Quartromicin, a complex of novel antiviral antibiotics. I. Production, isolation, physico-chemical properties and antiviral activity.

A strain of Amycolatopsis orientalis No. Q427-8 (ATCC 53884) was found to produce a complex of new antiviral antibiotics, quartromicin which consisted of at least six components A1, A2, A3, D1, D2 and D3. Structural studies suggested that they are a novel type of molecules unrelated to any known antibiotics. Each component of quartromicin exhibited antiviral activity against herpes simplex virus type 1, influenza virus type A and human immunodeficiency virus.     

Serial diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) in a patient with sporadic Creuztfeldt-Jakob disease]

Serial DWIs were performed in a patient with CJD who developed symptoms acutely and progressed rapidly. DWI discloed an increased signal in the frontal and parietal inner cortical areas, and in the caudate nuclei and putamina 20 days after the onset of symptoms. T2-weighted images showed only signal abnormality in the caudate nuclei and putamina, but not in the cerebral cortex. In the CSF obtained 15 days after the onset of symptoms, total tau protein was markedly elevated and 14-3-3 protein was positive. Measurement of these proteins are highly specific and sensitive for the diagnosis of CJD, but not available as a rapid routine examination at present. DWI is not specific, but useful for making the diagnosis of CJD in the early stage of the disease.     

Successful mitral valve repair for active infective endocarditis accompanied by anorexia nervosa

Infective endocarditis of the mitral area accompanied by anorexia nervosa is extremely rare. A 34-year-old Japanese woman presented with high fever and a heart murmur that had developed over the previous 2-month period. Echocardiography revealed mitral regurgitation and vegetation attached to the anterior mitral leaflet, which had markedly prolapsed to the left atrium. We removed the vegetation with a small part of the anterior mitral leaflet and successfully repaired the mitral valve. The patient showed good recovery, and the mitral regurgitation and left ventricular chamber size had satisfactorily decreased at 2 months after the operation.     

Effect of tacrolimus and partial hepatectomy on transthyretin metabolism in rats

Liver transplantation, which serves as treatment of familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP), and domino liver transplantation, which utilizes resected livers from patients with FAP for treatment of liver diseases, may induce changes in transthyretin (TTR), a pathogenic FAP-related protein. To evaluate this possibility, we performed a 70% hepatectomy or administered tacrolimus to Dark Agouti (DA) rats for 7 days and then measured changes in liver TTR mRNA levels and changes in serum TTR concentrations. After hepatectomy, TTR mRNA levels decreased by 77%; at day 3, they returned to preoperative levels. Except for slightly elevated serum TTR concentrations 12 h after operation, serum TTR levels remained unchanged. Thus, partial hepatectomy did not influence serum TTR concentrations. After tacrolimus administration, TTR mRNA declined by 56% 12 h after the experiment started; however, after day 3, a rebound phenomenon occurred until day 7. Tacrolimus may facilitate serum TTR degradation, although production of TTR in the liver also increased. This finding -- that TTR, the source of FAP-inducing amyloid, did not increase after transplantation -- may help post-transplantation treatment of patients who have FAP and other liver diseases.     

Solitary right ventricle metastasis by renal cell carcinoma.

A 57-year-old man with a history of renal cell carcinoma presented with presyncope. He underwent nephrectomy years earlier followed by HLA-matched allogeneic peripheral-blood stem-cell transplantation. Echocardiographic investigation revealed a solitary right ventricle mass without contiguous vena caval or right atrial involvement. The mass was pathologically confirmed to be metastatic carcinoma in the right ventricular cavity. This case highlights the need to consider an underlying neoplastic syndrome in patients presenting isolated right ventricle mass by echocardiography.     

Delayed onset massive oedema and deterioration in traumatic brain injury.

A 52-year-old man fell from standing and a computed tomography (CT) scan revealed traumatic intracerebral haematoma and subarachnoid haemorrhage in the temporal cortex. He was treated without surgery and discharged. On day 30 after the accident, he had no neurological deficit. On day 37 he complained of headache and urinary incontinence, and on day 39 he was hospitalized due to progressive neurological deterioration (reduced conciousness, dilated pupils, and left hemiplegia). A CT scan revealed a diffuse low-density in the right cerebral hemisphere with marked midline shift. Emergency decompressive craniectomy and right temporal lobectomy were performed. Angiography after surgery revealed moderate vasospasm in the right middle and anterior cerebral arteries. The patient remained severely disabled. Delayed onset neurological deterioration can be caused by brain oedema and vasospasm after traumatic brain injury, despite an intervening period of improvement.     

