Clinical Characteristics of Retroperitoneal Fibrosis Patients at a Tertiary Hospital in Japan

Retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF) is a rare cause of hydronephrosis and progressive renal dysfunction with unidentified origin. RPF is categorized into idiopathic RPF with/without immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related disease (IgG4-RD), and secondary RPF. Identifying the underlying cause is challenging and often associated with delayed diagnosis or therapeutic interventions. We investigated RPF’s clinical characteristics based on different etiologies and factors that may help distinguish the underlying causes. We analyzed the cases of 49 patients with RPF that was radiographically diagnosed at our institution (2008-2022). The cohort was 77.6% males; 75.5% had idiopathic RPF and 24.5% had secondary RPF. Among the idiopathic patients, 54.1% had IgG4-RD. The patients were likely to have abdominal pain, lower back pain/lumbago, and constitutional symptoms including generalized fatigue and fever. The idiopathic patients were likely to have higher serum IgG4 and IgG levels and lower serum C3 levels compared to secondary RPF. The IgG4-RPF patients were likely to have higher serum IgG4 levels and lower serum C-reactive protein, ferritin, and C3 levels compared to the idiopathic RPF patients without IgG4-RD. These findings might reflect underlying systemic inflammatory responses. Comprehensive laboratory testing, including serum inflammatory markers and immunological panels, is recommended for radiologically diagnosed RPF patients

MEASUREMENT OF ANTIOXIDANT POWER OF MOUTHWASHES INDICATED IN STOMATITIS

ABSTRACTObjective: Hospital formulations containing allopurinol and rebamipide are used in the prophylactic and therapeutic management of stomatitis,owing to their antioxidant powers. The objective of this study was to measure the antioxidant powers of Zyloric® tablets (allopurinol), Mucosta®tablets (rebamipide), different hospital formulations indicated in the management of stomatitis (allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes), andAzulene® 0.4% for Gargle (sodium azulene sulfonate).Methods: We measured the antioxidant powers of Zyloric® and Mucosta® tablets, all hospital formulations indicated in the management of stomatitis(allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes), and the widely used Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle by employing the biological antioxidant potential test. Wecompared the efficacy of each of these drugs in the management of stomatitis.Results: Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle was found to have stronger antioxidant power than Zyloric® (100 mg) and Mucosta® (100 mg) tablets dissolved inwater. The antioxidant power of the solvent used in hospital formulations was similar to that of the prepared hospital formulation. Antioxidant powerof the drugs themselves was not observed in both the allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes.Conclusion: The antioxidant power of the drugs was not observed in both the allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes; therefore, hospitalformulations used as antioxidants were found to be less effective in the treatment of stomatitis. However, Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle was found to beuseful in the prophylactic and therapeutic management of stomatitis, owing to its antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects.Keywords: Stomatitis, Bone alkaline phosphatase-test, Allopurinol mouthwash, Rebamipide mouthwash, Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle, Antioxidant powe

Unusual surface states associated with the PT-symmetry breaking and antiferromagnetic band folding in NdSb

We have performed micro-focused angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on NdSb which exhibits the type-I antiferromagnetism below TN = 16 K. We succeeded in selectively observing the band structure for all the three types of single-q antiferromagnetic (AF) domains at the surface. We found that the two of three surfaces whose AF-ordering vector lies within the surface plane commonly show two-fold-symmetric surface states (SSs) around the bulk-band edges, whereas the other surface with an out-of-plane AF-ordering vector displays four-fold-symmetric shallow electronlike SS at the Brillouin-zone center. We suggest that these SSs commonly originate from the combination of the PT (space-inversion and time-reversal) symmetry breaking at the surface and the band folding due to the AF order. The present results pave a pathway toward understanding the relationship between the symmetry and the surface electronic states in antiferromagnets.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

