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

Mild MPP+ exposure-induced glucose starvation enhances autophagosome synthesis and impairs its degradation

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, mainly characterised by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons. MPP+ has been widely used as a PD-related neurotoxin, and their reports suggested the several hypotheses for neuronal cell death. However, most of these hypotheses come from the studies about the acute MPP+ exposure. We previously revealed that mild MPP+ exposure (10 and 200 μM), which induces gradual cell death, impairs autophagosome degradation at 48 h. In the present study, we further investigated the specific events of mild MPP+ exposure and revealed that mild MPP+ exposure causes the cell death through glucose starvation, but not acute toxic model (2.5 and 5 mM). At 36 h after mild MPP+ exposure, autophagosome synthesis was enhanced owing to glucose starvation and continued to enhance until 48 h, despite impaired autophagosome degradation. Inhibition of autophagosome synthesis reduced mild MPP+-induced cell death. In conclusion, we clarified that glucose starvation-enhanced autophagosome synthesis occurs at an earlier stage than impaired autophagosome degradation and is important in mild MPP+ toxicity.This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) Grant Number 24406004 (to Y.K.), The Pharmacological Research Foundation, Tokyo, Japan (to Y.K.), and Suzuken Memorial Foundation (to Y.K.)

STUDY ON THE EXPRESSION OF ESTROGEN RECEPTORS IN MALIGNANT RHABDOID TUMOR

科学研究費補助金研究成果報告書研究種目: 基盤研究(C)研究期間: 2002～2003課題番号: 14570741研究代表者: 太田 茂（滋賀医科大学・医学部・助教授

Frequency analysis of electroencephalogram recorded from a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with a novel method during transportation by truck

In order to obtain information regarding the correlation between an electroencephalogram (EEG) and the state of a dolphin, we developed a noninvasive recording method of EEG of a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and an extraction method of true-EEG (EEG) from recorded-EEG (R-EEG) based on a human EEG recording method, and then carried out frequency analysis during transportation by truck. The frequency detected in the EEG of dolphin during apparent awakening was divided conveniently into three bands (5–15, 15–25, and 25–40 Hz) based on spectrum profiles. Analyses of the relationship between power ratio and movement of the dolphin revealed that the power ratio of dolphin in a situation when it was being quiet was evenly distributed among the three bands. These results suggested that the EEG of a dolphin could be detected accurately by this method, and that the frequency analysis of the detected EEG seemed to provide useful information for understanding the central nerve activity of these animals

Intraspecific Differentiation of Rana tagoi Elucidated by Electrophoretic Analyses of Enzymes and Blood Proteins

Intraspecific differentiation of Rana tagoi was examined by electrophoretic analyses of 14 enzymes extracted from the skeletal muscles and livers and two blood proteins. A total of 194 Rana tagoi collected from seven stations in the western Japan had 22 loci controlling the enzymes and blood proteins. Of the 22 loci, those of AAT-A, AK and CK showed a single phenotype produced by a single allele. The other loci showed 2∿25 phenotypes produced by 2∿10 alleles. At the 22 loci, there were 6.9 phenotypes produced by 4.3 alleles on the average. The gene frequencies in the seven populations were examined at 19 of the 22 loci, except three loci of AAT-A, AK and CK, which consisted of a single allele. While these three loci were zero in Fst, five of the others were 0.015∿0.068,four were 0.144∿0.208,three were 0.312∿0.377,three were 0.423∿0.462,three were 0.516∿0.621 and the remaining Hb locus was 1.000 in Fst. Of the seven populations, the three island populations, the Yaku, Hirado and Oki populations, were lower in average heterozygosity than the other four land populations, the Nabara, Kurama, Omogo and Ono populations. The proportions of polymorphic loci in the seven populations were 40.9∿63.6%, 55.20n the average. The mean numbers of alleles per locus in the seven populations were 1.6∿2.5,2.0 on the average. The genetic distances among the seven populations were estimated on the basis of gene frequencies at the 22 loci. The largest distance (0.335) was found between the Yaku and Omogo populations, while the smallest (0.031) was found between the Nabara and Omogo populations. A dendrogram was drawn by the UPGMA clustering method. This dendrogram seems to indicate that the Yaku population (Rana tagoi yakushimensis) was differentiated earlier than the other six populations

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