Bleeding ulcer: inject or clip?

The authors retrospectively compared endoscopic injection therapy with endoscopic hemoclipping by examining 113 patients over a 10-yr period between 1985 and 1995 who had gastrointestinal bleeding and who received one or the other procedure. Endoscopic injection using ethanol alone, epinephrine plus ethanol, or aethoxysclelol plus ethanol was performed in 87 cases. Endoscopic hemoclipping was performed in 26 cases from 1993 to 1995. The permanent hemostasis rate of endoscopic injection was 84% and that of endoscopic hemoclipping was 100%. Complications associated with endoscopic injection included enlargement of the ulcer bed, bleeding caused by exposed vessels within the expanded ulcer and one case of perforation. No complications were noted among patients treated with endoscopic hemoclipping.

Case report: haemorrhagic colitis associated with royal jelly intake.

The case report of a 53-year-old woman with abdominal pain and bloody diarrhoea is described. Prior to the onset of symptoms the patient had taken royal jelly for 25 days. Colonoscopy revealed that the mucosa was haemorrhagic and oedematous throughout the 20 cm long sigmoid colon. Histopathologically, mucosal haemorrhage, oedema, and infiltration of inflammatory cells were observed. Transmission electron microscopic examination revealed platelet aggregation in 30% of capillaries in the mucosal lesions. The drug-induced lymphocyte stimulation test was slightly positive for royal jelly (847 c.p.m., SI = 147%) compared with the control (576 c.p.m.). The patient's signs and symptoms disappeared within a few days after the initiation of conservative therapy, and the colonic lesions disappeared after 2 weeks of this therapy. This is the first reported case of haemorrhagic colitis associated with royal jelly intake.

Reverse-transcribed pseudogenes of U1 small nuclear RNA presumably amplified in the rat genome together with the flanking region.

We have examined 25 independent rat genomic clones each of which contains a U1 RNA gene or a pseudogene. We have found five clones whose restriction maps are identical with or overlapping one another. These clones contain sequences which are co-linear with that of U1 RNA except for one or two nucleotides (nt). They also contain 21-23-nt poly(A) stretches immediately after U1 RNA homology. In addition, the U1 RNA-poly(A) regions are surrounded by the same direct repeat sequences. Therefore, they seem to be pseudogenes which have been generated by the reverse transcription of poly(A)-tailed U1 RNA followed by the insertion of the transcript into the genome. Furthermore, conservation of the sequences extends over at least 18 kb of the flanking sequences. This suggests a family of conserved reverse-transcribed pseudogenes, which implies amplification of an original pseudogene. It is also suggested that the target sequence without insertion of a U1 RNA sequence has been amplified. The mechanisms for the amplification and sequence conservation are discussed.

Molecular cloning and characterization of a gene for rat U2 small nuclear RNA.

Six phage clones that contain sequences hybridizable with the small nuclear RNA U2 were isolated from a rat gene library. Of these clones, one which includes a candidate for a functional U2 RNA gene was selected and characterized. The sequence within the clone which hybridizes with rat U2 RNA was completely co-linear with that of the RNA. A T-A-T-A box was not found in the region of more than 400 base-pairs which lies upstream of the gene. However, several block homologies were found with the upstream sequences of a rat U1 RNA gene candidate cloned in our laboratory. An "identifier sequence", which was reported to be an element of gene regulation related to differentiation, was found downstream of the coding region at the same distance and with the same orientation as the identifier sequence located downstream of the U1 RNA gene candidate. We detected a presumed U2 RNA precursor elongated by about 11 nucleotides at the 3' end by S1 nuclease mapping using a fragment from the clone. A potential termination signal for transcription was found within the elongated region of the presumed precursor. Southern blot analysis suggests that families of U2 RNA genes that have conserved flanking sequences are present in the genomes of rat, mouse, man, calf and chicken.

Structural analysis of gene loci for rat U1 small nuclear RNA.

Four phage clones which hybridize with U1 small nuclear RNA were obtained from a rat gene library. Two clones contain a presumed pseudogene. A third clone includes two gene candidates that are co-linear with the rat U1-RNA, 3.6kb apart and in the opposite orientation. The two genes are surrounded by identical sequences of 491bp upstream and 178bp downstream. The upstream sequences do not contain a TATA box, but share many block homologies with those for the human U1-RNA gene(1-3). A 101bp "identifier (ID) sequence", which was reported to be specifically expressed in rat brain (4), is inserted immediately after the shared sequence downstream of one of the genes. In the fourth clone, there are two putative pseudogenes, which have one or three nucleotide changes, 3kb apart and in the same orientation. Southern blot analysis of total rat DNA reveals about 50 U1-RNA genes/pseudogenes in the genome.