Role of major histocompatibility complex class II in the development of autoimmune type 1 diabetes and thyroiditis in rats.

Although the MHC class II 'u' haplotype is strongly associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in rats, the role of MHC class II in the development of tissue-specific autoimmune diseases including T1D and autoimmune thyroiditis remains unclear. To clarify this, we produced a congenic strain carrying MHC class II 'a' and 'u' haplotypes on the Komeda diabetes-prone (KDP) genetic background. The u/u homozygous animals developed T1D similar to the original KDP rat; a/u heterozygous animals did develop T1D but with delayed onset and low frequency. In contrast, none of the a/a homozygous animals developed T1D; about half of the animals with a/u heterozygous or a/a homozygous genotypes showed autoimmune thyroiditis. To investigate the role of genetic background in the development of thyroiditis, we also produced a congenic strain carrying Cblb mutation of the KDP rat on the PVG.R23 genetic background (MHC class II 'a' haplotype). The congenic rats with homozygous Cblb mutation showed autoimmune thyroiditis without T1D and slight to severe alopecia, a clinical symptom of hypothyroidism such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis. These data indicate that MHC class II is involved in the tissue-specific development of autoimmune diseases, including T1D and thyroiditis.

Soluble TNF receptors and albuminuria in non-obese Japanese type 2 diabetic patients.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between albuminuria and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha or soluble TNF receptors (sTNF-R1, sTNF-R2) in eighty-eight non-obese Japanese type 2 diabetic patients stratified into two groups according to albuminuria status-microalbuminuria or normoalbuminuria. Patients with microalbuminuria were older and had significantly higher concentrations of sTNF-R1 and sTNF-R2 than those with normoalbuminuria. There was, however, no significant difference in sex, diabetes duration, smoking, BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, HbA (1c), serum creatinine, and lipid profile between the two groups. Although serum TNF-alpha was positively correlated to serum sTNF-R1 and sTNF-R2, serum TNF-alpha level did not differ with respect to albuminuria. Univariate regression analysis showed that urinary albumin concentration was positively correlated to age (r=0.380, p<0.001), serum creatinine (r=0.214, p<0.05) and concentrations of sTNF-R1 (r=0.364, p<0.001) and sTNF-R2 (r=0.342, p<0.005). Other variables, including TNF-alpha, were not associated with albuminuria. Multiple regression analyses showed that urinary albumin concentration was independently predicted by the level of sTNF-R1 (F=32.1), which explained 26.3% of the variability of urinary albumin concentration. From these results, it can be concluded that serum soluble TNF receptor is an important independent factor associated with albuminuria in non-obese Japanese type 2 diabetic patients.

Analysis of the disease course of HIV-1 by entropic chaos degree.

When a V3 sequence obtained on the n-th year after infection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was supposed to change into a V3 sequence on the n + 1-th year, the variation between the above two sequences was analyzed by means of entropic chaos degree. The entropic chaos degree measures chaotic aspects of the dynamics causing the variation of sequence. If it is large, then the dynamics produces the large complexity, in other words, the variation of sequences becomes large. As a result, the chaos degree for the dynamics changing the V3 region showed the specific variation patterns throughout from the early stages of infection to death. That is, the variation patterns indicated that the entropic chaos degree is useful to measure the stage of disease progression after HIV-1 infection.

Assessment of drug concentrations in tears in therapeutic drug monitoring: I. Determination of valproic acid in tears by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with EC/NCI mode.

A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of valproic acid in tears has been developed using gas chromatography/electron capture negative chemical ionization/mass spectrometry. Valproic acid was converted directly into its pentafluorobenzyl ester derivative without the need to perform any extraction from the biologic fluid. The concentrations in tears [C]t correlated very well with those of the free form in the plasma [Cf]p and those of the total form in the plasma [Cb+f]p. The ratios between valproic acid concentrations in tears and plasma were as follows: [C]t/[Cb+f]p = 0.10 +/- 0.02; [C]t/[Cf]p = 0.57 +/- 0.11. Ratios of [C]t/[Cb+f]p were in good agreement with previously published data.

