Th1 Th2, Tc1 Tc2 cells of patients with otolaryngological diseases

ABSTRACTCytokines are important regulatory mediators secreted by T cells and other immunoactive cells. Based on the cytokine synthesis patterns, CD4 T cells can often be classified into at least two populations with different immune regulatory functions. The Th1 cells, producing interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-γ, are often associated with cell-mediated immune responses such as delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH), whereas Th2 cells, secreting IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, usually provide B cell help and enhance allergic reactions. Naïve CD8 T cells, similar to CD4 T cells, can differentiate into at least two subsets of cytolytic effector cells with distinct cytokine patterns. The Tc1 cells secrete a Th 1 - like cytokine pattern, including IL-2 and IFN-γ. The Tc2 cells produce Th2 cytokines, including IL-4, IL-5 and 11—10. There is increasing evidence that Th1/Th2 and Tc1/Tc2 cytokine imbalance has been of patho- genetic importance in various diseases, such as allergic and autoimmune diseases. The present review article focuses on the evidence that the imbalance of Th1/Th2 and Tc1/Tc2 cytokines plays an important role in various otolaryngological diseases, such as Kimura's disease, Wegener's granulomatosism, acute perceptive hearing loss and Meniere's disease. It is concluded that the predominance of Th 1 or Th2 and Tc1 or Tc2 cells may contribute to the mechanism in the pathogenesis of these otolaryngological diseases

Serum Concentrations of Eosinophil Cationic Protein and Eosinophils of Patients with Kimura's Disease

ABSTRACTBackground: To clarify the role of eosinophils in the pathogenesis of Kimura's disease and the values of measuring serum levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) for monitoring disease activity might be very important, but there are few reports about this matter.Methods: A total 14 serum and 7 tissue samples from patients with Kimura's disease were studied. The concentrations of ECP and cytokines (interleukin-4 (IL-4), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and interleukin 5 (IL-5)) in sera from patients with Kimura's disease were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The density of eosinophils and the degree of activation of eosinophils in the tissue were also studied immunohistochemically.Results: The concentration of ECP in sera from patients with Kimura's disease was significantly higher than that in the control group (p<0.05). At the time of the remission, a significant decrease of ECP was observed. In interfollicular areas, most infiltrated eosinophils were positive for EG2 antibody (64.0-94.0%) and the mean percentage of EG2-positive eosinophils was 75.7%. The concentrations of IL-4, gM-CSF, and IL-5 in sera from patients with Kimura's disease were within normal ranges or below the detectable level in all sera examined.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that eosinophils play an important role in the pathogenesis of Kimura's disease and ECP may be used as an additional parameter of disease activity

Brain Abscess as a Rare Complication of Primary Extranodal Nasal-type Natural Killer/T-cell Lymphoma

We present the case of a 58-year-old Japanese woman with a natural killer T (NK/T)-cell lymphoma complicated by brain abscess. NK/T-cell lymphomas represent a rare type of lymphoma derived from either activated NK cells or, rarely, cytotoxic T cells. They are aggressive Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphomas that involve mainly the nasal cavity. Brain abscess associated with primary extranodal nasal-type NK/T-cell lymphoma is extremely uncommon: to our knowledge, this is the first reported case of this lymphoma with brain abscess as the initial clinical manifestation. Endoscopic surgery was performed for definitive diagnosis under intraoperative navigation system. Chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy was performed and was effective: 72 months later the tumor has not recurred. Recommendations of endoscopic management for diagnosis and treatment of this rare neoplasm are discussed

Case Report Carbon Ion Beam Radiotherapy for Sinonasal Malignant Tumors Invading Skull Base

