DIP during perioperative chemotherapy

Purpose : Drug-induced interstitial pneumonia (DIP) that occurs during chemotherapy for breast cancer is a rare but a serious adverse event. Treatments of DIP requires interruption of breast cancer treatment, which may affect the patient’s prognosis. However, there are few reports which discuss DIP during breast cancer treatments. Purpose of this report is to make clear how DIP occurred and influenced breast cancer treatment in our hospital. Patients and Methods : A total of 74 patients who started perioperative chemotherapy in Tokushima Municipal Hospital for breast cancer from January 2019 to December 2020 were evaluated for DIP. Patients’ and tumors’ characteristics, and regimens which caused DIP were investigated. The clinical courses of the DIP patients were also followed up. Results : Twelve of the 74 patients developed DIP. All 12 patients had histories of cyclophosphamide administration ; however, the causative drug could not be determined. Ten of the 12 patients were treated with steroids, and all the patients recovered ultimately from the interstitial pneumonia. While chemotherapy was administered in six patients after mild DIP, no relapse of pneumonia was observed. Conclusion : DIP during perioperative chemotherapy for breast cancer was resolved with appropriate treatment. Patients were able to resume breast cancer treatment with minimal interruption

A case of juvenile fibroadenoma arising from axillary accessory mammary gland

A case is２０years old woman. She had previously noticed a mass in the left axilla. The mass grew, so she went to the hospital. Ultrasonography revealed a ７１ × ５１ mm well-defined tumor in the left axilla. We suspected a benign tumor but could not rule out axillary lymph node metastasis or accessory breast cancer. The findings of fine needle aspiration cytology suggested fibroadenoma or phyllodes tumor. Although we diagnosed fibroadenoma by needle biopsy, a definitive diagnosis was made by tumor resection because it is located in the axilla and large in size, and other diseases such as phyllodes tumors can be distinguished. The histopathological diagnosis of the excised specimen was juvenile fibroadenoma. We report a case of juvenile fibroadenoma arising from the axillary accessory mammary gland

HER2陽性乳癌の総リンパ球数の検討

Purpose : Several studies have shown that peripheral hematologic parameters, such as the absolute lymphocyte count（ALC）and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio（NLR）can predict the prognosis for malignant tumor. We investigated the relation of these parameter and prognosis before neoadjuvant chemotherapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor-２（HER２）-positive breast cancer patients. Methods : From April ２００９ to March ２０１９, ８５ patients diagnosed with HER２‐positive breast cancer and treated with trastuzumab-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included in this retrospective cohort study. The optimal cut-off for the NLR and ALC was identified using the receiver operating characteristic（ROC）curve analysis and Youden’s index. Results : The median age of patients at the start of treatment was ５８．９（range ３２‐８１）years. The median follow-up time for HER２-positive breast cancer patients was ５２．０（range：９．８‐１１４．３）months. In this period, １１ patients developed recurrence. The low-ALC group showed better disease free survival than the high-ALC group（p=０．０４８２）. There was no significant difference in disease free survival between the low- and high-NLR groups. Conclusion : ALC before neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be a predictor of prolonged disease free survival in HER２‐positive breast cancer patients

Gene expression profiling of loss of TET2 and/or JAK2V617F mutant hematopoietic stem cells from mouse models of myeloproliferative neoplasms

AbstractMyeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are clinically characterized by the chronic overproduction of differentiated peripheral blood cells and the gradual expansion of malignant intramedullary/extramedullary hematopoiesis. In MPNs mutations in JAK2 MPL or CALR are detected mutually exclusive in more than 90% of cases [1,2]. Mutations in them lead to the abnormal activation of JAK/STAT signaling and the autonomous growth of differentiated cells therefore they are considered as “driver” gene mutations. In addition to the above driver gene mutations mutations in epigenetic regulators such as TET2 DNMT3A ASXL1 EZH2 or IDH1/2 are detected in about 5%–30% of cases respectively [3]. Mutations in TET2 DNMT3A EZH2 or IDH1/2 commonly confer the increased self-renewal capacity on normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) but they do not lead to the autonomous growth of differentiated cells and only exhibit subtle clinical phenotypes [4,6–8,5]. It was unclear how mutations in such epigenetic regulators influenced abnormal HSCs with driver gene mutations how they influenced the disease phenotype or whether a single driver gene mutation was sufficient for the initiation of human MPNs. Therefore we focused on JAK2V617F and loss of TET2—the former as a representative of driver gene mutations and the latter as a representative of mutations in epigenetic regulators—and examined the influence of single or double mutations on HSCs (Lineage−Sca-1+c-Kit+ cells (LSKs)) by functional analyses and microarray whole-genome expression analyses [9]. Gene expression profiling showed that the HSC fingerprint genes [10] was statistically equally enriched in TET2-knockdown-LSKs but negatively enriched in JAK2V617F–LSKs compared to that in wild-type-LSKs. Double-mutant-LSKs showed the same tendency as JAK2V617F–LSKs in terms of their HSC fingerprint genes but the expression of individual genes differed between the two groups. Among 245 HSC fingerprint genes 100 were more highly expressed in double-mutant-LSKs than in JAK2V617F–LSKs. These altered gene expressions might partly explain the mechanisms of initiation and progression of MPNs which was observed in the functional analyses [9]. Here we describe gene expression profiles deposited at the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) under the accession number GSE62302 including experimental methods and quality control analyses