Effect of argatroban on trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced colitis.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have suggested that heparin is effective for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and its various effects (in addition to the anticoagulant effect). We evaluated the effects of argatroban as an antithrombin drug on trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNB)-induced colitis, an established model of IBD. METHODS: Rats were randomly assigned to four groups in which mini-osmotic pumps containing saline (TNB-S), argatroban (TNB-A), or 100 U/kg heparin (TNB-H) were intraperitoneally implanted. Three days after the pumps were implanted, TNB was infused via the anus, and colitis was induced. After 5 days, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial prothrombin time (APTT), antithrombin III (AT-III), platelet, fibrinogen, colonic wet weight, macroscopic damage score, histological score, mucosal myeloperoxidase activity and mucosal leukotrien B4 (LTB4) levels were compared among the four groups. RESULTS: The APTT was prolonged in the heparin treatment group but only slightly prolonged in the argatroban treatment group. The platelet count and the fibrinogen level were higher in the TNB-S group than in the healthy control group and the AT-III level was slightly lower in the TNB-S group than in the healthy control group and lower still in the TNB-H group. CONCLUSIONS: The colonic wet weight was similar among the four groups while the macroscopic damage score, histological score, mucosal myeloperoxidase activity and the mucosal LTB4 level were significantly decreased in the TNB-A and TNB-H groups. Argatroban, as well as heparin may be effective for treatment of TNB-induced colitis.

[Chronological observation of nausea and vomiting in outpatients given oral antimetabolites as chemotherapy--two patients receiving ondansetron hydrochloride tablets].

The incidence of nausea and vomiting or anorexia was investigated in 16 outpatients receiving oral antimetabolites such as 5-FU (fluorouracil) as chemotherapy, during a maximum observation period of 28 days. In those patients who experienced the above symptoms which meet the standard defined in the study protocol, ondansetron hydrochloride tablets in a 4 mg/day dose were given based on the decision of the physician in charge, and its efficacy in those patients was examined. Nausea and emesis or anorexia was observed in six cases (37.5%) during the period of observation. Anorexia appeared in a majority of the above cases, with an incidence rate was 31.3% (5/16 cases). In two of the cases, anorexia improved after ondansetron tablets were administered. No adverse drug reaction was reported with ondansetron tablets. We conclude that although antimetabolites have low emetogenicity, as anorexia appeared in approximately 30% of the patients, the use of ondansetron tablets or other antiemetics should be considered in order to maintain patients' QOL and drug compliance.

Effects of ginseng radix on sugar absorption in the small intestine.

Ginseng radix (GR) is often used in traditional Japanese kampo medicine. We studied the effect of GR on glucose and maltose transport in rat and human duodenal mucosa by Ussing's method, and on smooth muscle movement in rat duodenal muscle by Magnus' method. GR inhibited absorption of glucose or maltose in rat and human duodenal mucosa, but increased duodenal muscle movement. It suggests that the inhibition of sugar absorption by GR is more dominant than enhancement of duodenal muscle movement by GR.

Steady-state inhibitory kinetic studies on the ligand binding modes of Aspergillus niger glucoamylase.

Inhibitory activities of 1-deoxynojirimycin and gluconolactone on Aspergillus niger glucoamylase were studied in relation to the subsite structure of the enzyme. Although both of these inhibitors are considered to bind at subsite 1 of the enzyme active site, 1-deoxynojirimycin showed competitive type inhibition but gluconolactone was a mixed type (or noncompetitive type) inhibitor for the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl alpha-D-glucoside. The former type of inhibition suggested that the main binding mode of the substrate was productive, but the latter, nonproductive. A possible way of explaining these apparent inconsistent results is to assume that the main binding mode of the substrate is productive and gluconolactone forms a nonproductive ternary complex with the enzyme and the substrate.

Endovascular papillary angioendothelioma (Dabska tumor) in an elderly woman.

A patient with endovascular papillary angioendothelioma with a low grade of malignancy showing papillary proliferation of endothelioid cells is presented. The patient, an 83-year-old woman, underwent resection of a tumor of the neck. At operation a 9 x 7 cm cystic tumor containing yellow transparent liquid with clots was found in the subcutaneous tissue. Histological studies showed endothelioid cells with spindle-shaped nuclei proliferated in layers around the fibrovascular cores, which showed the characteristic appearance of papillary proliferation. These cells were immunohistochemically positive for CD31, CD34 and factor VIII-related antigen. Based on these observations, the tumor was considered to be an endovascular papillary angioendothelioma (Dabska tumor). Dabska tumor is a vascular tumor with a low grade of malignancy and usually occurs in infants and young children. About 13 cases of Dabska tumor have been reported. The occurrence of a Dabska tumor in an aged patient is considered to be rare.

