1B1 gene in a Japanese patient with primary infantile glaucoma.

Methods: DNA was extracted from leukocytes of six unrelated patients with primary infantile glaucoma. The coding regions of the CYP1B1 gene were amplified by polymerase chain reaction, examined by agarose gel separation and heteroduplex methods, and directly sequenced.

Plasma fatty acids concentrations in postoperative patients with biliary atresia.

The concentrations of plasma fatty acids in postoperative patients with biliary atresia (BA) were measured to clarify whether they had essential fatty acid deficiency. Thirty-eight fasting blood samples from 14 postoperative patients with BA were studied. All of them had the hepatic portoenterostomy without any stoma.

Complications associated with vortex vein damage in scleral buckling surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.

Purpose: To further understand postoperative complications after vortex vein damage during scleral buckling surgery.

Methods: The records of 34 patients (34 eyes) with vortex vein damage during scleral buckling surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment were reviewed and compared with the records of 410 eyes undergoing similar surgery without vortex vein damage.

Results: Postoperative complications were noted in 16 eyes (47%) of the damaged vortex vein group.

Two cases of gigantic dystrophic calcinosis cutis caused by subcutaneous and/or intramuscular injections.

We describe two female patients with gigantic dystrophic calcinosis cutis caused by a large number of subcutaneous and/or intramuscular injections which they received when they were much younger. Laboratory data and physical examinations were generally within normal limits, and we detected no disease which might induce cutaneous calcification. There are many reports of dystrophic calcinosis cutis caused by injection of several kinds of drugs.

Serotonin-induced platelet intracellular Ca2+ responses in untreated depressed patients and imipramine responders in remission.

Background: Intracellular Ca2+ metabolism in platelets has been investigated as a peripheral marker of affective disorders.

Methods: We investigated the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration in platelets in both untreated depressed patients with no medications and patients in remission who were treated by imipramine (IMI) (IMI responders) using a Ca(2+)-sensitive fluorescent probe fura-2.

Results: The increases in intracellular free Ca2+ concentration in platelets induced by stimulation with serotonin (5-HT) ([Ca2+] delta) were significantly higher in both the untreated patients and the IMI responders compared with healthy controls; however, there were no significant differences in the basal Ca2+ levels in the platelets ([Ca2+]B) among the three groups.

Ontogeny of the rat parietal cell: analysis using anti-parietal cell antibody and transmission electron microscopy.

We studied the ontogeny of the rat parietal cell using human anti-parietal cell antibody and transmission electron microscopy. In the gastric fundus of the rat, we found that the epithelium changed from stratified to columnar at gestational day 18.5.

Extensive chorioretinal atrophy in Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease.

Purpose: To report extensive chorioretinal atrophy during the long-term course of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease not treated properly in the initial phase.

Cases: Four patients with VKH disease were examined more than 10 years after onset of the disease.

Observations: They presented initially with classic features of VKH disease, except 1 patient who had developed bilateral, acute angle-closure glaucoma as the initial sign.

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I infects eccrine sweat gland epithelia.

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is known to be associated with several non-neoplastic inflammatory disorders such as HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis, arthropathy, uveitis and lymphadenitis, in addition to neoplastic adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). A strong relation between HTLV-I infection and Sjögren's syndrome (SS) has been reported, and impaired sweating in SS is well known. We have often encountered dry skin in patients with ATLL.

[Sorsby's fundus dystrophy: a literature review].

Background: Sorsby's fundus dystrophy (SFD) is an autosomal dominant macular dystrophy first described in a 1949 study of five British families, and it has received attention because of its clinical similarity to age-related macular degeneration and recent identification of the pathogenic gene.

Clinical Features: To date, about twenty families with SFD have been reported from Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, and Japan. A review of the literature found that the age of onset is usually during the fourth or fifth decade of life, the prominent ophthalmoscopic finding is hemorrhagic or atrophic lesion in the macula, and functional prognosis is usually unfavorable due to additional peripheral chorioretinal dystrophy, ultimately leading to poor ambulatory vision in the late decades of life.

Gray-white, spherical deposition on retinal vessel associated with acute retinal necrosis and diabetic retinopathy in HTLV-I carriers.

Tiny, gray-white, spherical deposits were found on the retinal vessels and vitreoretinal interface of the fovea in a 55-year-old woman with acute retinal necrosis due to varicella-zoster virus, and in a 47-year-old man with preproliferative diabetic retinopathy. Both patients developed massive vitreous opacities due to uveal inflammation or hemorrhages that rendered the fundus difficult to visualize. A therapeutic vitrectomy revealed gray-white, tiny spherical deposits, about blood-vessel-diameter, which were scattered on seemingly intact retinal arteries and veins in the posterior fundus and over the vitreoretinal interface overlying the fovea.

Macular hole surgery-associated peripheral visual field loss.

To examine in more detail the peripheral visual field loss after macular hole surgery, we reviewed a series of 38 consecutive patients (44 eyes) with idiopathic macular hole who underwent vitrectomy and fluid-gas exchange. Ten (22.7%) eyes of 9 patients developed peripheral visual field loss shortly after successful surgery.

Sclerosing hemangioma of the lung: MR findings and correlation with pathological features.

Two sclerosing hemangiomas of the lung had mixed areas of high and low signal intensity on both T1- and T2-weighted images and were totally enhanced on postcontrast T1-weighted images. The T1 high signal intensity areas corresponded to those including abundant clear cells, and the T2-weighted low signal intensity areas corresponded to the fibrotic or hemorrhagic areas in the tumors. The T2 high signal intensity areas with remarkable contrast enhancement corresponded to the hemangiomatous parts of the tumors.

Hyperintense basal ganglia lesions on T1-weighted images in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia with hepatic involvement.

We present two patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) accompanied by multiple hepatic arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) whose cranial MRI demonstrated high signal intensity in the basal ganglia on T1-weighted images. Manganese levels in peripheral blood were very high in both patients. These two cases indicate that there may be a significant relationship between high intensity basal ganglia and multiple hepatic AVMs.