Impact of micro-porous layer on liquid water distribution at the catalyst layer interface and cell performance in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

In polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, a gas diffusion layer (GDL) with a micro-porous layer (MPL) gives better anti-flooding performance than GDLs without an MPL. To investigate the function and mechanism of the MPL to suppress water flooding, the liquid water distribution at the cathode catalyst layer (CL) surface are observed by a freezing method; in the method liquid water is immobilized in ice form by rapid freezing, followed by disassembling the cell for observations. The ice covered area is quantified by image processing and cells with and without an MPL are compared. The results show that the MPL suppresses water accumulation at the interface due to smaller pore size and finer contact with the CL, and this results in less water flooding. Investigation of ice formed after −10 °C cold start shutdowns and the temporary performance deterioration at ordinary temperatures also indicates a significant influence of the liquid water accumulating at the interface. The importance of the fine contact between CL and MPL, the relative absence of gaps, is demonstrated by a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) which is directly coated with catalyst ink on the surface of the MPL achieving finer contact of the layers

Verification of effect of secondary conductor bar on starting characteristics in line-start type self-excited wound-field synchronous motor

autho

In Situ Observation of a Self-Assembled Monolayer Formation of Octadecyltrimethoxysilane on a Silicon Oxide Surface Using a High-Speed Atomic Force Microscope

The formation mechanism of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of octadecyltrimethoxysilane on a silicon oxide surface in reaction is studied in situ by using a high-speed atomic force microscope that has a time resolution of 2 s per frame. The SAM formation of a silane coupling reagent on silicon is known to comprise three development stages of nucleation, growth, and coalescence. In the present study, the first nucleation stage is found to have dynamical processes: a molecular cluster attached to the substrate works as a reaction base, on which additional reactive molecules are in a bind/unbind equilibrium. In this time period, the cluster needs a long time to develop in diameter. Once a domain of ca. 30 nm in diameter is formed, the reaction rate is changed, which is dominated by the rim length of the domain. This implies that the weakly adsorbing limit approximation on the substrate surface can be employed. Another important point is that the molecular domains generate a SAM like an occupied sheet of tiles, and each tile is connected to the substrate by a few feet. In fact, a molecular tile can easily be removed by applying soft air plasma leaving the rest of the tiles of highly packed molecules, which is confirmed by infrared p-polarized external reflection spectroscopy

Epigenetic Memories in Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells

The recent development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has contributed to research into various biological processes. These novel NGS technologies have revealed the involvement of epigenetic memories in trained immunity, which are responses to transient stimulation and result in better responses to secondary challenges. Not only innate system cells, such as macrophages, monocytes, and natural killer cells, but also bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been found to gain memories upon transient stimulation, leading to the enhancement of responses to secondary challenges. Various stimuli, including microbial infection, can induce the epigenetic reprogramming of innate immune cells and HSCs, which can result in an augmented response to secondary stimulation. In this review, we introduce novel NGS technologies and their application to unraveling epigenetic memories that are key in trained immunity and summarize the recent findings in trained immunity. We also discuss our most recent finding regarding epigenetic memory in aged HSCs, which may be associated with the exposure of HSCs to aging-related stresses

Proposal of Novel Line-Start Type Self-Excited Wound-Field Synchronous Motor With Three-Phase Concentrated Winding Stator

publishe