Alpha helix content of G protein alpha subunit is decreased upon activation by receptor mimetics.

To elucidate the mechanism whereby liganded receptor molecules enhance nucleotide exchange of GTP-binding regulatory proteins (G proteins), changes in the secondary structure of the recombinant Gi1 alpha subunit (Gi1alpha) upon binding with receptor mimetics, compound 48/80 and mastoparan, were analyzed by circular dichroism spectroscopy. Compound 48/80 enhanced the initial rate of GTPgammaS binding to soluble Gi1alpha 2.6-fold with an EC50 of 30 microg/ml. With the same EC50, the mimetic decreased the magnitude of ellipticity, which is ascribed to a reduction in alpha helix content of the Gi1alpha by 7%. Likewise, mastoparan also enhanced the rate of GTPgammaS binding by 3.0-fold and decreased the magnitude of ellipticity of Gi1alpha similar to compound 48/80. In corresponding experiments using a K349P-Gi1alpha, a Gi1alpha counterpart of the unc mutant in Gsalpha in which Pro was substituted for Lys349, enhancement of the GTPgammaS binding rate by both activators was quite small. In addition, compound 48/80 showed a negligible effect on the circular dichroism spectrum of the mutant. On the other hand, a proteolytic fragment of Gi1alpha lacking the N-terminal 29 residues was activated and showed decreased ellipticity upon interaction with the compound, as did the wild-type Gi1alpha. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that the activator-induced unwinding of the alpha helix of the G protein alpha subunit is mechanically coupled to the enhanced release of bound GDP from the alpha subunit.

Analysis of HIV by entropy evolution rate.

We analyze the variation of HIV after infection by means of an information measure, called the entropy evolution rate. In our analysis, we use a part of the external glycoprotein gp120 including the V3 region observed from six patients. Then we could make the following two aspects clear; (1) the relation between the change of the entropy evolution rate and the appearance of symptoms of disease, and (2) the relation between the change of the entropy evolution rate and that of the CD4 count of the patients.

Amino acid similarity matrix for homology modeling derived from structural alignment and optimized by the Monte Carlo method.

In this paper, we obtained a similarity matrix for homology modeling based on the structure of proteins in a structural alignment. The alignment procedure was executed within dynamic programming generally used in alignment methods. An initial matrix derived from the structural alignment was optimized by the Markov chain Monte Carlo method at low temperature to fit its sequence alignment to the structural alignment. Structural alignment was performed on the basis of the superposition of C alpha atoms for two protein structures. The objective function in the Monte Carlo procedure was defined by entropy in the information theory, allowing us to show that the amino acid similarity matrix aligned accurately. When compared with the structural alignment, the average number of incorrect amino acid residues in the sequence alignment was 22.6 for all residues and about 3.7 for residues in structurally conserved regions. The alignment with our matrix was more similar to structural alignment than to sequence alignments using other amino acid substitution matrices.

Acute exacerbation of hepatitis due to reactivation of hepatitis B virus with mutations in the core region after chemotherapy for malignant lymphoma.

A 43-year-old Japanese man who was positive for hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigen and HB e antibody, underwent chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After the chemotherapy he suffered from acute exacerbation of hepatitis because of reactivation of HBV. Recovery was achieved with interferon-alpha, glucagon-insulin therapy, and plasma exchange. Mutations were detected in codons 97, 100, 129, and 131 of the core region of HBV. The peptide encoded from the core region including such mutations possibly had greater antigenicity to induce cytotoxic T cell activity in the host. Core region mutations may be a crucial cause of the acute exacerbation of hepatitis B seen after chemotherapy.

Testicular seminoma with human chorionic gonadotropin production.

