Different projections of the central amygdaloid nucleus mediate autonomic and behavioral correlates of conditioned fear

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether lesions of areas projected to by the central amygdaloid nucleus (ACE) would disrupt the classical conditioning of autonomic and/or behavioral emotional responses. The areas studied included 3 projection targets of the ACE: the lateral hypothalamic area (LH), midbrain central gray (CG) region, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Lesions were made either electrolytically or by microinjection of ibotenic acid, which destroys local neurons without interrupting fibers of passage. Two weeks later, the animals were classically conditioned by pairing an acoustic stimulus with footshock. The next day, conditioned changes in autonomic activity (increases in arterial pressure) and emotional behavior ("freezing," or the arrest of somatomotor activity) evoked by the acoustic conditioned stimulus (CS) were measured during extinction trials. Electrolytic and ibotenic acid lesions of the LH interfered with the conditioned arterial pressure response, but did not affect conditioned freezing. Electrolytic lesions of the rostral CG disrupted conditioned freezing but not conditioned changes in arterial pressure. Ibotenic acid injected into the rostral CG reduced neither the arterial pressure nor the freezing response. Injection of ibotenic acid in the caudal CG, like electrolytic lesions of the rostral CG, disrupted the freezing, but not the arterial pressure response. Injection of ibotenic acid into the BNST had no effect on either response. These data demonstrate that neurons in the LH are involved in the autonomic, but not the behavioral, conditioned response pathway, whereas neurons in the caudal CG are involved in the behavioral, but not the autonomic, pathway. Different efferent projections of the central amygdala thus appear to mediate the behavioral and autonomic concomitants of conditioned fear.     

Prevalence of depressive symptoms in a Japanese occupational setting: a preliminary study.

We measured the prevalence of depressive symptoms in 2,190 Japanese tax office workers using the Japanese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Score distribution by sex was more symmetrical and the mean score of each sex was higher than in the United States population. A high level of depressive symptoms was found in 15.2 percent of males and 10.6 percent of females by controlling for age and marital status. Males aged 50 years and over had more depressive symptoms than other male age groups. Perceived stress, related both to family life and the workplace, was associated with a high level of depressive symptoms. "Long-distance marriage" ("business bachelorhood"), peculiar to Japanese occupations, had little influence on depressive symptomatology.     

Cell culture of clonal ginbuna crucian carp hematopoietic cells: differentiation of cultured cells into erythrocytes in vivo

We cultivated kidney hematopoietic cells from clonal triploid ginbuna crucian carp, Carassius auratus langsdorfii. Proliferating cells from hematopoietic cell cultures were harvested and injected into tetraploid hybrids (clonal triploid ginbuna and goldfish hybrid) which possess three sets of chromosomes from a triploid clone and a haploid set of chromosomes from goldfish (Carassius auratus). After injection of cultured triploid cells (donor cells), blood samples were obtained from tetraploid hybrids (recipients) every other week. Blood cells stained with acridine orange were measured by flow cytometry to trace the injected donor cells by means of differences in DNA content. Although erythrocytes were not produced in donor cell cultures, such cultures maintained precursor cells capable of differentiation into erythrocytes in vivo. After 4-12 weeks of transplantation, mature erythrocytes derived from the donors were observed in the blood circulation of the recipient fish. These results indicated that the ginbuna hematopoietic cell culture system is an in vivo situation suitable for the study of hematopoietic control mechanisms.     

Duct-Islet Cell Tumor of the Pancreas. A Case Report with Immunohistochemical and Electron Microscopic Findings

A case of pancreatic tumor with features of both duct and islet cell components was found incidentally at autopsy in a 76 year old male who had died of intrahepatic cholan-giocarcinoma. The tumor, measuring about l.0cm in diameter, was located in the pancreatic tail. The tumor was composed of two distinct cell populations, islet cells and duct cells. Immunocytochemically, nearly all of the former cells were positive for insulin but negative for cytokeratin, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and mucin, while the latter were positive for cytokeratin, CEA and mucin but negative for insulin. Additionally, a majority of the tumor cells that had formed islet-like structures were positive for neuron specific enolase (NSE), whereas NSE-positive cells were found only rarely in duct components. Electron microscopy confirmed the presence of two cell populations. Simultaneous occurrence of duct and islet cell components in a single pancreatic tumor indicates an intimate histogenetic relationship between pancreatic endocrine and duct cells. Acta Pathol Jpn 39: 328 335, 1989.     

