A clinicopathological review of 12 autopsied cases of adult T-cell leukemia

Twelve autopsied cases with adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) were reviewed clinicopathologically. The prognosis of three cases who had suffered from severe cutaneous lesions was much better than that of the other nine cases with no or negligible cutaneous lesions. The surface marker of leukemic cells from six cases was ordinary inducer/helper phenotype (OKT4+ and 8-), but in one case leukemic cells showed OKT4+ and 8+. In another case, a significant amount of leukemic cell infiltration was found in the thymic cortex. Calcium content in the bone of ATL cases was lower than that of the patients without ATL (control group), and six cases with ATL (50%) were complicated by severe hypercalcemia. Neither adenoma nor hyperplasia of the parathyroid glands was found in any case. In most severely hypercalcemic patients, bone trabeculae were actively absorbed by numerous osteoclasts and partly replaced by fibrous tissues. In two normocalcemic patients, skeletal calcium content was also markedly reduced by osteoporosis, but the activation of osteoclasts was inconspicuous. It was speculated that the manner of bone resorption in ATL cases was diverse and there were some clinicopathological subtypes in ATL from the viewpoints of cutaneous lesions, hypercalcemia, and bone lesions.     

Hepatoblastoma in an 82-year-old man. An autopsy case report

An autopsy case of adult hepatoblastoma is presented. The patient was an 82-year-old male with chronic hepatitis of 7 years' duration. The liver tumor was detected 6 months before death. Autopsy revealed a large hepatic tumor occupying about 80% of the entire liver. Histologically, the tumor showed typical features of mixed epithelial- and mesenchymal-type hepatoblastoma. The epithelial component consisted of fetal and embryonal cell types. The mesenchymal component showed primitive spindle-shaped cells with various degrees of cellularity. Chondroid areas and a few foci of osteoid formation were also present.     

Uneven distribution of enzymatic alterations on the liver cell surface in experimental extrahepatic cholestasis of rat.

The effect of bile duct ligation on enzyme activities in the subfractions of the rat liver plasma membrane was investigated. Two subfractions were isolated from the rat liver plasma membrane by homogenization and subsequent centrifugation in a discontinuous sucrose gradient. The light subfraction contained fragments of the bile canalicular surface and the heavy fraction contained fragments of the sinusoidal and lateral surfaces of the hepatocyte. Bile duct ligation decreased NaK ATPase and Mg-ATPase activity in the light subfraction, whereas it had no significant effect on these enzyme activities in the heavy fraction. Leucyl-β-naphthylamidase activity was reduced and alkaline phosphatase activity was increased in both subfractions. These facts suggested that ligation of the bile duct led to loss of the secretory polarity of the liver cell. The in vitro effects of some bile acids on the membranebound enzymes in the light subfraction were investigated, and a possible involvement of chenodeoxycholic acid in the alteration of enzyme activities in the bile canalicular membrane was suggested.     

Clinical significance of determination of serum RNase activities in patients with eosinophilia--II. Measurements using polyuridylic acid and polycytidylic acid as substrates

The activities of RNase (RNase-U and RNase-C) were determined in the serum and leukocytes of 277 patients with 14 cases of various kinds of eosinophilia (not less than 10(3)/microliters), 28 cases of chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), using polyuridylic acid and polycytidylic acid as synthetic substrates according to the method of Raddi et al. Serum RNase-U activity, serum RNase-C activity and the activity ratio (U/C x 10(-3)) were 55 +/- 14 U, 1,280 +/- 235 U and 44 +/- 11 (mean +/- SD), 196 +/- 137, 1,992 +/- 1,134 U and 97 +/- 38, and 110 +/- 50 U, 1,854 +/- 625 U and 65 +/- 13 for normal subjects, eosinophilia and CML (untreated), respectively. U/C ratio in eosinophilia and CML (untreated) showed a highly significant positive correlation (p less than 0.001) with peripheral eosinophil count; the activity of serum RNase-U per cells in the supernatant of eosinophil homogenate rose significantly (p less than 0.001) compared with that of lymphocytes or granulocytes. Besides, serum and eosinophil RNase-U had a similar optimal pH. These results suggested that serum RNase-U in eosinophilia originated mostly from eosinophils and its rise was correlated strongly with the increase in eosinophils.     

Detection of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus infection by syncytia formation of human cells doubly transformed by Rous sarcoma virus and simian virus 40

Summary Human cells doubly transformed by Rous sarcoma virus and SV40 (RSb cells) formed syncytia by cocultivation with Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV)-producing cells. This cell fusion was blocked by anti-MPMV serum indicating that the phenomenon is MPMV specific. The RSb cells were successfully used for MPMV infectivity assay in the same manner as KC cells.With 1 Figure