Conditions That May Determine Blood Vessel Phenotype in Tissues Grafted to Brain

The hypothesis, that a blood vessel's phenotype is determined by the tissue it vascularizes and not by the vessel's source, does not hold for tissue beyond a certain period of development. In mature skeletal muscle grafted to choroid plexus of adult and 2-week-old rats, some vessels were choroidal or fenestrated (FV) rather than, according to the hypothesis, continuous (CV), like those of muscle. In E14 fetal muscle placed on the choroid plexus, 80% of the grafts' capillaries were CV, like those of muscle. Most choroidal FV that entered the grafts were apparently changed to CV. By E16, about 70% of the graft vessels remained as FV rather than being converted. Thus, FV were changed to CV by a hypothetical conversion factor made, apparently, by E14 grafts but not by E16 grafts. In grafts from [³H]thymidine-labeled donors, an appreciable number of CV in E14 grafts were identified as intrinsic to the muscle. When hosts were labeled to verify the origin of FV in their nonlabeled donor grafts, only a few FV, to date, were tagged. The FV must have come from host choroid plexus, the only available source of graft FV. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) might convert CV into FV, yet VEGF and the mRNA for its receptor were present in choroid plexus but not in the grafts. Therefore, VEGF is not a conversion factor. The purported factor that changes FV to CV may be expressed in E14 muscle grafts but diminishes by fetal age E16 and beyond.     

Body Mass Index,Body Height,and Subsequent Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Middle-Aged and Elderly Japanese Men and Women: Japan Public Health Center-Based Prospective Study

Objective To investigate the association of body mass index (BMI) or body height with colorectal cancer incidence in a population-based prospective study.Methods We identified 986 (626 men and 360 women) newly diagnosed cases of colorectal cancer during the 9.4-year follow-up of a cohort consisting of 102,949 (49,158 male and 53,791 female) middle-aged and elderly Japanese.Results Lower BMI groups (lower than 23) were not associated with colorectal cancer compared with the 23–24.9 BMI group. Any categories of 25–26.9, 27–29.9, or 30 or more BMI were associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer compared with the lower than 25 BMI (RR, 1.2 for 25–26.9, 1.4 for 27–29.9, and 1.5 for 30 or more; p for trend, 0.004) in men. These associations were more evident only in invasive-type cancer analysis. BMI was not associated with the risk of colorectal cancer in women. No significant association with height was obtained for either men or women.Conclusions The association of BMI with colorectal cancer was confirmed in a Japanese population as well as Western populations. Only invasive-cancer analysis suggested that BMI was important for tumor growth and proliferation. Approximately 6.7% of colorectal cancer was attributable to a BMI of 25 or higher in middle-aged and elderly Japanese men.     

Postoperative hyperperfusion associated with steal phenomenon caused by a small arteriovenous malformation

A 41-year-old woman presented with a small occipital arteriovenous malformation (AVM) manifesting as headache. Cerebral angiography showed an AVM in the right occipital lobe fed by the right temporooccipital artery and draining into the superior sagittal sinus and right transverse sinus. Single photon emission computed tomography showed the steal phenomenon in the ipsilateral temporal cortex fed by the main feeding artery preoperatively, and hyperperfusion in the same cortex after removal of the AVM. Postoperative systolic blood pressure was maintained between 100 and 120 mmHg to avoid disastrous hemorrhagic complications. Cerebral blood flow evaluation before and after surgery is important to avoid postoperative disastrous complications even in patients with small AVM.     

