Homologous carcinosarcoma of the uterine corpus--report of a case and review of the literature in Japan

A 59-year-old woman with leukorrhea. Aspiration smears were obtained from the uterine cavity. The dominant cellular components were fibrogenic sarcomatous cells, which had ill-defined lacy cytoplasm and a single nucleus with finely granular chromatin. There were occasional naked giant cells, and intracytoplasmic eosinophilic granules. Another infrequent cellular component was adenocarcinoma cells. Histopathologically, adenocarcinoma and spindle cell sarcoma were equivalently identified. Twenty-two cases of homologous carcinosarcoma of the uterine corpus were reviewed cytologically in Japan. Cytodiagnosis before treatment was positive for malignancy of carcinosarcoma in 28.6%. Characteristic cytological findings of this case were the presence of flat sheets of atypical cells with broad cytoplasm. These findings suggest epithelial features. However, the finely granular chromatin pattern and smooth nuclear membrane indicate sarcomatous cells.     

An autopsy case of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy (MELAS) with special reference to extra-neuromuscular abnormalities.

An autopsy case of a 37-year-old man with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy is reported. Ragged-red fibers and crystalline inclusions in mitochondria were revealed by biopsy of the striated muscle of the patient. Mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) was diagnosed clinically. In addition to severe atrophy and degeneration of the generalized striated muscles and many foci of laminar necrosis of the cerebral cortex, the following abnormalities were observed: 1) hypertrophy of the myocardium, 2) fatty change of the liver, 3) focal sclerosis of the glomeruli and dilatation of the tubules of the kidneys, 4) hyalinous degeneration of the Langerhans' islands of the pancreas and 5) wavy change of the smooth muscle fibers of the muscularis propria of the gastrointestinal tract. We suggest that mitochondrial encephalomyopathy affects various organs and tissues, among which susceptibility of the muscular tissues--skeletal muscle, myocardium and smooth muscle--is high.     

Bloom''s syndrome with porokeratosis of Mibeili and multiple cancers of the skin, lung and colon

A 38-year-old Japanese male with Bloom's syndrome (BS) and porokeratosis of Mibelli (PM) developed multiple carcinomas of the skin and lung. There were multiple, spontaneous chromosomal aberrations and frequent sister chromatid exchanges (SCE). Cutaneous delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions were defective and serum IgM was decreased. The lung cancer was treated with radiation, which was effective but caused a severe pulmonary atelectasis and esophageal stricture. The patient expired one-and-a-half years later because of pneumonia. Autopsy disclosed an adenocarcinoma of the colon. The concurrent PM was considered responsible for the occurrence of multiple skin cancers.     

The therapeutic effects of aspoxicillin on various infectious diseases in children

Clinical application to ascertain the effects of aspoxicillin (ASPC), a new semisynthetic penicillin antibiotic, upon several infectious diseases of children was performed in 7 cases with pneumonia, 5 cases with acute bronchitis, each case with tonsillitis, enterocolitis, urinary tract infection and suspected sepsis. ASPC was injected by drip infusion and the dosage was 63-117 mg/kg/day in 3 and 4 times a day. Clinical efficacy obtained as "excellent" was in 7 cases, "good" in 8 cases "poor" in 1 case, and efficacy rate was 93.8%. From the bacteriological point of view, eliminated in each of H. influenzae, H. parainfluenzae, group A beta-Streptococcus and unchanged in a case of E. coli. There were transient thrombocytopenia in 2 cases and eosinophilia in 3 cases.     

Immunohistochemical demonstration of DNA polymerase alpha in human brain-tumor cells

The proliferative capacity of brain-tumor cells was analyzed in vitro and in situ using monoclonal antibody (MAb) against deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) polymerase alpha. For the in vitro studies, two cultured human glioma cell lines were investigated using MAb against DNA polymerase alpha, the MAb Ki-67, a serum against proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA/cyclin), bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR), and an anti-BUdR MAb. During exponential growth of the cells, the percentage of polymerase alpha-positive cells (the "polymerase alpha score") ranged from 72.0% to 77.1%, the Ki-67-positive cells (the "Ki-67 score") ranged from 43.4% to 59.4%, the PCNA/cyclin-positive cells from 30.9% to 41.4%, and the BUdR labeling index from 28.6% to 39.3%. For the in situ studies, tissue from 60 human brain tumors and from two normal human brains was investigated and the polymerase alpha scores and Ki-67 scores were compared. In normal brain tissue, no immunostaining was found by either method. In brain tumors, both the polymerase alpha scores and the Ki-67 scores correlated with the histological grade of malignancy. Polymerase alpha scores were generally higher than Ki-67 scores in the same specimen, especially in malignant brain tumors. These findings suggest that immunostaining of DNA polymerase alpha is a convenient and important new method by which to estimate the cellular proliferation rate of brain tumors. Polymerase alpha scores may be closer to the growth fraction of the individual tumor than the MAb Ki-67 or other scores.     