Testicular seminoma with elevated serum human chorionic gonadotropin level (hCG-positive seminoma) is regarded as more malignant than marker-negative seminoma, although its prognosis is still unclear. To clarify the malignant potential of seminoma with hCG production, the serum levels of the beta subunit of hCG (beta-hCG) and lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH) were examined in 35 and 40 patients, respectively, and the immunohistochemical expression of beta-hCG examined in 45 tumors. The elevation of the LDH serum level correlated to the invasive status, metastatic status and poor outcome, while that of the serum beta-hCG level correlated only to the metastatic status. Immunohistochemical expression of beta-hCG was observed in syncytiotrophoblastic giant cells in 11 tumors and a few mononuclear seminoma cells in 36 tumors. Expression was not associated with the malignancy potential, except where the expression in mononuclear cells inversely correlated to the invasive status. These results suggest that most seminomas produce a slight amount of hCG; that an elevated hCG serum level indicates the presence of metastatic tumors and mainly reflects an increase in tumor volume but not in cellular malignancy potential; and that the LDH serum level, rather than hCG, is more useful as a prognostic indicator for patients with seminoma.

Cancellation of motion artifact in MRI due to 2D rigid translational motion.

A new algorithm for cancelling MRI artifact due to translational motion in the image plane is described. Unlike the conventional iterative phase retrieval algorithm, in which there is no guarantee for the convergence, a direct method for estimating the motion is proposed. In the previous approach, the motions in the readout(x-) direction and the phase encoding(y-) direction are estimated simultaneously. However, the feature of the each x- and y-directional motion is different. Based on the analysis of their features, each x- and y-directional motion is cancelled by different algorithms in two steps. First, we notice that the x-directional motion corresponds to a shift of the x-directional spectrum of the MRI signal, so the x-directional motion can be cancelled by shifting the spectrum in inverse direction. Next, the y-directional motion is cancelled using a new constraint, with which the motion component and the true image component can be separated. The algorithm is shown to be effective by simulations.

Immunohistochemical analysis of the nm23 gene products in testicular seminoma.

The nm23 gene has been identified as a metastasis suppressor gene. To clarify the role of nm23 as a metastasis suppressor gene in testicular seminoma, the expression of the nm23-H1 and -H2 proteins (human nucleoside-diphosphate kinase-A and -B) was immunohistochemically examined in 43 patients. Thirty-six (84%) and 21 (49%) of the 43 primary tumors were positive for the nm23-H1 and -H2 proteins, respectively. There was no significant difference in either nm23-H1 or -H2 expression between the 24 primary non-invasive tumors and the 19 primary invasive tumors, or between the 31 primary tumors without metastasis and the 12 primary tumors with metastasis. In all, and 5 of 6 metastatic tumors, the expression of nm23-H1 and -H2 proteins was observed, respectively, and the expression was not decreased in the metastatic tumors, compared to the primary tumors. In conclusion, the immunohistochemical expression of both the nm23-H1 and -H2 gene products is not associated with the metastatic status or the invasive status of testicular seminoma, and it is unlikely to be a useful non-metastatic indicator for testicular seminoma. Further studies are needed to elucidate the biological role of nm23.

Improved tumor detection by anti-CEA chimeric Fab oligomers with disulfide linkages in a pancreatic-carcinoma-xenograft model.

We have investigated the effect of Fab oligomerization on imaging efficacy in a pancreatic-carcinoma xenograft model in mice. Recombinant mouse/human chimeric Fab of the anticarcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) monoclonal antibody A10, which has been shown to react specifically with gastrointestinal cancers, was used in this study. Fab homo-oligomers (dimers and trimers) were prepared by linkage of chimeric Fab with N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)-propionate. Oligomers with S-S bonds showed 10-fold higher binding activity against human CEA than Fab, while the binding activity of oligomers was similar to that of F(ab')2. In mice bearing pancreatic-carcinoma xenografts, tumor uptake of S-S oligomers was significantly greater than that of monomeric Fab, while there was no difference in tumor uptake between S-S Fab trimers and F(ab')2. S-S oligomers showed more rapid clearance rates and uniform percolation in the tumor nodules than F(ab')2. At 18 hr after injection, clear scintigraphic detection of the pancreatic-carcinoma tumors was obtained with 123I-labeled S-S Fab dimers. At 24hr, improved tumor imaging was shown for 123I-labeled S-S Fab oligomers with slightly visible uptake in normal tissues, similar to that of F(ab')2. S-S oligomers of chimeric A10 Fab may be useful as rapid diagnostic tools of pancreatic carcinomas.