Prevalence of fatty liver in non-obese Japanese children with atopic dermatitis.

Fatty liver in non-obese Japanese children was observed in 3.2% of non-atopic children and in 17.6% of patients with atopic dermatitis in 2000. The prevalence of fatty liver in non-obese children aged 0-12 years was studied from 2001 to 2003. Subjects were either non-atopic children, or suffering from bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, or atopic dermatitis. Fatty liver was studied by abdominal ultrasound scans. The prevalence of fatty liver was increasing annually, and it reached to 12.5% in non-atopic children, 13.1% in patients with bronchial asthma, 13.7% in patients with allergic rhinitis, or 33.9% in patients with atopic dermatitis, in 2003. Since fatty liver in childhood may be a risk factor for lifestyle-related diseases in future, care should be taken to prevent it.

Immunohistochemical Localization of Nerve Growth Factor, Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein and Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor in Mesencephalon, Rhombencephalon, and Spinal Cord of Developing Mongolian Gerbil

The distribution of the nerve growth factor (NGF), the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and the ciliary neurotrohic factor (CNTF) was performed in coronal sections of the mesencephalon, rhombencephalon and spinal cord in the developing Mongolian gerbils. Generally, NGF specifically recognizes neurons with the NGF receptor, whereas GFAP does the glia, and CNTF does the motor neurons. The receptor expression was examined separately in gerbils between embryonic days 15 (E15) and postnatal weeks 3 (PNW 3). The NGF-IR was first observed in the spinal cord at E21, which might be related to the maturation. The GFAP reactivity was peaked at the postnatal days 2 (PND2), while the highest CNTF-reaction was expressed at PNW 2. The GFAP stains were observed in the aqueduct and the spinal cord, which appeared to project laterally at E19. The CNTF was observed only after the birth and found in both the neurons and neuroglia of the substantia nigra, mesencephalon, cerebellum and the spinal cord from PND1 to PNW3. These results suggest that NGF, GFAP and CNTF are important for the development of the neurons and the neuroglia in the central nervous system at the late prenatal and postnatal stages.