Strong Coupling Nature of the Excitonic Insulator State in Ta_{2}NiSe_{5}.

We analyze the measured optical conductivity spectra using the density-functional-theory-based electronic structure calculation and density-matrix renormalization group calculation of an effective model. We show that, in contrast to a conventional description, the Bose-Einstein condensation of preformed excitons occurs in Ta_{2}NiSe_{5}, despite the fact that a noninteracting band structure is a band-overlap semimetal rather than a small band-gap semiconductor. The system above the transition temperature is therefore not a semimetal but rather a state of preformed excitons with a finite band gap. A novel insulator state caused by the strong electron-hole attraction is thus established in a real material.

The incidence of internal malignancies in autoimmune bullous diseases.

Autoimmune bullous diseases are classified into pemphigus and pemphigoid. Pemphigus is designated as incurable disease by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and it is said that pemphigus is difficult to care and can be fatal. The clinical course of bullous pemphigoid (BP) is better than that of pemphigus. However, as to the incidence of internal malignancies, it is well known that there is a significant difference between the two diseases. As the incidence of internal malignancies is high in BP, it is described in textbooks that patients with BP should be followed by a detailed screening for internal malignancies. We investigated the incidence of internal malignancies in 204 Japanese patients with autoimmune bullous disease who visited Tokai University Hospital in Kanagawa, Japan. We found that the incidence of internal malignancies was 11.2% in patients with pemphigus and 10.4% in patients with BP. Among pemphigus variants, the incidence was as high as 20% for pemphigus erythematosus. No relationship was found between malignancies and the severity of the autoimmune bullous diseases. Therefore it is clinically important to carry out a detailed screening for internal malignancies in patients with pemphigus as well as in patients with BP.

A case of implantation dermatosis that formed a tumor.

A 51-year-old man visited our hospital complaining of a tumor located above his lip. He had been hit on his upper left lip by a chopstick holder 2 months previously. The lesion turned into a tumor and gradually enlarged. The tumor was well circumscribed, smooth and covered with reddish, partially milk-white skin. During surgery to remove the tumor, a piece of a chopstick was found in the subcutaneous tissue, and a diagnosis of implantation dermatosis (ID) was made. On histology, the tumor appeared as an abscess that had increased fibroblasts, small vessels and a large number of neutrophils. In the Japanese published work, we found 86 cases of ID; three were similar to our case and had been clinically diagnosed as adnexal tumors. There were also six cases that showed abscess formation similar to our case on histology. In a survey of the published work from other countries, there were 44 ID cases. There were no common features found among the cases reported in the published work.

A case of superficial angiomyxoma.

We report a case of a 19-year-old man who showed a brownish, elastic-soft, multilocular, pedunculated, solid tumor (10 × 6 × 6 cm), with scale crust and erosion, on the medial side of the right thigh. The histopathology of a specimen removed completely revealed a tumor that was located between the middle layer of the dermis and the subcutaneous fatty tissue, was filled with a mucoid material, and was surrounded by a fibrous tissue. The tumor consisted of small thin-walled blood vessels and spindle-shaped or stellate tumor cells without cytological atypia in addition to the mucoid material. Immunohistochemistory revealed that the tumor cells express the vimentin stain. Based on these clinical and histologic findings, we diagnosed the skin condition as superficial angiomyxoma.

Feasibility of modified DLQI-based questionnaires for evaluation of clinical efficacy of herbal medicine in chronic skin diseases.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of herbal medicines is thought to be ambiguous. The quality of life (QOL) of patients has been well-recognized as an useful measurement and we thought it to be a measurement of the efficacy of herbal medicine. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of modified DLQI-based questionnaires in evaluating the efficacy of herbal drugs in chronic skin diseases. METHODS: 19 in-patients with chronic skin diseases were selected and treated by the herbal medicines just added on the previous drugs. By using the QOL-sheet, the patients' QOL before and after herbal treatments were converted to scores and we examined the scores to be a useful measurement. The QOL-sheet was made referring to the dermatology life quality index (DLQI) with our original questions and visual analogue scale (VAS) in Japanese. RESULTS: The herbal drugs were effective as the treatment with significant difference (P < 0.05) at clinical impression, DLQI and VAS. No significant differences of correlation between clinical impression, DLQI/DLQI with AQ and VAS/VAS with AQ was proved (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The QOL-sheet scored both by DLQI and by VAS may be useful to evaluate the efficacy of herbal medicines. However it may be necessary to reconsider the contents of our original questions.

