Growth and Production of Steroid Saponin in Solanum aculeatissimum During One Vegetation Period

SOLANUM ACULEATISSIMUM (Solanaceae) plants, which were cultivated in the open field, were harvested once a month from June 1985 to January 1986. The growth matter and content of steroid saponins, aculeatiside A and B which are precursors of steroid hormones in root, were then measured in order to examine their seasonal variations during one vegetation period. The aerial parts of the plants died of chill and frost in January. In November the dry weight of root reached the maximum, and the content of steroid saponins was more than 10% and showed a maximum. The yield of steroid saponins per plant was greatest in November. These results suggest that November is the appropriate time for harvest, and that S. ACULEATISSIMUM can be more useful than the DIOSCOREA species which is now used as a source plant of steroid hormones.     

Association of the insertion/deletion polymorphism of the angiotensin I-converting enzyme gene in patients of migraine with aura

Recently, several angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and an angiotensin II receptor blocker were demonstrated to have a clinically important prophylactic effect in migraine. ACE is one of the key enzymes in the rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which modulates vascular tension and blood pressure. In humans, serum ACE levels are strongly genetically determined. Individuals who were homozygous for the deletion (D) allele showed increased ACE activity levels. To investigate the role of ACE polymorphism in headache, we analyzed the ACE insertion (I)/deletion (D) genotypes of 54 patients suffering from migraine with aura (MwA), 122 from migraine without aura, 78 from tension-type headache (TH), and 248 non-headache healthy controls. The ACE D allele were significantly more frequent in the MwA than controls (p<0.01). The incidence of the D/D genotype in MwA (25.9%) was significantly higher than that in controls (12.5%; p<0.01; odds ratio=5.26, 95% confidence interval: 1.69-16.34, adjusted for age and gender). No differences in the remaining groups were found. Our results support the conclusion that the D allele and the D/D genotype in the ACE gene is a genetic risk factor for Japanese MwA. There seems to be a possible relationship between ACE activity and the pathogenesis of migraine.     

Molecular design of biodegradable functional polymers, 3. Biodegradability and functionality of poly[(sodium acrylate)-co-(vinyl alcohol)]

As a design for a biodegradable functional polymer, compositionally homogeneous poly[(sodium acrylate)-co-(vinyl alcohol)] [P(SA-co-VA)], containing varying amounts of vinyl alcohol groups as biodegradable segments were prepared and their biodegradability and builder performance in detergent formulations were analyzed with respect to the successive vinyl alcohol length. It was found that the acrylate copolymers having more than 80 mol-% vinyl alcohol content showed biodegradability. That is, P(SA-co-VA) having a vinyl alcohol chain length of more than about 5–6 is cleaved by PVA-degrading microbes. This indicates that the vinyl alcohol blocks, which act as biodegradable segments, should be incorporated into the polymer chain in such a manner that they are accepted as substrates by the PVA-degrading enzymes.     

Overexpression of Ets-1 proto-oncogene in latent and clinical prostatic carcinomas

AIMS: The high incidence of clinically diagnosed prostatic cancer is exceeded by the frequency of tumours detected at autopsy. The Ets-1 proto-oncogene is expressed by a variety of malignant and normal tissues. Therefore, in this study, expression of Ets-1 protein was investigated in 'latent' prostatic cancer detected at autopsy, compared with benign prostatic hyperplasia, normal prostatic tissues and clinical prostatic cancer. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using immunohistochemistry, we analysed Ets-1 expression in 95 prostatic specimens including 19 cases of latent prostatic carcinoma (LPC) and 55 cases of clinical prostatic carcinoma (CPC), 11 cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and 10 cases of normal prostate (NP). Differences in the incidence of LPC and CPC suggest different courses for the biological progression of prostatic cancer. There was a significant difference in the degree of Ets-1 expression in CPC and LPC (P < 0.05). Ets-1 was not expressed in BPH and NP, but in malignant cases (57 of 74; 77.0%) commonly demonstrated immunoreactivity in the tumour cells. In our study the expression of Ets-1 between benign and malignant, and well, moderately and poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas of prostatic cancer showed significant differences. The presence of Ets-1 mRNA was confirmed by in-situ hybridization in human prostatic tissues. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that Ets-1 might play an important role in carcinogenesis and/or the progression of human prostatic carcinomas.     

INTRAUTERINE CANDIDA INFECTION IN PREMATURE BABY

An autopsy case of pulmonary candidiasis occurring in a neonatal girl was reported. The mycological examination of the lung taken at autopsy revealed only Candida albicans and followed by the elucidation under the microscopic sections prepared with special stains; periodic acid-Schiff and methenamine silver, in the lung, stomach, umbilical cord, and amnion. The presence of Candida vaginitis in her mother supported the concept that Candida albicans was the etiological agent of the pulmonary candidiasis.     

Immunosuppressive activity induced by nitric oxide in culture supernatant of activated rat alveolar macrophages.

Alveolar macrophages (AM) from normal rats had immunosuppressive activity to mitogen-induced proliferative responses of splenic lymphocytes. We studied the mechanism and the implication of the nitric oxide synthetase pathway in AM-mediated suppression of concanavalin A (Con A)-induced lymphocyte proliferation. The culture supernatant from AM cultures alone did not have immunosuppressive activity to Con A-induced proliferative responses of non-adherent spleen cells (n-ad SC), but the culture supernatant from co-culture of AM and autologous n-ad SC had this activity. Con A-pulsed AM also liberated the immunosuppressive factor. When AM and autologous n-ad SC were cultured separately under the condition that medium could freely communicate, the culture supernatant did not suppress the Con A-induced proliferative response of n-ad SC. This indicated that the immunosuppressive factor was liberated when AM was activated by cell-to-cell contact with n-ad SC. Further, we examined the immunosuppressive activity of the culture supernatant of co-culture of AM and autologous n-ad SC to Con A-induced responses of allogeneic n-ad SC and xenogeneic murine n-ad SC, and allogeneic mixed leucocyte reaction, and found that this culture supernatant could suppress all these proliferative responses. Nitrate (NO2-) synthesis was markedly augmented in the culture supernatants of Con A-pulsed AM and co-culture of AM and n-ad SC. NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (MMA), a specific competitive inhibitor of the nitric oxide synthetase pathway (NOSP), extinguished both NO2- synthesis by AM and AM-mediated immunosuppressive activity. These data suggest that NOSP was important in AM-mediated suppression of Con A-induced lymphocyte proliferation.     

Modulation of endotoxin-induced histamine synthesis by cytokines in mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages

Inflammation Research -     

Evaluation of a Membrane Filter Assay System, Ortho HCV Ab Quik Pack, for Detection of Anti-Hepatitis C Virus Antibody

A simple membrane immunoassay assay system, Quik Pack, for the detection of hepatitis C virus antibody was compared with two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) in a study of 600 serum samples. Quik Pack exhibited excellent sensitivity and specificity: 96.0 and 99.7%, respectively, versus the ELISA-2 and 99.7 and 99.4%, respectively, versus the ELISA-3.