メイジ - ヘイセイ ノ シュリョウ ザッシ ニ ミル キジ ナイヨウ ノ ヘンセン

明治時代から現在に至るハンターの関心事項の変遷を探るため,1891-2008年に発行された狩猟雑誌4誌(猟之友,銃猟界,狩猟と畜犬,狩猟界)の記事内容を調査した.雑誌1冊あたりの総ページ数,記事総数,広告数は,1950年代から1970年にかけての狩猟ブームの折に急増し,以降は減少傾向が続いた。これらの傾向は狩猟人口の変化と一致していたが,猟犬関連の記事にはそうした相関は見られなかった。記事が扱う鳥獣は,1950年代までは鳥類が主であったが,1980年代からは獣類の方が多くなった。クマは実際の捕獲数と比べて記事の数が多く,ハンターの関心の高さがうかがえた。獣類記事の中では1970年代までウサギが多かったが,1980年代以降はシカ・イノシシが8割以上を占めた。これらの傾向も実際の狩猟頭数や有害駆除頭数の変化を反映しており、狩猟がスポーツから獣害対策の手段に変化したことを示していた。This study was intended to investigate the change of article contents in hunters\u27 magazines and animal/bird-related books for about 120 years from Meiji Era to the present. The following four hunters\u27 magazines that were published during 1891-2008 were investigated: `Ryo-no-tomo (Friends of hunters)\u27, `Juuryo-kai (Hunting gun world)\u27, `Shuryo-to-chikken (Hunting and dog)\u27 and `Shuryokai (Hunting world). Total page numbers per copy of hunting magazines steadily increased towards 1970 and started to decrease slowly thereafter. Total number of articles and the number of advertising articles also showed similar trends. Except for wartime (1918 and 1940), those changes were in proportion with the population number of registered hunters. Among advertising articles, those about hunting guns were dominant from the 1950s through 1970s. From 2000s, advertisements on hunting-related materials such as traps and clothing became the majority. In particular increase of trap-related advertisements increased sharply. In articles of hunting techniques, main target animals were birds in the 1950s, but shifted to mammals in the 1980s. Mammal-related articles were mainly on hares until the 1970s, but they shifted to deer and wild boars after the 1980s, occupying more than 80% of articles. This seemed to be a reflection that the number of hunted hares started to decrease after the 1970s and the number of hunted deer and wild boar for wildlife damage control increased after 2000. It turned out that the increase and decrease of total page numbers in hunting magazines was in proportion to the population of hunter, with the exception of wartime. They also reflected levels of wildlife damage and the actual hunting head count

Hybrid Brachytherapy of Cervical Cancer

High-dose-rate brachytherapy by remote afterloading is now performed under three-dimensional image guidance by CT or MRI. Three-dimensional image-guided brachytherapy in cervical cancer disclosed that the traditional intracavitary brachytherapy by Manchester method cannot deliver an adequate dose to the large tumor with resulting local recurrence. To improve the local control rate, combined interstitial and intracavitary (hybrid) brachytherapy can increase the dose to the large parametrial involvement without increasing the dose to the rectum and bladder. Whether hybrid brachytherapy can be performed safely on a multi-institutional basis remains to be studied. From 2015, phase I/II study of hybrid brachytherapy was launched in Japan, and it was revealed that hybrid brachytherapy can be performed safely and with a high quality of radiation dose distribution in a multi-institutional study. In Japan, the number of patients undergoing hybrid brachytherapy in cervical cancer is rapidly rising. Education and clinical trial are very important to establish hybrid brachytherapy in the management of cervical cancer

Mast Cells Are Required for Full Expression of Allergen/SEB-Induced Skin Inflammation

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic pruritic inflammatory skin disease. We recently described an animal model in which repeated epicutaneous applications of a house dust mite extract and Staphylococcal enterotoxin B induced eczematous skin lesions. In this study we showed that global gene expression patterns are very similar between human AD skin and allergen/staphylococcal enterotoxin B–induced mouse skin lesions, particularly in the expression of genes related to epidermal growth/differentiation, skin barrier, lipid/energy metabolism, immune response, or extracellular matrix. In this model, mast cells and T cells, but not B cells or eosinophils, were shown to be required for the full expression of dermatitis, as revealed by reduced skin inflammation and reduced serum IgE levels in mice lacking mast cells or T cells (TCRβ−/- or Rag1−/-). The clinical severity of dermatitis correlated with the numbers of mast cells, but not eosinophils. Consistent with the idea that T helper type 2 (Th2) cells play a predominant role in allergic diseases, the receptor for the Th2-promoting cytokine thymic stromal lymphopoietin and the high-affinity IgE receptor, FcεRI, were required to attain maximal clinical scores. Therefore, this clinically relevant model provides mechanistic insights into the pathogenic mechanism of human AD

