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Special processes recruited during the recognition of personally familiar people have been assumed to reflect the rich episodic and semantic information that selectively represents each person. However, the processes may also include person nonselective ones, which may require interpretation in terms beyond the memory mechanism. To examine this possibility, we assessed decrease in differential activation during the second presentation of an identical face (repetition suppression) as an index of person selectivity. During fMRI, pictures of personally familiar, famous, and unfamiliar faces were presented to healthy subjects who performed a familiarity judgment. Each face was presented once in the first half of the experiment and again in the second half. The right inferior temporal and left inferior frontal gyri were activated during the recognition of both types of familiar faces initially, and this activation was suppressed with repetition. Among preferentially activated regions for personally familiar over famous faces, robust suppression in differential activation was exhibited in the bilateral medial and anterior temporal structures, left amygdala, and right posterior STS, all of which are known to process episodic and semantic information. On the other hand, suppression was minimal in the posterior cingulate, medial prefrontal, right inferior frontal, and intraparietal regions, some of which were implicated in social cognition and cognitive control. Thus, the recognition of personally familiar people is characterized not only by person-selective representation but also by nonselective processes requiring a research framework beyond the memory mechanism, such as a social adaptive response.

Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats are broadly used in preclinical studies for drug development, so a lot of information for the rats can be obtained especially from pharmacokinetic, pharmacological and toxicological studies. The purpose of this study was to clarify whether SD rat skin can be used to predict human skin permeability. In vitro permeation studies of the three model drugs, nicorandil, isosorbide dinitrate, and flurbiprofen, through human skin and SD rat skin were performed using Franz-type diffusion cells. The permeation rates of the three model drugs through human skin and SD rat skin were determined, and their variations were evaluated. The inter-individual variations in SD rat skin permeability of the three model drugs were much lower than that in human skin permeability, although the permeation rates of the three model drugs through the SD rat skin were about twice those through human skin. In addition, no difference in the skin permeability coefficients of the three model drugs was obtained between fresh SD rat skin and frozen SD rat skin. The markedly smaller variation in the permeability through SD rat skin compared with that through human skin indicated that in vitro permeation studies using SD rat skin would be especially useful for evaluating differences in the skin permeability of the three model drugs as well as for predicting human skin permeability.

ME1071, a maleic acid derivative, is a novel specific inhibitor for metallo-beta-lactamases (MBL). In this study, the potentiation of ME1071 in combination with several beta-lactams was evaluated using MBL-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. The rates of susceptibility of MBL producers to carbapenems (imipenem, biapenem, and doripenem) and ceftazidime were increased by 8 to 27% in the presence of 32 microg/ml of ME1071. The corresponding resistance rates were decreased by 13 to 46%, respectively. On the other hand, ME1071 showed weaker or no potentiation with non-MBL producers. The K(i) value of ME1071 for IMP-1 was 0.4 microM, significantly lower than the K(m) values of carbapenems for the IMP-1 enzyme. On the other hand, the K(i) value of ME1071 for VIM-2 was 120 microM, higher than the K(m) values of carbapenems for the VIM-2 enzyme. Results of this study indicate that ME1071 can potentiate the activity of ceftazidime and carbapenems against MBL-producing strains of P. aeruginosa.