Survival of patients with pulmonary metastases in differentiated thyroid cancer.

To clarify the factors affecting survival of the patients with differentiated thyroid cancer and pulmonary metastases, 46 patients treated at our hospital during the past 23 years were studied using statistical analysis. Nineteen patients died as a result of their thyroid cancer. The follow-up period ranged from 1 to 31 years with a median of 10.

The von-Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene is not mutated in sporadic ovarian carcinomas.

The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene has been shown to be mutated frequently not only in neoplasms from von Hippel-Lindau disease, but also in sporadic clear cell renal carcinoma. In order to reveal the possible role of the VHL tumor suppressor gene in the development of ovarian carcinoma, a total of 71 primary sporadic ovarian carcinomas were analyzed for the presence of mutations in the exon 2 and 3 of the VHL tumor suppressor gene, using the polymerase chain reaction with single strand conformation polymorphism analysis. No mutations in the VHL gene were found in any of the tumors analyzed.

Hepatocyte growth factor induces tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and paxillin and enhances cell-matrix interactions.

This study examined the effects of hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) on the adhesion of HT115 (human colon) and MDA MB 231 (human breast) tumour cells to an extracellular matrix, Matrigel, together with the tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and paxillin. Treatment of cells with HGF increased cell adhesion to matrix. Following adhesion to Matrigel, FAK and paxillin were quickly phosphorylated and located to the focal adhesion area.

Homology of partial primary sequences between alpha-enolase and a suppressive lymphokine from human T cells.

A relationship is described between TS--a human suppressive lymphokine produced by hybridoma T cells--and alpha-enolase from the U937 monocyte human cell line. A strong homology (92%) was observed by comparing the internal amino acid sequences of 6 TS peptides, corresponding to 52 residues, with the complete sequence of alpha-enolase. The molecular masses of these two molecules were found to be of about 47 kDa and both were detected with the same monoclonal antibody to TS.

[Molecular mechanism of cell cycle control].

The eukaryotic cell cycle is believed to be regulated by cyclin/CDK (cyclin-dependent kinase). The activity of cyclin/CDK has recently been found to be regulated by a family of small CDK inhibitor proteins. Moreover, the tumor suppressor gene products have been revealed to function as the regulator of cell cycle progression.

Hierarchical image coding via cerebellar model arithmetic computers.

A hierarchical coding system for progressive image transmission that uses the generalization and learning capability of CMAC (cerebellar model arithmetic computer or cerebellar model articulation controller) is described. Each encoder and decoder includes a set of CMACs having different widths of generalization region. A CMAC with a wider generalization region is used to learn a lower frequency component of the original image.

MRI artifact cancellation due to rigid motion in the imaging plane.

A post-processing technique has been developed to suppress the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) artifact arising from object planar rigid motion. In two-dimensional Fourier transform (2-DFT) MRI, rotational and translational motions of the target during magnetic resonance magnetic resonance (MR) scan respectively impose nonuniform sampling and a phase error an the collected MRI signal. The artifact correction method introduced considers the following three conditions: (1) for planar rigid motion with known parameters, a reconstruction algorithm based on bilinear interpolation and the super-position method is employed to remove the MRI artifact, (2) for planar rigid motion with known rotation angle and unknown translational motion (including an unknown rotation center), first, a super-position bilinear interpolation algorithm is used to eliminate artifact due to rotation about the center of the imaging plane, following which a phase correction algorithm is applied to reduce the remaining phase error of the MRI signal, and (3) to estimate unknown parameters of a rigid motion, a minimum energy method is proposed which utilizes the fact that planar rigid motion increases the measured energy of an ideal MR image outside the boundary of the imaging object; by using this property all unknown parameters of a typical rigid motion are accurately estimated in the presence of noise.

[Enzyme immunoassay for cytokines].

Cytokines produced by different types of cells function by cell to cell interaction both in vitro and in vivo. Over thirty different molecules react in almost all physiological phenomena, such as in the fields of immunology, hematology, endocrinology, neurology, cardiology and nephrology. Previous observations indicate that the abnormal production of cytokines plays a part of pathogenesis of diseases.

Expression of urokinase-type plasminogen-activator in various human thyroid tissues.

High levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) have been detected in malignant tissues of various organs and these are thought to be related to the local invasion and distant metastasis of carcinomas. In the present study, the expression of u-PA was immunohistochemically investigated in various thyroid tissues by using formaline-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections. Normal thyroid expressed hardly any u-PA.

Allelic status on 1p and 11p15 in neuroblastoma and benign ganglioneuroma.

