Determination of Early and Late Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Peripheral Circulation and Their Clinical Association with Coronary Artery Disease

金沢大学医薬保健研究域医学系The clinical implications of early and late endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in coronary artery disease (CAD) remain unclear. We investigated endothelial dysfunction in CAD by simultaneously examining early and late EPC colony formation and gene expression of specific surface markers in EPCs. EPCs were extracted from a total of 83 subjects with (n=47) and without (n=36) CAD. Early and late EPC colonies were formed from mononuclear cells extracted from peripheral blood. We found that fewer early EPC colonies were produced in the CAD group (7.2 ± 3.l/well) than those in the control group (12.4 ± 1.4/well, p<0.05), and more late EPC colonies were produced in the CAD group (0.8 ± 0.2/well) than those in the control group (0.25 ± 0.02/well, p<0.05). In the CAD group, the relative expression of CD31 and KDR of early and late EPCs was lower than in the control group. These results demonstrate that CAD patients could have increased late EPC density and that early and late EPCs in CAD patients exhibited immature endothelial characteristics. We suggest that changes in EPC colony count and gene expression of endothelial markers may have relation with development of CAD. © 2015 Shotoku Tagawa et al

国文学研究資料館 ２００６年度秋季特別展 仮名垣魯文百覧会展示目録

平成18年10月17日～11月2日に開催した国文学研究資料館2006年度秋季特別展「仮名垣魯文(ROBUN)百覧会」の展示目録。仮名垣魯文を中心とする、幕末・明治開化期文学に照明を当てたもので、当館が平成10年（1998)に近代部門を設けて以来初めての、関連分野の蒐書展示となる。〈仮名垣魯文(ROBUN)の肖像〉〈江戸の残照〉〈開化の寵児〉〈報道する戯作者〉〈魯文の交友圏〉〈毎日新聞社新屋文庫蔵 魯文関連資料の紹介〉〈その他〉のテーマごとに、７ブロック・13セクションに分けて資料を展示。魯文が生きた波乱と変動の時代を背景に読み込みながら、魯文と同時代戯作者たちの群像を、彼らの文業と共に通覧した

High sensitivity of late gadolinium enhancement for predicting microscopic myocardial scarring in biopsied specimens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

金沢大学医薬保健研究域医学系Background: Myocardial scarring can be assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging with late gadolinium enhancement and by endomyocardial biopsy. However, accuracy of late gadolinium enhancement for predicting microscopic myocardial scarring in biopsied specimens remains unknown in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We investigated whether late gadolinium enhancement in the whole heart reflects microscopic myocardial scarring in the small biopsied specimens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Methods and Results: Twenty-one consecutive patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who were examined both by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and by endomyocardial biopsy were retrospectively studied. The right interventricular septum was the target site for endomyocardial biopsy in all patients. Late gadolinium enhancement in the ventricular septum had an excellent sensitivity (100%) with a low specificity (40%) for predicting microscopic myocardial scarring in biopsied specimens. The sensitivity of late gadolinium enhancement in the whole heart remained 100% with a specificity of 27% for predicting microscopic myocardial scarring in biopsied specimens. Quantitative assessments of fibrosis revealed that the extent of late gadolinium enhancement in the whole heart was the only independent variable related to the microscopic collagen fraction in biopsied specimens (β = 0.59, 95% confident interval: 0.15-1.0, p = 0.012). Conclusions: Although there was a compromise in the specificity, the sensitivity of late gadolinium enhancement was excellent for prediction of microscopic myocardial scarring in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Moreover, the severity of late gadolinium enhancement was independently associated with the quantitative collagen fraction in biopsied specimens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. These findings indicate that late gadolinium enhancement can reflect both the presence and the extent of microscopic myocardial scarring in the small biopsied specimens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. © 2014 Konno et al