Transplantation of embryonic stem cell-derived neural stem cells for spinal cord injury in adult mice

AIMS: To investigate the efficacy of embryonic stem cell-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) for spinal cord injury (SCI) in mice and whether a combination treatment with thyroid hormone provides a more effective ES cell-based therapy. METHODS: Nestin-positive NSCs were induced from undifferentiated mouse ES cells by a step-by-step culture and used as grafts. Thirty-six mice were subjected to an SCI at Th10 and divided into three groups of 12. Graft cells were transplanted into the injury site 10 days after injury. Group 1 mice were left under observation without receiving graft cells, while mice in Group 2 received 2 x 104 graft cells, and those in Group 3 received 2 x 104 graft cells and were treated with a continuous intraperitoneal injection of thyroxin using osmotic mini-pumps. Behavioral improvement was assessed by a scoring system throughout the experimental period until post-transplantation day (PD) 28. RESULTS: Mice in Groups 2 and 3 demonstrated an improved behavioral function, as compared to those in Group 1 after PD 14. There was no significant difference in behavioral recovery between Groups 2 and 3. CONCLUSIONS: Transplantation of ES-NSCs into the injury site was effective for SCI, while thyroxine did not deliver additional effectiveness.     

De novo basilar top aneurysm in an elderly patient treated with Guglielmi detachable coils

Ruptured de novo aneurysms, compared with the usual subarachnoid hemorrhage, commonly occur in younger patients and are extremely rare in elderly patients. We discuss their etiology and report the case of a ruptured de novo aneurysm in a 77-year-old woman.     

Glucose attenuating local anesthetic-induced hemolysis

BACKGROUND: The effect of glucose on local anesthetic-induced neural damage has not been fully studied. We examined the effect of glucose on hemolysis induced by local anesthetics. METHODS: The mean EC50 values (the local anesthetic level that causes destruction of half of the red blood cells in vitro) of lidocaine HCl, tetracaine HCl and dibucaine HCl were determined with 0% and 7.5% glucose contained in Krebs solution at pH 6.4. RESULTS: The mean EC50 values of lidocaine HCl, tetracaine HCl, and dibucaine HCl in 0%-glucose Krebs solution were 6.51%, 0.45%, 0.17%, respectively, which increased significantly to 7.05%, 0.64% and 0.23%, in 7.5% glucose Krebs solution at pH 6.4. CONCLUSIONS: Glucose may have a protective role in local anesthetic-induced neural damage.     

Cancer mortality among Japanese immigrants and their descendants in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, 1999-2001

BACKGROUND: Only a few studies on the mortality of Japanese immigrants have been conducted in Brazil despite a large population of Japanese immigrants and their different environment and lifestyle from Japanese living in Japan. METHODS: To compare cancer mortality between Japanese in Japan and Japanese immigrants or Brazilians in the state of S?o Paulo, Brazil, we obtained official death certificates registered during 1999-2001. The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) or the standardized proportional mortality ratio (SPMR) of major cancer sites was calculated for the first generation of Japanese immigrants to Brazil (Japan-born), their Brazil-born Japanese descendants, and native Brazilians using mortality data of Japanese in Japan as a standard. RESULTS: The SMRs of stomach and colorectal cancer did not differ between the Japan-born residents of Brazil and the native Japanese, but significantly low SMRs were found among the native Brazilians. Compared with the native Japanese, we observed significantly lower SMRs for liver, gallbladder and lung cancer and significantly higher SMRs for prostate, cervical, and brain and nervous system cancer among both the Japan-born residents of Brazil and the Brazilians. Generally, the SPMR results were similar to those of the SMRs. Significantly high SPMRs for breast and uterine cancer were found for both the Japan- and Brazil-born residents of Brazil, although the Japan-born residents had increased SMRs, but not significantly so. CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed the different cancer mortality pattern in the Japanese immigrants from that in Japanese in Japan, thus demonstrating the relative importance of the environment in the development of cancer.     