A tumor suppressor gene responsible for neuroblastoma (NB) is thought to be located on 1p, while a gene(s) commonly involved in embryonal tumors in childhood is(are) located on 11p15. To determine whether and how those putative genes affect tumorigenesis of NB, a total of 25 NBs and two benign ganglioneuromas (GNs) were examined by Southern technique with polymorphic markers on chromosomes 1 and 11 for analysis of the loss of heterozygosity at these loci. Because NB often features an increased number of chromosomes, we performed a detailed examination of allelic status and then compared it with their prognostic factors.

An improved method for MRI artifact correction due to translational motion in the imaging plane.

A computer postprocessing technique is developed to remove MRI artifact arising from unknown translational motion in the imaging plane. Based on previous artifact correction methods, the improved technique uses two successive steps to reduce read out and phase-encoding direction artifacts: First, the spectrum shift method is applied to remove read-out axis translational motion. Then, the phase retrieval method is employed to eliminate the remaining subpixel motion of the read-out axis and the entire motion of the phase-encoding axis.

Progression of mouse transformed leydig-cells from estrogen-sensitive to estrogen-insensitive growth phenotype concomitant with loss of leukotriene d-4 receptor.

We have previously shown that growth enhancement of murine transformed Leydig cells (B-1F) by estrogen is partly mediated through inhibition of leukotriene formation due to suppression of 5-lipoxygenase activity; leukotrienes, which inhibit the proliferation of B-1F cells, play an important role in an autocrine loop for B-1F cells to proliferate in an estrogen-sensitive manner. An estrogen-insensitive cell line, termed Cl 4(-), was established from B-1F cells and maintained in serum-free culture medium without addition of estrogen. The proliferation of Cl 4(-) cells was not affected by the addition of 10(-11)-10(-6) M 17 beta-estradiol, whereas an estrogen receptor in Cl 4(-) cells appeared to be normal, as judged by its binding to estrogens.

Comparison of response to 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine therapy alone and in combination with tamoxifen or medroxyprogesterone acetate in advanced and recurrent breast-cancer.

We studied the therapeutic usefulness of low dose 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5'-DFUR) alone and in combination with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) or tamoxifen (TAM). As first line therapy, 58 patients with advanced and recurrent breast cancer were assigned to receive Regimen A (5'-DFUR 600 mg/body/day daily + TAM 30 mg/body/day daily), Regimen B (5'-DFUR 600 mg/body/day daily + MPA 600 mg/body/day daily), or Regimen C (5'-DFUR 600 mg/body/day daily). In 48 evaluable patients, the response rates to treatment were 22.

Regulation of basophilic and erythroid-differentiation of a human chronic myelogenous leukemia-cell line, ku812f, by interleukin-3 and stem-cell factor.

We have investigated the effects of c-kit ligand (stem cell factor [SCF]) and interleukin-3 (IL-3) on proliferation and differentiation of a human chronic myelogenous leukemia cell line, KU812F, which can differentiate toward erythroid and basophilic lineages. When purified c-kit-positive cells (approximately 20% of KU812F cells) were used as a target, SCF induced not only proliferation but also augumented erythroid differentiation of the cells, while IL-3 did promote basophilic differentiation. Further, analyses of in situ hybridization and cell sorting with anti-c-kit antibody showed that the expression of c-kit decreased along with differentiation from immature to mature basophils and erythroid cells.

Handwritten alphanumeric character recognition by the neocognitron.

A pattern recognition system which works with the mechanism of the neocognitron, a neural network model for deformation-invariant visual pattern recognition, is discussed. The neocognition was developed by Fukushima (1980). The system has been trained to recognize 35 handwritten alphanumeric characters.

[Clinical results and experiences with combination of radiotherapy and radiosensitizing agents].

Clinical results and experiences with the combination of radiotherapy and radiosensitizing agents to the head and neck cancers were reported. Each of chemotherapeutic agents, 5-FU, Bleomycin, Peplomycin, Adriamycin, and Cisplatin had a radiosensitizing effect, and was expected to affect additively to radiotherapy, which led to the improvement of local control rate, reduction of dose of external radiotherapy by 10-20 Gy/1-2 weeks or more, or reduction or dispersion of treatment-related injury. Especially in the management of head and neck cancers, those merits also led to the preservation of function or cosmesis and the saving from the radical surgery in a substantial amount of cases.

[Insufficient accommodation in patient with keratoconus].

The accommodation response in 10 unoperated patients with keratoconus (mean, 28.3 years) and 10 age-matched normal individuals (mean, 25.8 years) was examined.