IgG4-related Lung Pseudotumor and Pleural Inflammation with Autoimmune Hepatitis.

A 63-year-old man was admitted to our department following a secondary medical examination. Blood tests showed high levels of liver enzymes, IgG, IgG4, and antinuclear antibody. Computed tomography showed tumors in the bilateral lower lobes of the lungs and pleural thickening. After pleural and liver biopsy procedures, he was conclusively diagnosed with IgG4-related lung pseudotumor and pleural inflammation with autoimmune hepatitis. We started treatment with prednisolone 40 mg/day, and chest radiograph and blood tests showed signs of improvement. This was a rare case that suggested an association between IgG4-related disease and autoimmune hepatitis.

Three cases of acute or fulminant hepatitis E caused by ingestion of pork meat and entrails in Hokkaido, Japan: Zoonotic food-borne transmission of hepatitis E virus and public health concerns.

AIM: In developed countries including Japan, the transmission route of indigenous hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is obscure. Accordingly, public health implications of indigenous HEV infection have not been well addressed. The aim of this study was to clarify the route of transmission of a small outbreak of acute hepatitis E and assess the public health implications of indigenous zoonotic HEV transmission. METHODS: Three patients with non-A, B and C acute hepatitis, two of whom presented in a critical condition, were assessed for HEV infection using polymerase chain reaction and their route of infection; the genome sequences of the infecting HEV were also analyzed. A phylogenetic tree based on the full, or near full, HEV RNA sequences were constructed by neighbor-joining method. RESULTS: All three patients ingested grilled pork meat and entrails at the same barbecue restaurant in Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan. When comparing partial to entire, or nearly entire, nucleotide sequences of HEV detected in these patients, they were 99.9-100% identical to each other. These genotype 4 isolates had great resemblance to the genome sequences of the isolates from the mini-outbreak in 2004 in Kitami, a city adjacent to Abashiri. These Kitami/Abashiri strains were segregated into a single cluster on the phylogenetic tree of HEV genotype 4 indigenous to Japan. CONCLUSION: Indigenous HEV transmission via a zoonotic food-borne route has been demonstrated in Kitami and Abashiri via pork meat and entrails contaminated with virulent HEV strains. Because a similar outbreak can recur in the future, infection sources and distribution routes should be clarified rapidly for public health.

Localization of a novel RNA-binding protein, SKIV2L2, to the nucleus in the round spermatids of mice.

In our previous study (Kawashima et al., Biol Reprod 2009; 80: 1293-1304), we suggested that the first cycle of spermatogenesis recovered from busulfan-induced temporary arrest was a good model system to analyze the proteins expressed at the specific stages of spermatogenesis in the mouse, and this has been confirmed in the present paper. Namely, six-week-old mice were injected with busulfan at 20 mg/kg body weight. The germ cells except for the undifferentiated spermatogonia disappeared by 32 days after injection. The surviving spermatogonia started to proliferate, and spermatogenesis was entirely recovered about 77 days after injection. By proteome analysis of the busulfan-treated testis during the process of recovery of spermatogenesis, we identified a protein that was expected to be expressed in the spermatogenic cells as Superkiller viralicidic activity-2-like-2 (SKIV2L2). Skiv2l2 mRNA was found in the kidney, epididymis and heart as well as the testis. In the testis, Skiv2l2 mRNA was shown to be highly expressed in the spermatocytes at stages I to VI. On the other hand, SKIV2L2 protein was found to be predominantly localized in the nuclei of round spermatids. In accordance with the fact that SKIV2L2 belongs to the Ski2 family within the superfamily 2 of RNA helicases, it has been shown that SKIV2L2 has both the RNA-binding and ATPase activities.