A lip seal study of Japanese children with malocclusion.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between lip seal and malocclusion in Japanese children. Fifty-three patients aged 7 to 14 years (mean 10.24 +/- 1.93) were selected randomly, and compared with 20 subjects with normal occlusion aged 7 to 14 years (mean 10.50 +/- 2.56). The subjects were divided into a good lip seal group and poor lip seal group by observing the distance between the upper and lower lip at rest. The variables that were analyzed for morphological evaluation included model analysis and cephalometric analysis. Noted for functional evaluation were tongue position, the size of the tonsils and adenoids and the oral muscle force measured by button pulling. In the evaluation of the degree of lip seal, there was no statistical difference between subjects with malocclusion and those with normal occlusion. Within the group with malocclusions, however, there were significant differences in overbite (p < 0.01), overjet (p < 0.01), and oral muscle force by button pulling (p < 0.05) between the good lip seal and poor lip seal groups. These results suggest that there is a need not only to correct malocclusion but also to be aware of lip sealing so that it may be improved in Japanese children.

[Cushing's disease--pathophysiology and treatment].

We followed up 21 Cushing's disease patients (16 females and 5 males) aged 15 to 46 years, treated with reserpine (R) plus pituitary irradiation (PI). Mean duration of R administration and mean dose of PI were 24.5 +/- 10.8 (mean +/- SD) months and 54.0 +/- 9.8 Gy, respectively. Of them, four patients did not respond, one who received 66 Gy had brain necrosis and panhypopituitarism, and the other 16 patients (78%, 16/21) achieved initial remission. Of these 16 patients, there were 10 (aged 15 to 46 years) who were irradiated with 50 Gy or less (mean, 45.5 +/- 6.9 Gy), and 7 of them had initial response. As previously demonstrated effectiveness of the present regimen (R plus PI) could be evaluated by subjecting the patients to R-test, higher rate of remission was obtained among R-test responders (J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 41:511, 1975). Eleven of our R-test responders in the present study showed an early onset of remission (6.9 +/- 5.7 months) as compared with 5 R-test non-responders (17.0 +/- 9.1, p less than 0.05). In addition, the response time positively correlated with the ratio of the difference between basal plasma cortisol (11-OHCS) levels before and after midnight administration of 8 mg dexamethasone (delta D8) divided by the difference between 24-h urinary excretion of 17-OHCS for 3 successive days before, during metyrapone (3.0 g/day, 6 divided dose, 2 days) administration and one day after (delta M). The sixteen patients were followed up until 1990 for a mean of 12.4 years (2.2 to 25.2 years). Among them, one died of unrelated illness with this regimen 4 years after achieving remission, 4 relapsed between 5 to 7 years follow-up, and the remaining 11 (52%, 11/21) had long-term remission for a mean of 15.7 +/- 9.0 years (2.2 to 25.2 years). Of them, there were 5 patients who were treated with PI with 50 Gy or less, and had long-term remission (5.8 to 24.4 with a mean of 17.6 +/- 7.6 years). During the long-term follow-up period of these 11 patients, endocrine assessment was carried out while off therapy. Basal urinary excretion of cortisol or 17-OHCS were were normal in all of the 11 patients, and 8 of 9 showed normal diurnal rhythm of plasma cortisol. Nine of 10 patients tested showed normal suppressibility by overnight 1 mg dexamethasone test and 6 of 9 showed normal response to CRH.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Immunopotentiation of tumor-bearing and toxohormone treated mice by human ceruloplasmin.

Human ceruloplasmin was shown to have a restorative effect on the decrease of delayed hypersensitivity in sarcoma-180-bearing mice and of helper T-cell activity in cell-free. Ehrlich cancerous ascitic fluid-treated mice. Furthermore, it was also shown that ceruloplasmin augments the in vivo generation of alloreactive cytotoxic cell which consist of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, cytotoxic macrophages and K cells.

Antitumor and toxohormone-neutralizing activities of human ceruloplasmin.

Human ceruloplasmin was found to have a neutralizing effect against the toxohormone activities of the basic protein isolated from Ehrlich carcinoma cells; this basic protein decreases the levels of serum iron and liver catalase activity upon intraperitoneal injection into mice and shows direct cytotoxicity toward normal mouse lymphocytes and macrophages. Furthermore, it was also shown that ceruloplasmin has antitumor activity against sarcoma-180 cells implanted in ICR mice.

Identification of a serum glycoprotein that increased in OK-432-treated mice as hemopexin.

LB, the antitumor protein whose level is increased in the serum of OK-432-treated mice, was identified as hemopexin, which is a serum beta-glycoprotein having a heme-binding capability. When incubated with heme, LB showed several absorption maxima in the ultraviolet and visible regions, and the addition of dithionite increased the extinction of the Soret band, which was shifted to a longer wavelength. The ultraviolet circular dichroism spectrum of LB exhibits a positive maximum at 292 nm and a shoulder near 280 nm. The far ultraviolet CD spectrum of LB has a prominent positive maximum at 231 nm. These spectral characteristics are identical with those of rabbit, rat or human hemopexin. In addition, the relative mobility on polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis and the results of amino acid analysis ae in very good agreement with results obtained previously for rabbit and human hemopexins. Since LB has enhancing effects on the tumor cell killing and binding by OK-432-elicited macrophages, these results strongly imply that the increase of hemopexin in serum plays an important role in the host-mediated antitumor activity of certain antitumor drugs.

Purification and characterization of a mouse serum glycoprotein increased in level by administration of an antitumor polysaccharide, lentinan.

One of the three kinds of mouse serum proteins increased in level by the administration of lentinan, designated LA, was found to be ceruloplasmin (p-diphenol:O2:oxidoreductase; EC 1.14.18.1) which contains copper atoms and has amine oxidase activity. This mouse ceruloplasmin is a glycoprotein with a molecular weight of approximately 135,000, and its chemical composition is very similar to that of human ceruloplasmin.

Enhancement of macrophage tumoricidal activity by a serum glycoprotein that increased in OK-432-treated mice.

An antitumor protein that increased in the serum of OK-432-treated mice showed an enhancing effect on the tumor cell killing by OK-432-elicited macrophages as measured by the 51Cr release test. This protein, designated as LB, also enhanced the cytolytic effect of macrophages on normal target cells, although the activity was lower toward normal cells than tumor cells. On the other hand, LB exhibited no effect on normal, thioglycolate-elicited, or heat-inactivated OK-432-elicited macrophages. The effect of LB on the binding of tumor cells to macrophage monolayers was also examined. On the addition of LB, OK-432-elicited macrophages became capable of binding more tumor cells than before. As in the cytolytic assay, the increased binding by the macrophages was not selective for tumor cells, and normal macrophages did not increase the binding of tumor cells upon the addition of LB. These results indicate that LB enhances macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity by increasing intimate binding between the OK-432-elicited macrophages and their target cells.