Designation of enzyme activity of glycine-N-acyltransferase family genes and depression of glycine-N-acyltransferase in human hepatocellular carcinoma.

The human glycine-N-acyltransferase (hGLYAT) gene and two related-genes (GLYATL1 and GLYATL2) were isolated. Human GLYAT, GLYATL1, and GLYATL2 cDNAs were isolated and shown to encode polypeptides of 295, 302, and 294 amino acids, respectively. GLYAT catalyzes glycine-N-acyltransfer reaction with benzoyl-CoA acting as a typical aralkyl transferase, while GLYATL1 catalyzed glutamine-N-acyltransfer reaction with phenylacetyl-CoA as an arylacetyl transferase. GLYAT was shown to be expressed specifically in the liver and kidney, and the cellular localization of GLYAT protein was restricted to the mitochondria. Interestingly, labeling using highly affinity purified anti-GLYAT antibody revealed that GLYAT expression was suppressed in all hepatocellular carcinomas, but not in other liver diseases. hGLYAT repression in cancerous cells in the liver was controlled at the transcriptional level. hGLYAT is a good candidate as a novel marker of hepatocellular carcinoma and may be a key molecule in the transition between differentiation and carcinogenesis of liver cells.

Syringoma of the face treated with fractional photothermolysis.

We experienced that two Japanese women diagnosed with syringoma, confirmed by a punch biopsy, were successfully treated with fractional resurfacing. Both clinical cases have had positive results after only a few treatments, with high patient satisfaction, not only for the improvement of syringoma, but also for the improvement of aging skin, and with no side effects. From that aspect, laser treatment with fractional photothermolysis may be considered to be one of the effective treatment methods for syringoma. Although fractional photothermolysis was originally developed for an aesthetic purpose, it also can be utilized for intractable skin disease, as demonstrated by taking the concept of fractional photothermolysis and the results from this study with skin biopsy.

Improving gait stability in stroke hemiplegic patients with a plastic ankle-foot orthosis.

Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability, and many stroke patients have hemiparesis. Hemiparesis induces ankle-control disturbances and equinovarus deformity, leading to difficulty in walking and an increased risk for falling. Plastic ankle-foot orthosis (PAFO) is frequently prescribed to correct ankle joint alignment and increase walking speed and stride length during ambulation. While several studies have shown that PAFO improves gait parameters, such as stride length and walking speed, in hemiplegic patients, the effect of PAFO on gait stability remains unclear. We quantitatively assessed the effect of PAFO on gait stability in 16 hemiplegic stroke patients (mean age 55.9 +/- 11.8 years; 5 female and 11 male subjects; and 11 hemorrhagic and 5 ischemic stroke) using an ink footprint record. Wearing PAFO significantly improved the stride length, step length on the unaffected and affected sides, step width, walking speed, step frequency and functional ambulation ability. The coefficient of variation (CV), as an index of stability of movement from trial to trial, provides a measure that defines motor skills for a given task. Unaffected-side step-length CV and step-width CV were significantly decreased, when using PAFO. Furthermore, the correlation was found only between unaffected-side step length and its CV. The decrease in CV indicates that PAFO improved gait stability. We concluded that in addition to providing a faster gait, PAFO improves gait stability during walking. Gait stability and gait efficiency need to be considered separately in evaluating the effects of ankle-foot orthosis on gait performance in hemiplegic patients.