Impacts of Sociocultural Condition on Regional Endemics of HTLV-1 and HBV among Islands in Southwestern Japan

The transmission pathways of two oncogenic viruses, human Tlymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) are very similar : maternal, sexual and by transfusion. Furthermore, individuals infected with these viruses become lifelong virus carriers. Both of these viruses are known to be endemic in Nagasaki. In trying to correlate the endemicity of these viruses with the sociocultural attributes, such as birth place, religion, sex and age, we surveyed residents (2262 in total) aged over 40 years, in three islands of Nagasaki. Markers included anti-HTLV-1 antibody and HBV related markers (HBsAg/HBsAb) in sera. The prevalences of people infected with HTLV-1 in Mishima, Narao, and Oshima were 41.1, 29.3 and 12.9 %, respectively, while those of HBV were 55.8, 35.1 and 31.7 %, respectively. HTLV-1 and HBV were endemic in all three islands. The penetrations by two viruses seemed to be correlated with each other in each island. This profile was more discrete, if we analyzed people born in the respective islands. However, the evidence to suggest the preferred coinfection of these 2 viruses could not be demonstrated. These results suggested that the intermarriage in a closed community of islands had a favorable effect to maintain the endemicity of these viruses. Christians in these islands tend to intermarry within their religion. Of males in Oshima, Christians born on the same island were significantly more anti-HTLV-1 positive than non-Christians. Similarly, male Christians of Narao and Oshima showed significantly higher prevalence of HBV markers than non-Christians. The results were consistent with the conjecture. In the case of HTLV-1, while the prevalence increased with age in both sexes in highly endemic Mishima and Narao, it remained constant in less endemic Oshima. These profiles were also seen in the subjects born in the respective islands. The age related increase of the seropositive population could hardly be explained by the dominant horizontal infections. The age independent seroprevalence in Oshima rather suggested that human factors of each island played a siginificant role for the decreased frequency of maternal infections of HTLV-1 in these several decades in the other two islands. In contrast, the prevalence of HBV markers were relatively unaffected by age except for Mishima. This suggested that the maternal infection of HBV is more efficient and dominant than that of HTLV-1. In case of Mishima, the younger female showed significantly lower prevalence

Parental satisfaction and seizure outcome after corpus callosotomy in patients with infantile or early childhood onset epilepsy

AbstractPurposeTo elucidate the benefit of corpus callosotmy in terms of parental satisfaction and seizure outcome.MethodThis study included 16 consecutive patients with infantile or early childhood onset epilepsy who underwent total corpus callosotomy for alleviation of seizures. Questionnaires were sent anonymously to the parents asking about relative changes in seizures and about parental satisfaction for the post-operative outcome.ResultsThe improvements in frequency, intensity, and duration of seizures were correlated with the level of satisfaction (Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient, ρ=0.87, 0.93, and 0.75, respectively). The highest level of satisfaction was only seen in patients who achieved freedom from all seizures or drop attacks.ConclusionComplete seizure freedom and freedom from drop attacks are important goals of corpus callosotomy for parental satisfaction. These factors should be considered in assessing post-operative outcome after corpus callosotomy

Use of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) pulse sequences for differential diagnosis of hepatic hemangiomas and hepatic cysts

Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging of hepatic hemangiomas (10 patients, 16 lesions) and hepatic cysts (8 patients, 10 lesions) was performed. All hemangiomas were hypointense on T1-weighted images and hyperintense on T2-weighted images. With Gd-DTPA (0.1 mmol/kg), all hemangiomas were enhanced but not all cysts. It was necessary to perform contrast enhanced imaging to differentiate hepatic hemangiomas from hepatic cysts. However, on FLAIR imaging, hepatic hemangiomas were strongly hyperintense and 9 of the 10 hepatic cysts were isointense. One of the hepatic cysts was slightly hyperintense. FLAIR images were useful in differential diagnosis of hepatic hemangiomas and hepatic cysts without using Gd-DTPA.</p

A new cancer diagnostic system based on a CDK profiling technology

AbstractA series of molecular pathological investigations of the molecules that stimulate the cyclin dependent kinases (CDK1, 2, 4, and 6) have led to enormous accumulation of knowledge of the clinical significance of these molecules for cancer diagnosis. However, the molecules have yet to be applied to clinical cancer diagnosis, as there is no available technology for application of the knowledge in a clinical setting. We hypothesized that the direct measurement of CDK activities and expressions (CDK profiling) might produce clinically relevant values for the diagnosis. This study investigated the clinical relevance of CDK profiling in gastrointestinal carcinoma tissues by using originally developed expression and activity analysis methods. We have established novel methods and an apparatus for analyzing the expression and activities of the CDK molecules in lysate of tumor tissue in a clinical setting, and examined 30 surgically dissected gastrointestinal carcinomas and corresponding normal mucosal specimens. We demonstrate here that remarkably elevated CDK2 activity is evident in more than 70% of carcinoma tissues. Moreover, a G1-CDK activity profiling accurately mirrored the differences in proliferation between tumor and normal colonic tissues. Our results suggest that CDK profiling is a potent molecular–clinical approach to complement the conventional pathological diagnosis, and to further assist in the individualized medications