Endogenous bone-marrow-derived stem cells contribute only a small proportion of regenerated myocardium in the acute infarction model.

BACKGROUND: Our recent study showed that granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) promoted bone-marrow cells (BMC) to migrate into the infarcted heart and that they differentiated into cardiomyocytes. However, we still do not know to what degree bone-marrow-derived cardiomyocytes contribute to myocardial regeneration after injury. In this study, we verified the proportional contribution of cells from bone marrow (BM) and from non-bone marrow (n-BM) in regenerating neomyocardium after myocardial infarction. METHODS: Eight C57BL/6 mice were irradiated (900 cGy), and green fluorescent protein (GFP) mouse-derived BMCs (GFP-BMC, 1 x 10(6) cells) were injected. Four weeks later, the left descending coronary artery was ligated. Recombinant human G-CSF (200 microg/kg/day, 8 days) was injected. At 4 weeks after ligation, hearts were fixed for histology. We calculated the proportions of cardiomyocytes derived from BM and n-BM after taking the chimeric rate into consideration. RESULTS: The chimeric rate was 54.6% +/- 5.9%. At the infarcted border area, the total cell number was 1000.3 +/- 56.5/mm(2), and mobilized BM-derived GFP-BMC was 103.3 +/- 13.1/mm(2). After compensation with the chimeric rate, we found BM-derived troponin I-positive cells at 23.9 +/- 4.1/mm(2), nestin-positive cells at 12.9 +/- 2.6/mm(2), and Ki67-positive cells at 18.3 +/- 2.6/mm(2), respectively. We found significant differences in the contribution of troponin I-(6.7% +/- 1.7% vs 93.3% +/- 1.7%), nestin- (2.4 +/- 0.5 vs 97.6 +/- 0.5), and Ki67-positive (3.9 +/- 1.0 vs 96.1 +/- 1.0) cells derived from BM and n-BM. CONCLUSIONS: Bone marrow was one of the origins of regenerated cardiomyocytes; however, the contribution of cells from BM was very small compared with those of n-BM origin in the infarction model.     

A short daytime test using correlation dimension for respiratory movement in OSAHS.

In order to examine the pathology in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS), the nonlinear properties of respiratory movement and breath-to-breath variations during resting wakefulness with eyes closed was investigated. Recording of the respiratory movement using inductive plethysmography was performed on 14 patients with OSAHS and 13 control subjects for 2 h in the supine position during daytime. To calculate the correlation dimension (D2) for respiratory movement, an algorithm proposed by Grassberger and Procaccia was applied. The indices of breath-to-breath variations were estimated. To calculate D2 and breath-to-breath variations, two different segments were selected (200 s each). The value of D2 for respiratory movement in patients with OSAHS was significantly greater than that in control subjects. In the case of > or = 2.0 of D2 for respiratory movement, the sensitivity and specificity of detecting the presence of OSAHS was 85.7% and 76.9%, respectively. On the basis of breath-to-breath variations, only the coefficient of variation of expiratory time for respiratory movement in patients with OSAHS was significantly greater than that in the control subjects. In conclusion, the measurements of correlation dimensions for respiratory movement with a brief period during wakefulness may be a useful index for identifying patients with obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome.     

Local muscimol disinhibits mesolimbic dopaminergic activity as examined by brain microdialysis and Fos immunohistochemistry

Infusion of muscimol (5×10⁻⁵ M, 60 min) into the nucleus accumbens (NAC) through a dialysis membrane caused a significant increase in extracellular dopamine (DA) and its metabolite, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC). Fos-like immunoreactivity induced by intra-NAC infusion of muscimol was seen ipsilaterally in many accumbofugal target areas, but no Fos-positive neurons were seen in the vicinity of the dialysis membrane in the NAC. Sequential staining of Fos and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivities revealed that a portion of A10 dopaminergic neurons were double-labelled. These results suggest that muscimol in the NAC disinhibits mesolimbic DA neuronal activity possibly through activity of the accumbofugal GABA neuron system.