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There are more than 70 proteins in chicken egg white, most of which have a role in host defense. We isolated a novel protein from chicken egg white which we termed EW135 by means of polyethylene glycol precipitation and ionexchange chromatography, and an amino acid sequence analysis of its tryptic peptides showed it to be a member of the group B scavenger receptor cysteine-rich domain superfamily. EW135 was speculated to be complexed with a substance (s) in egg white in a Ca 2+ -dependent manner. From a structural point of view, EW135 may play a role in host defense.

Cytokine oncostatin M (OM) exerts growth-inhibitory and differentiative effects on breast cancer cells. Previously we showed that the transcription from the p53 gene in breast cancer cells was down regulated by OM. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the OM effect on p53 transcription, in this study, we dissected the p53 promoter region and analysed the p53 promoter activity in breast tumor cells. We showed that treatment of MCF-7 cells with OM induced a dose- and time-dependent suppression of p53 promoter activity. The p53 promoter activity was decreased to 35% of control at 24 h and further decreased to 20% at 48 h by OM at concentrations of 5 ng/ml and higher. Deletion of the 5'-flanking region of the p53 promoter from -426 to -97 did not affect the OM effect. However, further deletion to -40 completely abolished the repressive effect of OM. The p53 promoter region -96 to -41 contains NF-kappaB and c-myc binding sites, and a newly identified UV-inducible element PE21. Mutations to disrupt NF-kappaB binding or c-myc binding to the p53 promoter decreased the basal promoter activity without affecting the OM-mediated suppression, whereas mutation at the PE21 motif totally abolished the OM effect. We further demonstrated that insertion of PE21 element upstream of the thymidine kinase minimal promoter generated an OM response analogous to that of the p53 promoter. Finally, we detected the specific binding of a nuclear protein with a molecular mass of 87 kDa to the PE21 motif. Taken together, we demonstrate that OM inhibits the transcription of the p53 gene through the PE21 element. Thus, the PE21 element is functionally involved in p53 transcription regulated by UV-induction and OM suppression.

A 63-year-old woman was referred to our hospital for further examination because of an incidental finding of early gastric cancer. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) was successfully performed for complete resection of the tumor. On the first post-ESD day, the patient suddenly complained of abdominal pain after an episode of vomiting. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed delayed perforation after ESD. The patient was conservatively treated with an intravenous proton pump inhibitor and antibiotics. On the fifth post-ESD day, CT revealed a gastric wall abscess in the gastric body. Gastroscopy revealed a gastric fistula at the edge of the post-ESD ulcer, and pus was found flowing into the stomach. An intradrainage stent and an extradrainage nasocystic catheter were successfully inserted into the abscess for endoscopic transgastric drainage. After the procedure, the clinical symptoms and laboratory test results improved quickly. Two months later, a follow-up CT scan showed no collection of pus. Consequently, the intradrainage stent was removed. Although the gastric wall abscess recurred 2 wk after stent removal, it recovered soon after endoscopic transgastric drainage. Finally, after stent removal and oral antibiotic treatment for 1 mo, no recurrence of the gastric wall abscess was found.

A case of a 60-year-old Japanese woman with small cell lung cancer involving skin and stomach is reported. She was diagnosed as primary small cell lung cancer accompanied by extensive cutaneous metastases. Three months after the last chemotherapy, she complained of nausea and vomiting. Brain CT scan showed no evidence of central nervous system involvement. Upper gastrointestinal study and upper gastrointestinal fiberscopy revealed multiple metastatic gastric tumors. Skin and stomach are uncommon metastatic sites for any malignancy. Furthermore, only a few cases with gastric metastasis could be diagnosed during their lifetime.

比較的稀とされる原発性縦隔精上皮腫の一症例を経験したので報告した.患者は52歳の男性で, 縦隔悪性奇形腫の疑いにて本院胸部外科入院.放射線療法後, 腫瘍摘出術施行したが, 非治癒的切除に終わった.手術標本にて精上皮腫と診断された為, 術後Cis-platinum等による化学療法と放射線療法を受けた.しかし4カ月後, 左癌性胸膜炎再燃し当科入院された.CPA, ACTM-D, VCRによる化学療法を施行したが肺炎にて死亡された.

Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) immunohistochemistry has recently been introduced for the visualization of DNA-synthesizing nuclei. To determine the optimal conditions for detecting BrdU-incorporated nuclear DNA in formalin- or ethanol-fixed, paraffin-embedded human gastric tissues, we tested several different pretreatment procedures of hydrolysis with HCl and enzymatic digestion with actinase before the immunohistochemical staining. Three cases of surgically resected stomachs were perfused with artificial blood containing BrdU and fixed in formalin, ethanol or with their combination for different durations. The results of BrdU-immunohistochemical stainings were checked and the labeling indices were compared. As for hydrolysis, treatment with 2N HCl at 25°C for 90min was sufficient to detect the immunoreactivity in the stomach irrespective of fixative conditions tested. However, to obtain the most suitable stainings an additional enzymatic digestion was needed, and the optimal condition with actinase was different according to the fixation time in formalin- and/or ethanol-fixed tissues. There are also a few differences in the demonstrability of nuclear BrdU among various kinds of cells, i.e. normal epithelial cells, immunoblasts in the lymphoid follicle and cancer cells. Our method could extend the range of application of BrdU immunohistochemistry for cell kinetic studies using human surgically resected organs.