BALNEOLOGICAL STUDIES USING RADIOACTIVE ISOTTPES (2) INFLUENCE OF THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF BATH WATER UPON THE TRANSITION OF SULFATE ION INTO THE BODY ACROSS THE SKIN.

Using Na(2)SO(4) labeled with S(85) transition of sulfate ion into the body across the skin was investigated soon after the bath in sodium sulfate solution(one gram per liter) at varying conditions. Mice were used as test animal. Percutaneous absorption of sulfate ion was promoted at indifferent bath temperature (37℃) than at lower bath temperature (25℃), became less by the addition of sodium chloride (one gram per liter) to the bath water, proved stronger at lower pH (2.0) than at higher pH (7.0 or 9.0). One of the characteristic types of mineral waters in Japan is "acid spring". And many of the Japanese acid springs contain free sulfuric acid in considerable quantity.It is known that their bath cure often causes dermatitis, socalled "Yutadare". Misawa and Oshima had proved that the level of immune bodies in blood is increased by the bath cure with dermatitis in acid springs of "KUSATSU". And the author's experiment seems to give a new significance to the ro1e of sulfate ion in the action of acid spring bath in Japan

BALNEOLOGICAL STUDIES USING RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES (3)

By using labelled sodium sulfate or calcium sulfate (sulfate containing S(35)) the transition of sulfate ion into the body across the skin was investigated soon after taking a bath in sodium sulfate or calcium sulfate solution under varing conditions. Mice were used for experiments. The percutaneous absorption of sulfate ion proved to decrease gradually in the course of serial baths in sodium sulfate solntion and was accelerated by making a fresh burn on the skin of the bathed animals, but it showed a tendency to decrease as the wound became more and more healed. The application of basic dye to the skin (e.g. 1% methylenblue or 1% fuchsin solution) increased the transition of sulfate ion into the test animal. Little difference was proved between the bath in sodium sulfate and calcium sulfate solution with respect to the penetration of sulfate ion. Passage of sulfate ion from the bath water through the skin was a little promoted by the use of sodium sulfate solution than by the use of calcium sulfate solution

A STATISTICAL OBSERVATION ON CHOLECYSTOPATHIA

266 consecutive ca~es of cholecystopathic patients in our clinic, mostly ambulant, were statistically investigated. In the majority cholecystopathic patients had a complaint of digestive troubles similar to that of gastritis or peptic ulcer, such as epigastralgia (68%), especially epigastralgia after the meal (30%), hunger pain (9%), anorexia (41%), obstipation (32%), heartburn (30%), nausea (18%), vomitus (15%), etc. Attack of high pyrexia (3%), jaundice (5%), or upper abdominal pain of colic character were less frequently observed. X-ray, duodenal and gastric juice examinations were necessary for differential diagnosis, The most frequent complication was ascariasis (27%) and ankylostomiasis (22%). The swelling of liver was seen in many patients (38%). Tenderness of upper abdomen was often restricted to right epigastrium (62%), but gall bladder was relatively seldom palpable (7%). Urobilinogen reaction in urine was positive in 46%. Gastric hyp- and anacidity prevailed (60%) in cholecystopathia, contrary to 25～30% in peptic ulcer. Concentration of bile in gall bladder was decreased in 78%. Erythrocytes sedimentation rate was generally accelerated. Takata-reaction in serum proved to be highly positive

EFFECT OF THE INTERNAL USE OF A RADIOACTIVE AND SULFATE WATERS UPON THE BILE EXCRETION

Effects of the thermal waters of Misasa (radioactive spring, Rn-content 180-360 mmC per liter), Hamamura (radioactive, calcium sulfate containing muriated spring), Tottori (sulfated muriated spring), and Yanahara (acid vitriol copper spring) were investigated. Two hundred milliliters of the thermal waters, (as Yanahara Hot Spring is too strongly acid, pH 0.5, Yanahara water was diluted 20 times with common plain water, and 200 mls of this diluted water was used) were administered to 32 consecutive patients with duodenal tube. And their effect on bile excretion was compared with that of 33% Magnesium sulfate solution. By the intraduodenal application of Yanahara water the amount and pigment concentiaton of the excreted bile were significantly increased than by the control. After the use of Hamamura it was shown that the amount of bile decreased while the pigment concentration increased than after the use of control.　Effect of Misasa and Tottori waters was, concerning both amount and concentration of　bile, less marked than the Magnesium sulfate solution. Sulfate ion content was 48g/ℓ in Yanahara, 0.29g/kg in Hamamura, 1.75g/kg in Tottori, 0.18g/ℓ in Misasa, and 288g/ℓ in Magnesium sulfate solution. Therefore no definite correlation was observed between the effect of these thermal waters aud their sulfate ion content

BALNEOLOGICAL STUDIES USING RADIO-ACTIVE ISOTOPES (1) ON THE MECHANISM OF THE ACTION OF SODIUM SULFATE SPRING BATH．

Using Na(2)SO(4) labelled with S(35) transition of sulfate　ion into the body across the skin was investigated soon　after the bath in sodium sulfate solution at varying conditions. Mice were used as test animal. Percutaneous absorption of sulfate ion proved to be promoted at high bath temperature (45℃) than at indifferent temperature(37℃). stronger by the bath of longer duration (30min.)　than by the bath of shorter duration (10min.), increased after repeated baths than after a single bath. It was accelerated by making a burn to the skin of the bathed animals. Layton and Dziewiatkowski proved that the parenterally administered sulfate ion was partly fixed in the connective tissue as chondroitin sulfate. The author had proved that chondroitin sulfate relieves pain, increases peripheral circulation and when administered parenterally promotes production of immune bodies. In Japan natural and artificial Glauber's salt spring bath are known to have a beneficial effect on　wound　healing, but no satisfactory explanation was given till today. Lith　reported that a hypertonic solution of sodium　sulfate promoten wound cure by　external application　and Seki showed that subcutaneous connective tissue of mice was stimulated by the bath in sodium sulfate spring. And so the abovementioned author's data seem to throw some light on solving the problem

SENSITIVITY TO HISTAMINE DURING A SERIES OF THERMAL BATHS.

