A Case of Acquired Leucoderma, Associated with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

A 67-year-old female diagnosed as Hashimoto's thyroiditis in company with acquired leucoderma was reported. She first noticed the enlarged thyroid at the age of 36, and thereafter leucoderma made its appearance 30 years later. Though a significant association between these two diseases has been found in the literature thus far and they are considered to be of autoimmune origin, their coexistence is not so common clinically. In spite of PUVA treatment, a benefit effect was not obtained completely

Pacemaker Inhibition During Cardioplegia in Open Heart Surgery

A 53-year-old patient underwent mitral valve replacement after implantation of permanent pacemaker. During cardioplegia in open heart surgery, we performed the inhibition of permanent pacemaker to obtain complete myocardial preservation and quiet heart, using stimulations of an external pulse generator. This procedure is considered available, when the patient who has had a permanent pacemaker undergoes open heart surgery more safely

Serum Fatty Acid-Binding Protein 4 Is a Predictor of Cardiovascular Events in End-Stage Renal Disease

BACKGROUND: Fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4/A-FABP/aP2), a lipid chaperone, is expressed in both adipocytes and macrophages. Recent studies have shown that FABP4 is secreted from adipocytes and that FABP4 level is associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and atherosclerosis. However, little is known about the impact of FABP4 concentrations on prognosis. We tested the hypothesis that FABP4 level predicts prognosis of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), a group at high risk for atherosclerosis-associated morbidity and mortality. METHODS AND RESULTS: Biochemical markers including FABP4 were determined in 61 ESRD patients on chronic hemodialysis (HD). Serum FABP4 level in females (404.2±30.5 ng/ml) was significantly higher than that in males (315.8±30.0 ng/ml), and the levels in ESRD patients were about 20-times higher than those in age-, gender- and body mass index (BMI)-matched control subjects with normal renal function. FABP4 level was decreased by 57.2% after HD and was positively correlated with blood pressure, BMI, and levels of lipids and insulin. Multiple regression analysis indicated that HD duration, BMI, and triglycerides level were independent determinants for FABP4 level. ESRD patients with high FABP4 levels had higher cardiovascular mortality during the 7-year follow-up period. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that logarithmically transformed FABP4 level was an independent predictor of cardiovascular death adjusted for age, gender, HD duration, BMI, and triglycerides level (hazard ratio, 7.75; 95% CI, 1.05-25.31). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that FABP4 level, being related to adiposity and metabolic disorders, is a novel predictor of cardiovascular mortality in ESRD

An NLR paralog Pit2 generated from tandem duplication of Pit1 fine-tunes Pit1 localization and function

NLR family proteins act as intracellular receptors. Gene duplication amplifies the number of NLR genes, and subsequent mutations occasionally provide modifications to the second gene that benefits immunity. However, evolutionary processes after gene duplication and functional relationships between duplicated NLRs remain largely unclear. Here, we report that the rice NLR protein Pit1 is associated with its paralogue Pit2. The two are required for the resistance to rice blast fungus but have different functions: Pit1 induces cell death, while Pit2 competitively suppresses Pit1-mediated cell death. During evolution, the suppression of Pit1 by Pit2 was probably generated through positive selection on two fate-determining residues in the NB-ARC domain of Pit2, which account for functional differences between Pit1 and Pit2. Consequently, Pit2 lost its plasma membrane localization but acquired a new function to interfere with Pit1 in the cytosol. These findings illuminate the evolutionary trajectory of tandemly duplicated NLR genes after gene duplication