Jaws of Japanese

Some of main morphological differences among ancient and modern Japanese are seen in the regions of masticatory apparatus; for example, in temporal line, mandibular notch, angle of mandible, occlusion, and tooth wear. Here I review the secular trend in morphology of masticatory apparatus from the Pleistocene age to the early modern period.     

Insulin resistance contributes to obesity-related proteinuria

OBJECTIVE: Proteinuria is a recognized complication of obesity, but the pathogenesis remains unclear. We undertook the present study to clarify the factors contributing to proteinuria associated with obesity. METHODS: We studied 12 obese patients with proteinuria. Twenty-seven age-matched obese subjects without proteinuria served as controls. A glucose tolerance test and renal biopsy were performed in all patients. Fasting serum insulin and homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were regarded as reflecting insulin resistance. To delineate the relation between insulin resistance and proteinuria, troglitazone, which acts an insulin sensitizer was given to 6 of 12 patients with a regular diet for 8 weeks. The 6 others were observed without receiving troglitazone. RESULTS: The 12 patients showed the presence of a cluster of insulin resistance factors: higher blood pressure, higher body mass index, higher fasting plasma glucose, higher fasting serum insulin, and higher HOMA-IR than controls. The renal biopsy specimens exhibited no histological abnormalities in 7, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis in 3 and benign nephrosclerosis in 2. Troglitazone attenuated HOMA-IR and ameliorated proteinuria, but did not affect body weight, creatinine clearance, or blood pressure. In contrast, the parameters in the patients not given troglitazone did not change. CONCLUSION: Insulin resistance is a factor contributing to obesity-related proteinuria. The role of insulin resistance as a factor reducing proteinuria remains to be clarified.     

Integration of mutations responsible for the attenuated phenotype of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pepper mild mottle virus</Emphasis> strains results in a symptomless cross-protecting strain

Summary. An enhanced attenuated strain of Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) was constructed by incorporating mutations that affect viral attenuation from three reported attenuated strains of PMMoV, which causes serious economic losses in the production of green pepper in Japan. The new strain caused no symptoms on pepper plants and protected them from infection by a wild-type strain. The mutations responsible for viral attenuation were located in the intervening region (IR) of the 126-kDa/183-kDa proteins. The mutations had synergistic effects in terms of the attenuation of symptoms and decreased the accumulation of the viral coat protein in infected pepper plants. In this paper, we propose an efficient method for the improvement of attenuated viruses by reverse genetics in plant viruses.Current address: Nagasaki Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, 3118 Kaizuchou, Isahaya, Nagasaki 854-0063, Japan.     

Regional changes in the activities of aminergic biosynthetic enzymes in the brains of hypertensive rats.

The activities of monoamine biosynthetic enzymes were measured in brain regions of several hypertensive rat models at various ages. The types of hypertensive rats were the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and a stroke-prone substrain of the SHR as well as DOCA-salt and renal hypertensive rats. The genetically hypertensive rats had significantly elevated blood pressures as compared to the Wistar-Kyoto control rat after 5 weeks of age. During the early development of hypertension in the SHR, the activities of tyrosine hydroxylase in the hypothalamus and corpus striatum and of dopamine-beta-hydroxylase in the hypothalamus and pons-medulla were significantly higher than in the control rats. Tryptophan-hydroxylase was also elevated in the hypothalamus in SHR. From 3 to 8 weeks of age there appeared to be a significant correlation between hypothalamic dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity and blood pressure in the hypertensive rats. In contrast, the activities of tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase were slightly decreased in the DOCA-salt and renal hypertensive rats. It is suggested that noradrenergic or adrenergic neurons in the hypothalamus may participate in the initiation of elevated blood pressure in the genetic, but not in the DOCA-salt or renal hypertensive rats.     

GalNAc-GD1a is localized specifically in ventral spinal roots, but not in dorsal spinal roots

We investigated the localization of GalNAc-GD1a biochemically in the human and bovine peripheral nervous system (PNS). The high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC)-overlay method with rabbit IgG polyclonal antibody against GalNAc-GD1a (anti-GalNAc-GD1a antibody) revealed expression of GalNAc-GD1a in the ventral spinal nerve roots (VRs) but not in the dorsal spinal nerve roots (DRs) of both species. The amount of GalNAc-GD1a in the human and bovine VRs was 2.22 +/- 0.35 microg/g wet tissue and 7.71 +/- 0.49 microg/g wet tissue, respectively. These results suggest that IgG anti-GalNAc-GD1a antibody may be involved in disturbance of peripheral motor nerves and in the pathogenesis of pure motor neuropathy.     

Correlation between responsiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and apoptosis-associated proteins for cervical adenocarcinoma

OBJECTIVE: Adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix appears to be increasing in prevalence and it has been suggested that these tumors tend to be less sensitive to radiation therapy and to chemotherapy than squamous carcinomas. In the present study, 29 patients with locally advanced cervical adenocarcinoma (bulky IB-IVB) were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) using cisplatin, aclacinomycin-A and mitomycin-C, followed by radical surgery or irradiation. METHODS: To predict the prognosis and response to the chemotherapy, the expression of apoptosis associated-proteins, p53, p21WAF1/CIP1, Bcl-2 and activated caspase-3 was evaluated for tumor samples by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Of the analyzed clinicopathological factors, the overexpression of p53 was frequently observed in endocervical-type adenocarcinoma, nonresponders to chemotherapy and the grade 0 histologic effect of the chemotherapy. Positive staining of Bcl-2 was frequently observed in the early stage and had a better prognosis than for patients with the negative staining; however, there was no correlation between responders and nonresponders to chemotherapy. The expression of p21WAF1/CIP1 and caspase-3 was not correlated to the clinicopathological factors. CONCLUSION: In this study, the overexpression of p53 was found to be a factor to predict the chemoresistance and positive expression of Bcl-2 indicated as a better prognostic value. For p21WAF1/CIP1 and caspase-3, further analysis is necessary.