Demographics,lifestyles, health characteristics,and dietary intake among dietary supplement users in Japan

BACKGROUND: The associations between supplement use and certain demographics, lifestyles, health characteristics, and dietary intakes have not been studied in a large population in non-Western societies. The objective of our study was to investigate the association between supplement use and demographics, lifestyles, health characteristics, and dietary intake in a population-based cohort study in Japan. METHODS: Subjects were the 78 531 participants (45-74 years) who completed a self-administered questionnaire in 1995 or 1998 in a 5-year follow-up survey by the Japan Public Health Center-based prospective Study on cancer and cardiovascular disease. The questionnaire included enquiries about supplement use, occupation, height, weight, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, dietary behaviours, working hours, subjective stress, as well as intakes for 138 foods. RESULTS: The supplement users were likely to have formerly smoked or never smoked. Female supplement users were likely to consume alcohol moderately. The prevalence of users was higher in the elderly, the self-employed, those with lower body mass index, greater physical activity, lower frequency of eating prepared food, higher frequency of eating out, and higher stress level in both sexes after mutual adjustment. Mean intakes of energy and nutrients were lower for users than for non-users. CONCLUSION: The demographics, lifestyles, health characteristics, and dietary intakes may need to be adjusted when evaluating the effect of dietary supplements on disease because they can become potential confounding factors.     

Ethnic difference in serology of Helicobacter pylori CagA between Japanese and non-Japanese Brazilians for non-cardia gastric cancer

The usefulness of serology against CagA of Helicobacter pylori as a biomarker to identify high-risk individuals for non-cardia gastric cancer (ncGC) remains unclear among several ethnic populations with a high prevalence of cagA-positive strains. We investigated ethnic differences of CagA serology in two sets of case-control subjects, Japanese-Brazilians (JB) and non-Japanese Brazilians (NJB). We performed a cross-sectional comparison of IgG antibody titers to CagA (CagA-Ab) and the combination of CagA-Ab with conventional surface antigen (Hp-Ab) in 80 JB and 178 NJB ncGC patients and their controls (160 JB and 178 NJB). The level of CagA-Ab titer in cancer cases was significantly higher in NJB than in JB. The strength of the association between CagA-Ab seropositivity (+) (>10 U/ml) and ncGC was almost 2-fold higher in NJB than in JB [odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval), 4.5 (2.6–7.8) and 2.1 (1.2–3.6), respectively]. However, in both JB and NJB, the OR was highest in CagA-Ab(+) subjects with low titer (10–29 U/ml), and decreased inversely with elevating CagA-Ab titer. In addition, the serological status of CagA-Ab(+) and Hp-Ab(-) showed a similar close association with ncGC between JB and NJB [5.4 (1.9–15.3) and 5.4 (2.0–15.0), respectively]. These results suggest that although the roles of CagA in the carcinogenic process of ncGC might be different between JB and NJB, the CagA-Ab could be a useful marker for ncGC, independently of ethnicity, particularly in high-risk individuals with the serological status of CagA-Ab(+) with low IgG titer or combined with Hp-Ab(-). (Cancer Sci 2003; 94: 64–69)     

A newly developed small-caliber videoduodenoscope for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in children

BACKGROUND: In neonates and younger children, the procedure of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is now optimally performed using a small-caliber fiberoptic duodenoscope. However, there have been no reports on a specially designed videoduodenoscope for pediatric ERCP. GOAL: To evaluate performance and clinical usefulness of a newly developed small-caliber videoduodenoscope for ERCP in children. STUDY: We have developed a side-viewing videoduodenoscope with a 8.0-mm outside diameter of the tip and a 2.0-mm diameter instrument channel (Olympus PJF-240). In a total of 10 pediatric patients aged 11 months to 15 years (mean age, 6.1 years) who underwent ERCP using this videoduodenoscope, its feasibility was evaluated. Clinical diagnoses included pancreatitis (n = 4), choledochal cyst (n = 3), sclerosing cholangitis (n = 1), cholecystitis (n = 1), and choledocholithiasis (n = 1). In all patients, ERCP was done in the standard fashion under general anesthesia. RESULTS: ERCP was successful in 9 of 10 patients (90%). In the procedure, entering the descending duodenum was smooth and positioning the papilla on the endoscopic image was proper. In an 11-month-old infant, extraction of biliary stones by endoscopic balloon dilation was successfully done. Post-ERCP complications, including a significant increase of serum amylase levels, were not reported in any patients. CONCLUSION: This new videoduodenoscope has a potential for ERCP in all age groups of children.