Sensitivity of mice to histamine was estimated with the death-rate by its subcutaneous injection. In control group without bath ten mg. of histamine per ten g. of body weight proved to be tolerable, but twenty mg. of histamine per ten g. of body weight was lethal in August. To 24 mice were given everyday a plain water bath at 37℃ for ten minutes. To another 24 mice were given everyday a thermal bath of Misasa at 37℃for ten minutes. On the 4th, 7th, 14th and 21st day to each six mice of both groups was given a subcutaneous injection of histamine, namely to three mice was given ten mg. of histamine per ten g. of bodyweight and to another three mice was given twenty mg. of histamine per ten g. of body weight. In plain water bath group no change in death rate was shown during the series of bath days. But in the thermal bath group a 100% 1ethality was recognized on the 4th day, 67% lethality was proved on the 7th day and only 17% lethality was shown on the 14th day. Histamine or histaminelike substance is known to be a chemical agent liberated in the skin by any skin irritants. And the above-mentioned change in the sensitivity to histamine during a series of thermal baths suggests an explanation to the mechanism of thermal crisis that has a tendency to occur in the first week of thermal bath cure

MEDICAL STUDIES ON CHONDROITIN SULFATE (2nd Report)

After the internal use of daily 3 grams of crude chondroitin sulfate cholinesterase activity of serum decreased and elimination of glycuronic acid in urine increased, but no definite change in serum mucoprotein level was observed. Mucoprotein in serum showed a positive　linear correlation to erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and　chondroitin sulfate promoted the e.s.r. in vitro and in vivo. Chondroitin sulfate showed no marked influence on phagocytosis of human leucocytes in vitro, but it promoted the production of agglutinin in rabbits by subcutaneous injection

A Kinematic Approach for Efficient and Robust Simulation of the Cardiac Beating Motion

Computer simulation techniques for cardiac beating motions potentially have many applications and a broad audience. However, most existing methods require enormous computational costs and often show unstable behavior for extreme parameter sets, which interrupts smooth simulation study and make it difficult to apply them to interactive applications. To address this issue, we present an efficient and robust framework for simulating the cardiac beating motion. The global cardiac motion is generated by the accumulation of local myocardial fiber contractions. We compute such local-to-global deformations using a kinematic approach; we divide a heart mesh model into overlapping local regions, contract them independently according to fiber orientation, and compute a global shape that satisfies contracted shapes of all local regions as much as possible. A comparison between our method and a physics-based method showed that our method can generate motion very close to that of a physics-based simulation. Our kinematic method has high controllability; the simulated ventricle-wall-contraction speed can be easily adjusted to that of a real heart by controlling local contraction timing. We demonstrate that our method achieves a highly realistic beating motion of a whole heart in real time on a consumer-level computer. Our method provides an important step to bridge a gap between cardiac simulations and interactive applications

Identification of MSRA gene on chromosome 8p as a candidate metastasis suppressor for human hepatitis B virus-positive hepatocellular carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still remains very dismal, which is mainly due to metastasis. In our previous studies, we found that chromosome 8p deletions might contribute to metastasis of HCC. In this study, we aimed to identify the candidate metastatic suppressor gene on chromosome 8p.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Oligo-nucleotide microarrays which included 322 genes on human chromosome 8p were constructed to analyze the difference in gene expression profiles between HCC tissues with and without metastasis. The leading differentially expressed genes were identified and selected for further analysis by real-time PCR and Western blotting. Recombinant expression plasmid vectors for each target gene were constructed and transfected into HCC cells and its <it>in vitro </it>effects on proliferation and invasion of HCC cells were also investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sixteen leading differentially expressed genes were identified from the HCC tissues with metastasis compared with those without metastasis (<it>p </it>< 0.01, <it>q </it>< 16 %). Among of the 10 significantly down-regulated genes in HCC with metastasis, methionine sulfoxide reductase A (<it>MSRA</it>) had the lowest <it>p </it>value and false discovery rate (FDR), and was considered as a potential candidate for metastasis suppressor gene. Real-time PCR and Western blotting confirmed that the mRNA and protein expression levels of <it>MSRA </it>were significantly decreased in HCC with metastasis compared with those without metastasis (<it>p </it>< 0.001), and <it>MSRA </it>mRNA level in HCCLM6 cells (with high metastatic potential) was also much lower than that of other HCC cell lines. Transfection of a recombinant expression plasmid vector and overexpression of <it>MSRA </it>gene could obviously inhibit cell colony formation (4.33 ± 2.92 vs. 9.17 ± 3.38, <it>p </it>= 0.008) and invasion (7.40 ± 1.67 vs. 17.20 ± 2.59, <it>p</it>= 0.0001) of HCCLM6 cell line.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>MSRA </it>gene on chromosome 8p might possess metastasis suppressor activity in HCC.</p