A water channel closely related to rat brain aquaporin 4 is expressed in acid- and pepsinogen-secretory cells of human stomach

AbstractWe isolated a cDNA clone encoding a water channel protein, aquaporin (AQP), from human stomach. The encoded protein consisted of 323 amino acid residues, containing six putative transmembrane domains. The protein was designated human aquaporin 4 (hAQP4) because of its 94% sequence similarity to rat brain AQP4. Expression of hAQP4 cRNA in Xenopus oocytes resulted in a significant increase in osmotic water permeability, indicating that this protein functions as a water channel. Northern blot analysis demonstrated a strong signal of hAQP4 mRNA in brain, lung, and skeletal muscle as well as in stomach. Immunohistochemical experiments with human stomach tissues showed that hAQP4 as a protein is expressed mainly in cells located in the glandular portion of the fundic mucosa. These include chief cells which secrete pepsinogen and parietal cells which secrete hydrochloric acid. These results strongly indicate that hAQP4 is a principal factor involved in the osmotic regulation of pepsinogen and acid secretion in the stomach

A low-delay digital PWM control circuit for DC-DC converters

This paper is descried about a proposed scheme of a low-cost digital pulse width modulation (DPWM) control circuit for non-isolated DC-DC converter without A/D converter. Also,real-time PID control technique for DPWM is described. Some experimental results are revealed the proposed circuit and scheme. The purpose of this research is striking a balance between minimizing cost increase by digitalizing of the control circuit of DC-DC converter and speeding up the control circuit.PEC 07 - Twenty-Second Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition : Anaheim, CA, USA, 2007.02.25-2007.03.

The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of porcine liver proline-β-naphthylamidase swEvidence for the identity with carboxylesterase

AbstractA cDNA clone for porcine liver proline-β-naphthylamidase was isolated and sequenced. The deduced amino acid sequence of 567 residues was highly homologous with those of carboxylesterases (EC 3.1.1.1) previously reported for other species. In addition, proline-β-naphthylamidase purified from porcine liver was shown to have strong activity towards p-nitrophenylacetate, a representative substrate for carboxylesterases. These results suggest that proline-β-naphthylamidase is identical with carboxylesterase

Clinical Evaluation of Immune Response in Patients with Cancer

Immune response was clinically evaluated in 25 patients with carcinoma compared with 26 of non cancer patients by means of lymphocyte transformation against PHA which was shown as stimulation index. In patients with cancer, stimulation index showed apparently as low as an average of 38 compared with 82 of non-cancer patients. Furthermore, the level of stimulation index was a corresponding correlation to age in which low activation was presented in the elderly. According to diseased organs, the weak response of stimulation index against PHA were observed in patients with the carcinoma of the esophagus and the lung. The response of skin test for PPD, PHA, SK-SD and candida were inhibited in patients with advanced cancer of stage III and IV compared with that of stage I and II. These responses were also suppressed in postoperative course until at least 6 months after surgery. From these results, it was noted that operative procedures provoked the induced weakness against host defense immunologically. However, it was certified that the use of immunopotentiator faciliated the activity of immune response during postoperative period for the patients with no severely advanced lung cancer of stage I and II despite of little effects for patients with advanced lung cancer of stage III and IV. It was concluded that immune response of patients with cancer was inhibited by advancing carcinoma and by operative procedures but the use of immunopotentiator was beneficial to promote the host defense during postoperative period

A Functional Evaluation of Bronchial Reconstructed Lung with Special Reference to Denervation

Bronchoplastic procedures for lung cancer were suitable operative method to reserve pulmonary function and to enlarge the resected area. However, functional evaluation is not necessarily achieved in bronchial reconstructed lung, especially with reference to denervation. In this study the influence of denervation was investigated experimentally by pulmonary perfused wedge method in which vascular tonus was directly illustrated and by measurement of oxygen saturation (Sao2) of pulmonary venous blood in which the ability of oxygen uptake was elucidated. When comparing the results of denervation with regard to operative procedures of bronchoplasty, bronchoplasty with sleeve anastomosis of pulmonary artery and autotransplantation respectively, the deteriorate effects related to bronchoplasty were not observed as compared to autotransplantation

Gastric-and-Intestinal Mixed Intestinal Metaplasia Is Irreversible Point with Eradication of Helicobacter pylori

Abstract Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) represents an important factor in the development of atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia (IM), and gastric cancer. Eradication of H. pylori has been reported to prevent gastric cancer only in cases without atrophy or IM. However, histological changes with eradication have yet to be fully clarified. We evaluated 38 H. pylori-positive cases before and after eradication at the gland level; pyloric glands were classified as showing gastric proper (G) and IM gland types, with the latter including gastric-and-intestinal mixed IM (GI-IM) and solely intestinal IM (I-IM), depending on the remaining gastric phenotypes. On eradication, acute and chronic inflammation attenuated rapidly and gradually, respectively, whereas levels of MUC5AC and MUC6 expression were not markedly altered. Gland width, size of nuclei and cytoplasm and their ratio in surface foveolar epithelium, the number of Ki-67-positive cells and the length of the proliferating zone in each gland were significantly decreased in G glands after eradication compared with those in GI-IM and I-IM. The number of mitotic phase cells, positive for phosphorylated histone H3 at serine 28, was increased in both types of IM compared to that in G glands in the H. pylori-infected state, but unexpectedly remained unchanged with eradication. These results suggest that GI-IM, as the beginning of IM, could represent a histological irreversible point with eradication and be considered as a "histological point of no return"

An Evaluation of Surgical Problems for Carcinoma of Esophagus in view of Autopsy Findings

By comparison of the findings in operation and those in autopsy, 9 cases of death within 30 days after esophagectomy and dissection of the lymph node for thoracic esophageal cancer were examined mainly on the influence of dissection of the lymph node. In autopsy, remained metastatic lymph node was observed in 4 of them (44,4%). Remained metastatic thoracic lymph node was to the tracheobronchial lymph node group. Metastatic abdominal lymph node was observed in many cases at the operation, but in autopsy remained cancer in this area was not observed. It is proved that remained metastatic lymph node in the abdomen at autopsy is in paraaortic lymph node in high rate. It was examined by the experiment with the dogs that frequency of pulmonary complication will be higher if extended radical mediastinal lymph node dissection is performed. In the experiment, decrease of lung surfactant, rise in pulmonary wedge pressure, trouble in perfusion of pulmonary lymph flow in the experiment by dye solution, and interstitial edema and alveolar edema in the lung in histological examination were observed. As described above, since direct operative death after esophagectomy is related to respiratory complications, treatments for this complications may be able to be improved, if the cause is made clear and pathological treatments are carried out. In order to improve surgical treatments for metastasis to the lymph node of esophageal cancer, these points should be given attention to