Recurrent giant longitudinal duodenal ulcer with massive hemorrhage in a Helicobacter pylori-negative patient

A 67-year-old man, in whom a linear ulcer running from the duodenal bulb to the descending part had been noted 3 years previously, was admitted to our hospital because of abdominal pain and melena. Duodenoscopy revealed a bleeding giant longitudinal ulcer, which was more extensive than before. Tests for Helicobacter pylori (Hp) were negative. The ulcer was cured by endoscopic hemostasis and repeated blood transfusions. Attention must be paid to Hp-negative post-bulbar duodenal ulcers because of the frequent complications including hemorrhage

Introduction for Fisheries and Aquatic Biology

Chapter I. Aquatic Environment. Ken FURUYA and Ichiro YASUDA : chapter_1.pdfChapter II. Biology and Ecology of Aqua-Shere. Toyoji KANEKO, Katsumi TSUKAMOTO, Atsushi TSUDA, Yuzuru SUZUKI and Katsufumi SATOH : chapter_2.pdfChapter III. Aquatic Resource and Production. Ichiro AOKI, Kazuo OGAWA, Taku YAMAKAWA and Tomoyoshi YOSHINAGA : chapter_3.pdfChapter IV. Chemistry of Aquatic Organism and Their Utilization. Hiroki ABE, Shugo WATABE, Yoshihiro OCHIAI, Shigeru OKADA, Naoko YOSHIKAWA, Yoshiharu KINOSHITA, Gen KANEKO and Shigeki MATSUNAGA : chapter_4.pdfChapter V. Relation between Aqua-Shere and Human Life. Hisashi KUROKURA, Hirohide MATSUSHIMA, Shingo KUROHAGI, Haruko YAMASHITA, Akinori HINO, Kazumasa IKUTA, Satoquo SEINO, Masahiko ARIJI, Ken FURUYA, Junichiro OKAMOTO and Nobuyuki YAGI : chapter_5.pdfPart of "Introduction for Fisheries and Aquatic Biology

<所内学術研究成果報告>Q. 「海洋生物の医薬資源開-医薬を指向した海洋生物の探索と調査・開発」

約100万種といわれる海洋生物は,地上における最も未知の世界である。この海洋生物から,医薬資源となりうる有用な生理活性物質を発見し,構造を明らかにし,生理活性を検討することを目的としている。NIHで臨床試験中のドラスタチン10(ウミウシ成分)とブリオスタチン1(フサコケムシ成分)は,釡野がその研究に携わったものである。平成元年以来,日野,西川等の協力を得て,平塚付近(相模湾)および岩手県大槌町付近(大槌湾)の海洋生物を検討し,特に青森,浅虫湾のフサコケムシからブリオスタチン10という強い抗癌性物質を見いだし,抗エイズ活性もあることが分かった。また,これらの物質には,ホルモン産生活性などの作用の存在も明らかになり,医薬品としての開発の可能性が考えられる。さらに,フロリダ産コケムシから10数種の新規アルカロイドを単離したが,このうちconvolutamydineが,ヒト急性骨髄性白血病細胞HL-60に対し,強力な分化誘導作用を示し,新たな抗癌剤発見の手がかりになる可能性もある。2000年度には,ほぼこれらのアルカロイドの全合成を完成した。これらの結果をふまえ,日本沿岸およびアジア各地の海洋生物について探索が計画されている。さらに,橋本,三浦等が「しんかい6500」,「しんかい2000」により採集した深海生物に対する検討も行い,今までに相模湾産シロウリガイとヘイトウシンカイヒバリガイおよびサツマハオリムシ,さらに巻き貝2種Alyinconcha cf. hesseleriおよびIfremeria nautileiの化学成分の検討を行っている。また,竹内等による南極付近の生物の入手も期待できる現状にある。さらに,新しく速水先生が加わり,洞窟生物の調査・採集が可能となっている。一方,生理活性,薬理作用検討に新たにそれぞれ小宮山博士,林博士,川村教授の協力が得られている。また,一昨年から中国でのフサコケムシの探索が姚新生教授と新たに参加した易楊貨教授によって開始され,かなり大量の生物が採集された。この生物からの活性物質の単離はこれからの大きな仕事であり,その結果が期待される。本年度は今までの生物成分のまとめを行った。特に,日本産ナマコ類成分,沖縄と真鶴で採集した日本産フサコケムシ成分,および深海巻貝2種の成分研究を完成した