Objective. To evaluate the treatment outcome and prognostic factors in patients with sinonasal malignant tumors invading skull base. Study Design and Setting. A retrospective clinical study at the Yamagata University School of Medicine. Subjects and Methods. Three patients with sinonasal malignant tumors invading skull base were presented in present study. All patients were treated with carbon ion beam radiotherapy. The prescribed dose to the center of the clinical target volume was 64.0 GyE/16 fractions over 4 weeks at 4.0 GyE/fraction per day. Results. All patients completed carbon ion beam radiotherapy without an interval. The mean observation period was 39.6 months (range: 11-54 months). There were no local or regional recurrences in all cases; however, one patient had a metastasis in distant organs. Regarding the complications, visual loss was observed in one eye of one patient whose optic nerve was entirely involved by the tumor and field of carbon ion beam radiotherapy. Radiation induced brain injury was observed in two patients; however, these patients do not complain about neurological abnormality and had no treatment for radiation induced brain necrosis. Conclusions. Carbon ion beam radiotherapy for sinonasal malignant tumors invading the skull base showed therapeutic effectiveness

A Spot Reminder System for the Visually Impaired Based on a Smartphone Camera

The present paper proposes a smartphone-camera-based system to assist visually impaired users in recalling their memories related to important locations, called spots, that they visited. The memories are recorded as voice memos, which can be played back when the users return to the spots. Spot-to-spot correspondence is determined by image matching based on the scale invariant feature transform. The main contribution of the proposed system is to allow visually impaired users to associate arbitrary voice memos with arbitrary spots. The users do not need any special devices or systems except smartphones and do not need to remember the spots where the voice memos were recorded. In addition, the proposed system can identify spots in environments that are inaccessible to the global positioning system. The proposed system has been evaluated by two experiments: image matching tests and a user study. The experimental results suggested the effectiveness of the system to help visually impaired individuals, including blind individuals, recall information about regularly-visited spots

Smartphone-Based Escalator Recognition for the Visually Impaired

It is difficult for visually impaired individuals to recognize escalators in everyday environments. If the individuals ride on escalators in the wrong direction, they will stumble on the steps. This paper proposes a novel method to assist visually impaired individuals in finding available escalators by the use of smartphone cameras. Escalators are recognized by analyzing optical flows in video frames captured by the cameras, and auditory feedback is provided to the individuals. The proposed method was implemented on an Android smartphone and applied to actual escalator scenes. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is promising for helping visually impaired individuals use escalators

Characterization of the sequence specificity of the R1Bm endonuclease domain by structural and biochemical studies

R1Bm is a long interspersed element (LINE) inserted into a specific sequence within 28S rDNA of the silkworm genome. Of two open reading frames (ORFs) of R1Bm, ORF2 encodes a reverse transcriptase (RT) and an endonuclease (EN) domain which digests specifically both top and bottom strand of the target sequence in 28S rDNA. To elucidate the sequence specificity of EN domain of R1Bm (R1Bm EN), we examined the cleavage tendency for the target sequences, and found that 5′-A(G/C)(A/T)!(A/G)T-3′ is the consensus sequence (! = cleavage site). We also determined the crystal structure of R1Bm EN at 2.0 Å resolution. Its structure was basically similar to AP endonuclease family, but had a special β-hairpin at the edge of the DNA binding surface, which is a common feature among EN of LINEs. Point-mutations on the DNA binding surface of R1Bm EN significantly decreased the cleavage activities, but did not affect the sequence recognition in most residues. However, two mutants Y98A and N180A had altered cleavage patterns, suggesting an important role of these residues (Y98 and N180) for the sequence recognition of R1Bm EN. In addition, Y98A mutant showed another cleavage pattern, that implies de novo design of novel sequence-specific EN

Long-Term Survival in a Patient with Node-Positive Adult-Onset Xp11.2 Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma

Adult-onset Xp11.2 translocation renal cell carcinoma is a rare malignancy that has an aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis. The reasons for this include the fact that most patients have an advanced clinical stage at diagnosis and also that there is a lack of effective systemic therapy. We herein present the case of a 32-year-old woman suffering from node-positive Xp11.2 translocation renal cell carcinoma, who has undergone radical nephrectomy with an extensive retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, followed by two times of surgical resection for recurrent nodal disease. The patient has experienced no recurrent disease 4.5 years after the last operation and remains free of disease. Surgical approach to recurrent disease, if the recurrent site can be judged to be limited, might be one of the feasible treatment options in patients with Xp11.2 translocation renal cell carcinoma