S100A4 expression with reduced E-cadherin expression predicts distant metastasis of human malignant melanoma cell lines in the NOD/SCID/gammaCnull (NOG) mouse model.

Tumor xenografts in immune-deficient mice (athymic nude mice and SCID mice) are well-established animal models for the study of human cancer. Several human melanoma cell lines were reported to metastasize in the immune-deficient mice models. However, metastatic rates were extremely low in spite of large numbers of injections of cancer cells, more than 1 x 10(6) cells/mouse. The NOD/SCID/gamma(C)(null) (NOG) mouse shows multiple immunological dysfunctions, including cytokine production capability, in addition to the functional incompetence of T, B and natural killer (NK) cells. However, the immune-deficient mice, with preserved NK cell activity, might interfere with engraftment efficiency. We examined the distant metastasis of the human melanoma cell lines (A2058, A375, G361 and HMY-1, 1 x 10(4) cells/mouse) in the 6 weeks after intravenous inoculation. All four melanoma cell lines showed metastasis in the NOG mice, while no metastatic lesions were observed in the NOD/SCID mice. Metastatic lesions were noted in the liver and lung of 6/6 (100%) mice at A2058, 8/9 (89%) at A375, 2/6 (33%) at G361 and 2/8 (25%) at HMY-1. A2058 and A375 cell lines with high metastatic potentials show increased gene expression of S100A4. Western blot assay confirmed the increased protein levels of S100A4 in the A2058 and A375 cell lines. E-cadherin gene expression was conversely inhibited in these cell lines. The increased expression of S100A4 combined with inhibited E-cadherin expression resulted in high metastatic potentials of the human melanoma cell lines in vivo.

A case of epidermal cyst with pilomatrical differentiation.

A 20-year-old Japanese woman with an epidermal cyst on the back is described. Physical examination revealed a deep blue and round shaped cystic lesion measuring 10 min in diameter. A comedo-like keratotic plug also could be seen at the center. Histologically, the inner surface of the cyst was clearly separated of two types of the cells. The one was layers of epidermal keratinocytes and the other looked like a basal layer of epidermis, which immunohistochemically stained by S-100, HMB-45, cytokeratin (CK19) and Fontana-Masson staining. We diagnosed this case as epidermal cyst with pilomatrical differentiation.

A case of atypical benign fibrous histiocytoma.

A case of atypical benign fibrous histiocytoma is reported. A 62-year-old Japanese female visited our clinic because of an asymptomatic solitary lesion on the skin of the left leg. Physical examination revealed a polypoid mass lesion (2.5 x 2.3 x 1.8 cm) with central erosion. The lesion began with a 1 mm-sized papule and slowly enlarged over the 20 years. Clinical diagnosis was a malignant tumor such as dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, atypical fibroxanthoma or adnexal tumors. Biopsy of the polypoid lesion was carried out. Histopathological examination revealed a polypoid lesion consisting of proliferation of fibroblast-like spindle cells in the dermis. Large atypical cells with pleomorphic nuclei were occasionally observed but mitotic figures were rare. From immunohistochemical results (CD68, Factor-XIII, MIB-1 labeling index), we diagnosed this case as "atypical benign fibrous histiocytoma (ABFH)". Clear distinction has not been made between ABFH, a variant of benign fibrous histiocytoma, and atypical fibroxanthoma, which is a variant of malignant fibrous histiocytoma. Here we report a case of ABFH with a diagnosis of the neoplasm.

In situ Expression of CD40 and CD40 ligand in psoriasis.

BACKGROUND: The interaction between CD40 and CD40 ligand (CD40L) provides a signal that contributes to the initiation of cellular immune responses. However, little information on the in vivo expression of CD40 and CD40L in cutaneous inflammation has been reported. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential role of CD40-mediated signals in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In situ CD40 and CD40L expression was examined immunohistochemically in different stages of psoriatic lesions: fully developed and initial pinpoint. RESULTS: In normal skin, faintly positive immunoreactivity for CD40 was seen in the basal keratinocytes and dermal endothelial cells. These showed almost the same intensity as that seen in psoriatic lesional skin. In the dermal infiltrates of psoriatic lesions, CD40 was intensely expressed and some of these positive cells appeared to be dendritic in shape. Whereas CD40 expression was observed almost in all specimens of psoriatic lesions, the expression of CD40L was predominantly detected in the initial pinpoint lesions of psoriasis. These seemed to be distributed close to CD40-positive cells. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that CD40L-triggered signals could be involved in the early stage of psoriatic lesion formation.

