The Effects of Hyperfiltration on Serum Sickness Glomerulonephritis in Rats

The effects of hyperfiltration induced due to unilateral nephrectomy on immunologically induced glomerular injuries were studied. Glomerulonephritis was induced in rats by sensitizing them with egg albumin as an antigen. Unilateral nephrectomy did not affect the removal rate of the antigen from the glomeruli in the rats, but accelerated the rate of the glomerular injuries after cessation of the immunologically induced glomerular inflammation. The histopathological features were characterized by sciero-adhesive lesions with aneurysmal dilatation and hyalinosis of the glomerular capillaries. The parietal epithelial cells extended from the Bowman's capsule with matrices to cover the denuded basement membrane and formed adhesions. The neighboring capillaries collapsed, and the sclero-adhesive lesions progressed. These findings indicate that hyperfiltration at the capillary level did not accelerate the recovery from glomerulonephritis, but induced glomerular sclerosis with adhesions and deteriorated the trivial glomerular injuries to produce similar focal segmental lesions.     

Marked sequence diversity in the putative envelope proteins of hepatitis C viruses.

The nucleotide sequences of cDNAs (414 base pairs) encoding parts of putative envelope proteins (gp35 and gp70) of 40 isolates of hepatitis C virus (HCV-J) derived from 30 independent plasma or liver specimens from Japanese patients (13 with chronic hepatitis, 14 with hepatocellular carcinoma and 3 hemophiliacs who had received imported clotting factors), were analyzed using the polymerase chain reaction. Approximately 29-38% of the nucleotide sequences of the HCV-J isolates examined differed from those of isolates from the United States (HCV-US). Furthermore, 12-24% and 8-17% sequence diversities were found within the isolates of HCV-J and HCV-US, respectively. The diversities of the amino acid sequences were the same or greater than those of the nucleotide sequences. We confirmed that two hypervariable regions (HVR1 and HVR2) were present in this amplified region, as described in our previous report (Hijikata et al., 1991a) and we found that the HVR1 regions of HCV-J and HCV-US were 27 and 21 amino acids in length, respectively, and began from the N-terminal amino acid of gp70. HVR2 was found in HCV-J, but not in HCV-US isolates, in which the corresponding region of the genome was conserved. During the analysis, plural HCV genomes were found in 6 of 30 specimens. These plural HCV genomes in a single specimen were concluded to be derived from the same HCV ancestor, because of their relative low sequence diversities (about 10% in their nucleotide sequences).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The effects of propranolol on the bronchoconstriction by histamine, acetyl-beta-methylcholine and anaphylaxis in inbred guinea pigs in vivo.

Propranolol enhanced the anaphylaxis reaction more than the reaction to histamine and mecholyl in inbred strain guinea pigs. These results suggest the presence of beta receptors on mast cells and that there are genetic differences in the reaction to mediators and antigens among these strains of guinea pigs.     

QT interval and QT dispersion in eating disorders

BACKGROUND: Eating disorders are thought to be risk factors for cardiac sudden death secondary to arrhythmia. Results in previous studies on QT interval and QT dispersion, markers of fatal arrhythmia, have been inconsistent. METHODS: We prospectively examined 179 female eating disorder patients, being over 18 years old and diagnosed according to the DSM-IV criteria between January 1995 and December 2002, and 52 healthy women. Patients with abnormal plasma electrolytes or taking medications that might influence the electrocardiogram (ECG) were excluded from the study. QT intervals were corrected for heart rate using Bazett's formula and the nomogram method, which is more reliable at extremely low heart rates than Bazett's formula. QT dispersion was measured as the difference between the longest and shortest QT intervals. QT intervals and QT dispersion in each patient group were compared with those in the control group. RESULTS: The 164 eligible patients consisted of 43 patients with anorexia nervosa restricting type, 35 with anorexia nervosa binge eating/purging type, 63 with bulimia nervosa purging type, and 23 with bulimia nervosa non-purging type. There was no significant difference in age between eating disorder patients and controls. QT interval and QT dispersion were significantly longer in all eating disorder subtypes than in the control group. QT interval and QT dispersion were significantly correlated with the rate of body weight loss in bulimia nervosa. CONCLUSIONS: QT interval and QT dispersion were prolonged in both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Examination of ECG in eating disorder patients without extremely low body weight also appears to be clinically important.     

Monoclonal antibodies against human erythrocyte membrane antigens and their reactivities with hematopoietic cells

Four monoclonal antibodies against human erythrocyte membrane antigens were established. The antigenic determinants of KOR-E1, E3, E6 were Pr1h antigen, Wrb antigen, and the trypsin sensitive portion of glycophorin A (EnaTS) respectively. The antigen recognized by KOR-E4 could not be determined. The reactivities of these antibodies with normal hematopoietic cells, malignant hematopoietic cell lines (N = 31), and fresh leukemic cells obtained from 128 patients with various types of leukemias were studied. All antibodies reacted only with erythrocytes among peripheral blood cells, and also KOR-E6 reacted only with erythroid cells among bone marrow cells. KOR-E3 had no reactivity with any cell lines examined, and KOR-E1 and KOR-E4 were reactive with some lymphoid cell lines. However, KOR-E6 had specific reactivities with erythroid (HEL, K562), megakaryocytic (CMK-1), multiphenotypic (KOPM-28), and basophilic (KU-812) cell lines. The antigen (glycophorin A) recognized by KOR-E6 was expressed on a small population of mononuclear cells separated from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (3/70), acute myelogenous leukemia (2/12), monosomy 7-myeloproliferative disorder (1/1), juvenile CML (1/1), and transient myeloproliferative disorder with Down's syndrome (4/12), although it could not be determined whether these cells were leukemic cells or not. KOR-E6 was reactive with a large population of leukemic blasts in erythroleukemia (2/2) and acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (3/6). Thus, KOR-E6 appears to be an erythroid marker of leukemic cells.