The impact of rituximab prophylaxis on hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after living donor liver transplantation

Aim: Rituximab is administered for ABO blood type incompatibility or donor-specific anti-HLA (human leukocyte antigen) antibody-positive liver transplantation (...     

A case of retrosplenial amnesia

A case of retrosplenial amnesia was reported. The patient was an 81-year-old right-handed male. He developed amnesic syndrome following cerebral infarction situated left retrosplenial region. His immediate memory was preserved. Recent memory for both verbal and nonverbal modalities was disturbed. He also showed retrograde amnesia for 2 years. The is the first report of retrosplenial amnesia in Japan. We should take into account of the retrosplenial region as a causative site of amnesic syndrome.     

Phasic and tonic components of gustatory response in the frog.

Characteristics of phasic and tonic responses of the frog glossopharyngeal nerve to various salts were examined under a variety of conditions. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1) The salt concentration of adapting solutions affected greatly the phasic component of the responses to NaCl, KCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2, whereas the tonic component was independent of the adapting condition. 2) Either the phasic or tonic component was preferentially suppressed under appropriate conditions. 3) An abrupt rise of temperature of stimulating solution produced a phasic response. Magnitude of the phasic response induced by a rise of temperature was a function of both species and concentration of salts in the stimulating solution. 4) Binding of Hg2+ to the receptor and elimination of the bound Hg2+ by mercaptoethanol gave similar large phasic response. A slow elimination of the bound Hg2+ led to no response. It was concluded that a phasic response appears only when environments such as salt concentration or temperature are changing and that its magnitude is related to the rate of changes, whereas a tonic response represents information of the receptor membrane in an equilibrium state. Discussion on the obtained results was made under an assumption that the phasic response is attributed to a dynamic conformational change of the receptor membrane.     

Role of bradykinin in the vascular permeability response induced by carrageenin in rats.

1 Bradykinin in carrageenin-induced inflammatory pouch fluid was measured by an enzyme immunoassay method. 2 The bradykinin showed a single peak in the 30-60 min period after the challenge and then decreased quickly, and there was a correlation between the bradykinin level and exudation of fluorescein-labelled bovine serum albumin in the first 60 min period. 3 Captopril (an inhibitor of kininase II) elevated both the bradykinin level in the inflammatory pouch fluid and vascular permeability, while DL-2-mercaptomethyl-3- guanidinoethylthiopropanoic acid (an inhibitor of kininase I) had no effect. 4 Soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI) inhibited the vascular permeability response in parallel with the decrease in the bradykinin level. 5 A bradykinin-degrading activity appeared in the pouch fluid within 1 h after the challenge and increased with time. 6 In the period of 3.5-4 h, bradykinin levels were suppressed below the sensitivity limit of the assay, i.e. 0.07 nm ml-1, in spite of active generation. This was because degradation of bradykinin was very rapid in this late stage. Nevertheless, bradykinin still played a definite role in sustaining a high level of vascular permeability response in the late stage in conjunction with prostaglandins.     

Intracerebral transplantation of dissociated central nervous system tissue suspensions: use of phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin as a cell marker

Successfully transplanted neurons and their sprouting processes were demonstrated by Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PHA) marking. PHA is transported anterogradely and readily reveals the post-transplantation growth of the neuronal processes. Suspensions of fetal central nervous tissue, prepared by dissociation of embryonic rat brain, were marked with PHA and then transplanted into the striatum of nonimmunosuppressed young adult rats. At various intervals thereafter (1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, and 2 months), the animals were sacrificed for histological examination with PHA and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry. Up to 2 weeks after transplantation, PHA immunohistochemistry was capable of demonstrating grafted neurons and their presumably regenerated neuronal processes. However, at periods 1 month or longer after transplantation, PHA immunohistochemistry was unreliable. Thus, the PHA marking method has limitations in terms of its retention period, when applied to the intracerebral transplantation of dissociated cell suspensions. Nevertheless, the method presented here can be utilized to study neuronal regeneration as well as the relationship between transplanted neurons and the host tissue.     

Clinical significance of pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase (PyNPase) in breast cancer

To clarify the clinical significance of pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase (PyNPase) activity in breast cancer, we examined the possible correlation of PyNPase activity to clinicopathological features and prognosis in twenty-one patients with primary breast cancer from April 2000 to December 2001. Flow signals of tumors were analyzed by Power Doppler sonography (PDUS), and maximal velocity (V(max)) was calculated. PyNPase activity of resected specimens was assayed by ELISA method. PyNPase activities in resected cancerous tissue were 156.9+/-63.5 unit/mg (mean+/-SD), which were significantly higher than that in normal tissue (19.0+/-18.1 unit/mg, p<0.0001). PyNPase activity was positively correlated with tumor size (r=0.496, p=0.026) and V(max) (r=0.498, p=0.021). The disease free survival rate was significantly lower in the high PyNPase activity group than in the low PyNPase activity group. In overall survival rate, there was no significant difference between the high and low PyNPase activity groups. In the multivariate analysis, PyNPase activity was an independent predictor of postoperative recurrence (p=0.032). We suggest that PyNPase activity is associated with progression and proliferation of breast cancer, and that it may be useful for prediction of the prognosis.