Would the pattern be drawn smaller without vision?

It was determined whether the pattern would be drawn smaller in drawing task without vision than with vision in the first two experiments. In the first experiment, the 198 subjects were asked to draw the circle of free size and 30 mm circle in diameter. In the second experiment, ten subjects were asked to draw the horizontal line with and without vision. The shrinking effect of drawn pattern without vision was confirmed both for the circle and the line. The other four experiments were done for the purpose of defining the mechanisms of the shrinking effect. In the third experiment, the circle was drawn in the following four conditions; with vision, with vision but not following up a trace of drawing circle, opening eyes in the dark, closing eyes. The 56% of the subjects drew smaller circle with the decrease of the visual information. In the Experiment 4 and Experiment 6, the subject allowed to confirm the objective size by the visual or tactual model given just before drawing the circle and the line. The shrinking effect was also clear in spite of the model. This means that the shrinking effect is not depend on the difference of the memory size in vision and touch. In the Experiment 5, the vertical and horizontal line was drawn without vision and with naked vision and three low vision condition. The drawn line was the shortest without vision in every subjects, but the effect of low visual acuity was not the same as the Individual. In the last experiment, the size of the circle and the length of the line was psychophysically estimated both with and without vision. No difference was recognized in estimated size with vision compared without vision, and also the difference of the estimated size from the objective size was very few both with and without vision. As the results of seven experiments, the shrinking effect of pattern would be recognized essentially in the drawing task

Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 Effect of interleukin (IL)-35 on IL-17 expression and production by human CD4 + T cells

ABSTRACT Background. Interleukin (IL)-17 produced by mainly T helper 17 (Th17) cells may play an important destructive role in chronic periodontitis (CP). Thus, anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-35, might have a beneficial effect in periodontitis by inhibiting differentiation of Th17 cells. Th17 differentiation is regulated by the retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor (ROR) α (encoded by RORA) and RORγ t (encoded by RORC). However, the role of IL-35 in periodontitis is not clear and the effect of IL-35 on the function of Th17 cells is still incompletely understood. Therefore, we investigated the effects of IL-35 on Th17 cells. Methods. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were sampled from three healthy volunteers and three CP patients and were analyzed by flow cytometry for T cell population. Th17 cells differentiated by a cytokine cocktail (recombinant transforming growth factor-β, rIL-6, rIL-1β, anti-interferon (IFN)-γ , anti-IL-2 and anti-IL-4) from PBMCs were cultured with or without rIL-35. IL17A (which usually refers to IL-17), RORA and RORC mRNA expression was analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and IL-17A production was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. The proportion of IL-17A + CD4 + slightly increased in CP patients compared with healthy controls, however, there were no significant differences in the percentage of IL-17A + CD4 + as well as IFN-γ + CD4 + and Foxp3 + CD4 + T cells between healthy controls and CP patients. IL17A, RORA and RORC mRNA expression was significantly increased in Th17 cells induced by the cytokine cocktail, and the induction was significantly inhibited by addition of rIL-35 (1 ng/mL). IL-17A production in Th17 cells was significantly inhibited by rIL-35 addition (1 ng/mL). Discussion. The present study suggests that IL-35 could directly suppress IL-17 expression via RORα and RORγ t inhibition and might play an important role in inflammatory diseases such as periodontitis

Efficacy and Safety of Naldemedine for Patients with Cancer with Opioid-Induced Constipation in Clinical Practice: A Real-World Retrospective Study

The efficacy and safety of naldemedine for opioid-induced constipation in patients with cancer has not been investigated in clinical practice. We conducted a multicenter, retrospective study to assess the effects of naldemedine among 10 Japanese institutions between June 2017 and August 2019. We evaluated the number of defecations 7 days before and after naldemedine administration. A total of 149 patients (89 male) with a median age of 72 years (range, 38–96) were included. The performance status was 0–1, 2, and ≥3 in 40, 38, and 71 patients, respectively. The median opioid dose in oral morphine equivalents was 30 mg/day (range: 7.5–800 mg). We observed 98 responders and 51 non-responders. The median number of defecations increased significantly in the 7 days following naldemedine administration from three to six (p < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis revealed that an opioid dose <30 mg/day [odds ratio, 2.08; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–4.32; p = 0.042] was significantly correlated with the effect of naldemedine. Diarrhea was the most common adverse event (38.2%) among all grades. The efficacy and safety of naldemedine in clinical practice are comparable to those of prospective studies, suggesting that it is effective in most patients