The effects of inhalation of nebulized nitroglycerin on dogs with experimental pulmonary hypertension induced by U46619

Ｔｏｆｉｎｄａｓａｆｅ,ｓｉｍｐｌｅ,ｅｆｆｅｃｔｉｖｅａｎｄｓｅｌｅｃｔｉｖｅｐｕｌｍｏｎａｒｙｖａｓｏｄｉｌａｔｏｒ,ｗｅｔｅｓｔｅｄｔｈｅｅｆｆｅｃｔｉｖｅｎｅｓｓａｎｄｓａｆｅｔｙｏｆｉｎｈａｌｅｄｎｅｂｕｌｉｚｅｄｎｉｔｒｏｇｌｙｃｅｒｉｎ(ＮｅｂＮＴＧ)ｉｎｄｏｇｓｗｉｔｈｅｘｐｅｒｉｍｅｎｔａｌｐｕｌｍｏｎａｒｙｈｙｐｅｒｔｅｎｓｉｏｎ(ＰＨ)ｉｎｄｕｃｅｄｂｙｃｏｎｔｉｎｕｏｕｓｉｎｆｕｓｉｏｎｏｆａｔｈｒｏｍｂｏｘａｎｅａｎａｌｏｇｕｅ(Ｕ46619)ＴｈｅｕｓｅｏｆｉｎｔｒａｖｅｎｏｕｓＮ…     

Interaction of bloom-syndrome cellular cancer antigens with sera of malignant-lymphoma patients - an immunological and cytogenetical study

We have analyzed chromosome abnormalities in 32 B-cell lymphoma (B-ML), 29 T-cell lymphoma (T-ML) and 29 adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) patients and tested the reactivity of Bloom syndrome (BS) derived malignant lymphoma (ML) antigen with the sera in these patients with immunofluorescence (IF) and Western blotting (WB) protocols. Among the cases analyzed, 14q32 abnormalities were observed in 11 (B-ML), 8 (T-ML) and 10 (ATL) cases; these changes were accompanied by complex numerical and structural abnormalities. In the IF and WB analyses, the reactivity of BS ML antigen and ML sera showed high positivity in over 85% of ML cases and appeared to clearly raise the number of successful diagnoses as compared to the chromosome finding, giving 50-60% success in identifying ML. WB analyses demonstrated common ML antigen band at 97 KD (B-ML, T-ML and ATL). DNA analysis from BS ML antigen cells (BS-SHI-4M ML) showed rearranged fragments in both T-cell receptor (TCR alpha3 and immunoglobulin joining region (I(g)J(H) genes. The present findings of rearrangements of TCR alpha3 and I(g)J(H) in BS-SHI-4M ML antigen cells possibly support the common reactivity of BS ML antigen to B- and T-ML and ATL sera. The possible role of immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region (I(g)V(H) gene mutation and ML antigen expression is discussed.     

Intracellular activation and cytotoxic action of RS-1541 against cultured human tumor cells

RS-1541, an acyl-derivative of rhizoxin (Fig. 1), is a potent antitumor compound. This agent showed cytotoxicity in vitro on some cultured human tumor cells, although it was less potent than rhizoxin. Rhizoxin exhibited antitumor effects by inhibiting the polymerization of tubulin, whereas RS-1541 did not inhibit tubulin polymerization in vitro. However, cell cycle analysis in vivo showed that the two agents had the same mode of action. The cytotoxicity of RS-1541 was enhanced when the initial cell density of the cells was increased. The cytotoxicity was also enhanced when the membrane fraction of St-4 cells, which were the most sensitive to RS-1541 among the cell lines tested, was added to the target cells. When St-4 cells were incubated with [¹⁴C]-RS-1541, significant amounts of [¹⁴C]-rhizoxin were produced within the cells. Further fractionation of the crude membrane showed that the activity that enhanced the cytotoxicity of RS-1541 (RS-1541-enhancing activity) belonged to the mitochondrial-lysosomal fraction, not to the microsomal fraction. Both the enhancing activity and the activity that converting [¹⁴C]-RS-1541 to [¹⁴C]-rhizoxin (RS-1541-converting activity) were inhibited by treatment with chloroquine, an inhibitor of lysosomal function. Cholesterol esterase derived fromCandida cylindracea had RS-1541-enhancingand-converting activities. These data suggest that RS-1541 exerts its cytotoxic action after being converted to rhizoxin within the cells by a lysosomal enzyme such as cholesterol esterase.Abbreviations DMSO Dimethylsulfoxide - PBS(-) Ca²⁺ Mg²⁺-free phosphate-buffered saline - HCO60 hydrogenated castor oil polyethylene glycor ether - DMA dimethylacetamide - RSB reticulocyte standard buffer, consisting of 10mM NaCl, 1.5 mM MgCl₂, and 10 mM TRIS-HCl, (pH 7.4) - TLC thin-layer chromatography - ara-C 1--D-arabinofuranosylcytosine - LDL low-density lipoprotein