Regulation of Syk activity by antiviral adaptor MAVS in FcεRI signaling pathway

BackgroundMast cells are the major effector cell type for IgE-mediated allergic reactions. Recent studies revealed a role for mast cells in orchestrating the host response to viral infections.ObjectiveWe studied the relationship between FcεRI (high-affinity IgE receptor) and RIG-I-like receptor (RLR)-mediated antiviral signaling pathways.MethodsMast cells (BMMCs) were cultured from bone marrow cells from mice deficient in MAVS or other RLR signaling molecules. MAVS expression was restored by retroviral transduction of MAVS-deficient BMMCs. These cells were stimulated with IgE and antigen and their activation (degranulation and cytokine production/secretion) was quantified. FcεRI-mediated signaling events such as protein phosphorylation and Ca2+ flux were analyzed by western blotting and enzyme assays. WT and mutant mice as well as mast cell-deficient KitW−sh/W−sh mice engrafted with BMMCs were subjected to passive cutaneous anaphylaxis.ResultsUnexpectedly, we found that mast cells devoid of the adaptor molecule MAVS exhibit dramatically increased cytokine production upon FcεRI stimulation, despite near-normal degranulation. Consistent with these observations, MAVS inhibited tyrosine phosphorylation, thus catalytic activity of Syk kinase, the key signaling molecule for FcεRI-mediated mast cell activation. By contrast, mast cells deficient in RIG-I, MDA5 or IRF3, which are antiviral receptor and signaling molecules upstream or downstream of MAVS, exhibited reduced or normal mast cell activation. MAVS-deficient mice showed enhanced late-phase responses in passive cutaneous anaphylaxis.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that the adaptor MAVS in the RLR innate immune pathway uniquely intersects with the adaptive immune FcεRI signaling pathway

Immunomodulation effect of liposomal oxaliplatin

Immune modulation of the tumor microenvironment has been reported to participate in the therapeutic efficacy of many chemotherapeutic agents. Recently, we reported that liposomal encapsulation of oxaliplatin (l-OHP) within PEGylated liposomes conferred a superior antitumor efficacy to free l-OHP in murine colorectal carcinoma-bearing mice through permitting preferential accumulation of the encapsulated drug within tumor tissue. However, the contribution of the immune-modulatory properties of liposomal l-OHP and/or free l-OHP to the overall antitumor efficacy was not elucidated. In the present study, therefore, we investigated the effect of liposomal encapsulation of l-OHP within PEGylated liposomes on the antitumor immunity in both immunocompetent and immunodeficient mice. Liposomal l-OHP significantly suppressed the growth of tumors implanted in immunocompetent mice, but not in immunodeficient mice. In immunocompetent mice, liposomal l-OHP increased the tumor MHC-1 level and preserved antitumor immunity through decreasing the number of immune suppressor cells, including regulatory T cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and tumor-associated macrophages, which collectively suppress CD8+ T cell-mediated tumor cells killing. In contrast, free l-OHP ruined antitumor immunity. These results suggest that the antitumor efficacy of liposomal l-OHP is attributed, on the one hand, to its immunomodulatory effect on tumor immune microenvironment that is superior to that of free l-OHP, and on the other hand, to its direct cytotoxic effect on tumor cells

Establishment of a reborn MMV-microarray technology: realization of microbiome analysis and other hitherto inaccessible technologies

BACKGROUND: With the accelerating development of bioscience, the problem of research cost has become important. We previously devised and developed a novel concept microarray with manageable volumes (MMV) using a soft gel. It demonstrated the great potential of the MMV technology with the examples of 1024-parallel-cell culture and PCR experiments. However, its full potential failed to be expressed, owing to the nature of the material used for the MMV chip. RESULTS: In the present study, by developing plastic-based MMVs and associated technologies, we introduced novel technologies such as C2D2P (in which the cells in each well are converted from DNA to protein in 1024-parallel), NGS-non-dependent microbiome analysis, and other powerful applications. CONCLUSIONS: The reborn MMV-microarray technology has proven to be highly efficient and cost-effective (with approximately 100-fold cost reduction) and enables us to realize hitherto unattainable technologies