Molecular characterization of His-Asp phosphorelay signaling factors in maize leaves: implications of the signal divergence by cytokinin-inducible response regulators in the cytosol and the nuclei.

Genes for histidyl-aspartyl (His-Asp) phosphorelay components (His-containing phosphotransfer proteins, HP, and response regulators, RR) were isolated from Zea mays L. to characterize their function in cytokinin signaling. Six type-A RRs (ZmRR1, ZmRR2, ZmRR4-ZmRR7), 3 type-B RRs (ZmRR8-ZmRR10), and 3 HPs (ZmHP1-ZmHP3) were found in leaves. All type-A RR genes expressed in leaves were up-regulated by exogenous cytokinin. Transient expression of fusion products of the signaling modules with green fluorescent protein in epidermal leaf cells suggested cytosolic and nuclear localizations of ZmHPs, whereas type-B ZmRR8 was restricted to the nucleus. Type-A RRs were localized partly to the cytosol (ZmRR1, ZmRR2, and ZmRR3) and partly to the nucleus (ZmRR4, ZmRR5, and ZmRR6). In the yeast two-hybrid assay, ZmHP1 and ZmHP3 interacted with both cytosolic ZmRR1 and nuclear type-B ZmRRs. In vitro experiments demonstrated that ZmHPs function as a phospho-donor for ZmRRs; turnover rates of the phosphorylated state were tenfold lower in ZmRR8 and ZmRR9 than in ZmRR1 and ZmRR4. These results suggest that the His-Asp phosphorelay signaling pathway might diverge into a cytosolic and a nuclear branch in leaves of maize, and that the biochemical nature of ZmRRs is different in terms of stability of the phosphorylated status.

Effect of the transcriptional repressor Mad1 on proliferation of human melanoma cells.

Mad1 is a Myc antagonist that heterodimerizes with Max and functions as a transcriptional repressor. We studied the effects of Mad1 on cell growth and malignant phenotype in human melanoma cells. To perturb the activity of c-Myc, which is involved in the progression of melanoma, we overexpressed Mad1 protein with liposomal-mediated transfection of cytomegalovirus promoter-driven expression vector containing the human Mad1 gene, pcMad-1. The growth characteristics and malignant potential of two Mad1 transfectants of the FEM human melanoma cell line, overexpressing Mad1 stably and the respective vector control were analysed both in vitro and in a nude mice xenograft model in vivo. Two Mad1 transfectants exhibited up to 2.8 times longer doubling time, less proliferation rate (50% inhibition), increased G0/G1 accumulation in cell-cycle distribution, and active melanin synthesis, compared with vector controls in vitro. In the mice model, the volume of tumors that arose from Mad1 transfected clones was 4-5 times less than those arising from vector control FEM cells. Histopathologically, tumors that arose from Mad1 transfectants showed altered round-shaped morphology with less pleomorphism compared with control FEM cells. Our results indicating that Mad1 gene transfer inhibits the proliferation of human melanoma cells suggest that Mad1 could be a potentially useful candidate for the modification of genes against malignancies.

High efficiency genetic modification of hair follicles and growing hair shafts.

A technique for genetic modification of hair follicles was developed which results in efficient alteration of the hair shaft phenotype. High-level in vivo transgene expression was maintained in hair follicles such that growing hair shafts were phenotypically altered. Mouse anagen skin fragments, maintained in histoculture, were genetically modified at high efficiency with adenoviral-GFP. The histocultured skin fragments were treated with collagenase which made hair follicles accessible to the adenoviral GFP gene, allowing high-efficiency transduction. These skin fragments were subsequently grafted on to nude mice where GFP was readily visualized in as many as 75% of hair follicles. Most follicles produced GFP-fluorescent growing hair shafts. This technique has produced efficient genetic modification of the hair shaft.