初診時に膀胱刺激症状のみを訴えたループス膀胱炎の1例

37歳女性.患者は重度の膀胱刺激症状のみを主訴とし受診, 膀胱生検で粘膜下の炎症と血管炎の所見を認めた.血液データより自己免疫疾患が疑われたため, 更に検査を追加したところSLE(全身性エリテマトーデス)およびループス膀胱炎と診断された.治療として早期のステロイド投与を行なったところ重度の膀胱刺激症状は軽快したCystitis related with systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE) is termed as lupus cystitis. It is a subtype of SLE in which gastrointestinal and bladder symptoms are prominent and it usually manifests with other symptoms of SLE. We present a case in a 37-year-old woman whose sole complaint was the severe urinary symptoms. A biopsy of the bladder showed inflammation in the submucosa and the finding of vasculitis. An autoimmune disease was suspected from the blood serum sample. A further laboratory study was performed and she was diagnosed with SLE and lupus cystitis. Prompt therapy with corticosteroids resulted in the improvement of the severe bladder symptoms

Development of Free-Cutting Brass without Pb by Hot Extrusion

A direct consolidation of brass machined chips wastes has been attempted from a viewpoint of energy-saving and recyclability. A direct consolidation process from machined chips wastes has successfully been developed in our laboratory. So a free-cutting brass without Pb has been developed using this consolidation process in our laboratory by adding graphite powder and Cu2S powder as a substitution for Pb. However, ZnS formed during the extrusion processing disturbs the improvement of machinability of the extruded rod to which Cu2S is added. In this study, therefore, a surface of 6-4 brass machined chips was oxidized and dezincificated by heating in air in order to suppress the formation of ZnS. After extruding, the density and mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and elongation of extruded rods decreased with an increment of Cu2S addition while an application of heat-treatment to machined chips suppressed a degree of drop in density and mechanical properties of extruded rods. Moreover, a machinability of extruded rods improved with increasing Cu2S addition and more obviously by heat-treatment

Horizontal Chromosome Transfer, a Mechanism for the Evolution and Differentiation of a Plant-Pathogenic Fungus▿ †

The tomato pathotype of Alternaria alternata produces host-specific AAL toxin and causes Alternaria stem canker on tomato. A polyketide synthetase (PKS) gene, ALT1, which is involved in AAL toxin biosynthesis, resides on a 1.0-Mb conditionally dispensable chromosome (CDC) found only in the pathogenic and AAL toxin-producing strains. Genomic sequences of ALT1 and another PKS gene, both of which reside on the CDC in the tomato pathotype strains, were compared to those of tomato pathotype strains collected worldwide. This revealed that the sequences of both CDC genes were identical among five A. alternata tomato pathotype strains having different geographical origins. On the other hand, the sequences of other genes located on chromosomes other than the CDC are not identical in each strain, indicating that the origin of the CDC might be different from that of other chromosomes in the tomato pathotype. Telomere fingerprinting and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses of the A. alternata strains also indicated that the CDCs in the tomato pathotype strains were identical, although the genetic backgrounds of the strains differed. A hybrid strain between two different pathotypes was shown to harbor the CDCs derived from both parental strains with an expanded range of pathogenicity, indicating that CDCs can be transmitted from one strain to another and stably maintained in the new genome. We propose a hypothesis whereby the ability to produce AAL toxin and to infect a plant could potentially be distributed among A. alternata strains by horizontal transfer of an entire pathogenicity chromosome. This could provide a possible mechanism by which new pathogens arise in nature