PATHOLOGICAL STUDY ON AMYLOIDOSIS —RELATIONSHIP OF AMYLOID DEPOSITS IN THE AORTA TO AGING—

Senile aortic amyloidosis in 224 autopsy cases over 40 years was investigated comparing cardiac and pancreatic amyloidosis in them. A total of 176 cases of aortic amyloidosis was found for an average incidence of 79%. Under the 5th decade the incidence was 51% and it rose sharply with age and reached 95% in over the 8th decade. The incidence of cardiac amyloidosis also increased with age, but it was always higher in the aorta. Aortic and cardiac amyloid were both positive in the DMAB method for tryptophan. The major part exposed to amyloidosis in the aorta was the media. The medial amyloid consisted of numerous minute deposits and had no relation to atherosclerosis. Some comments about the pathogenesis of senile amyloidosis were also mentioned.     

Reduced-intensity unrelated cord blood transplantation for patients with advanced malignant lymphoma.

We report the results of reduced-intensity unrelated cord blood transplantation (RI-UCBT) in patients with advanced malignant lymphoma. Twenty patients (median age, 46.5 years; range, 27-66 years) underwent RI-UCBT with a preparative regimen consisting of fludarabine 125 mg/m2 , melphalan 80 mg/m 2 , and 4 Gy of total body irradiation. The median infused total cell dose was 2.75 x 10(7)/kg (range, 2.3-3.4 x 10(7)/kg). Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis was composed of cyclosporine or tacrolimus alone. Fifteen patients achieved primary neutrophil engraftment after a median of 20 days. Eight patients developed grade II to IV acute GVHD, and 2 developed chronic GVHD. Of the 16 patients with evaluable disease, 10 achieved a complete response. Primary disease recurred in 1 patient, and transplant-related mortality within 100 days occurred in 8 of 20 patients. The estimated 1-year probability of progression-free survival was 50%. These data suggest that RI-UCBT is a feasible option for patients with refractory lymphoma who lack an HLA-matched donor.     

CD44 variant 6 in endometrioid carcinoma of the uterus: its expression in the adenocarcinoma component is an independent prognostic marker

The expression of variant isoforms of CD44 (CD44v) correlates with the metastatic potential of various carcinomas. In endometrial cancer, however, the significance of CD44v-expression as a prognostic indicator has not been fully investigated, nor has it been compared with that of p53, estrogen receptor or Ki67. Surgical material consisted of 14 atypical endometrial hyperplasias (AEH) and 163 endometrial carcinomas (EC). Expression of CD44s, v3 and v6 in carcinoma tissue, and other prognostic markers were immunohistochemically evaluated. The expression in the squamous differentiation was strictly excluded for the evaluation of immunohistochemistry, because the significance was different from that in the adenocarcinoma component. CD44s was frequently expressed in AEH and EC. On the other hand, CD44v3- and v6-positivities were rare or nonexistent in AEH, but were observed in 8 and 35% of EC, respectively. CD44v3-expression correlated significantly with histologic grade and lymph node metastasis. However, there was no correlation between CD44v6 expression and any clinicopathologic factor, nor were other prognostic markers expressed. Univariate analysis revealed that each CD44 was a prognostic determinant in the patients with EC. However, employing multivariate analysis, there were only three independent factors: p53 overexpression, CD44v6 expression and myometrial invasion. CD44v6 expression in the adenocarcinoma component may directly affect the behavior of carcinoma and the prognosis of patients with EC.