Search

Introduction: We have reported that NKH477, a water-soluble forskolin derivative, prolongs allograft survival in rat orthotopic lung transplantation. For the first time, we investigated the in vivo mechanisms of action of NKH477. Methods: Left lungs of Lewis recipients were orthotopically replaced by those from Brown-Norway (BN) donors on day 0. The recipient rats were untreated or treated daily with NKH477 (orally, 3 mg/kg, day 0-10). Untreated (n59) or NKH-treated (n56) allografts were monitored daily by chest roentogenographs to determine survival time with Prop’s method. The grafts and spleens were harvested on day 3 or 5 from untreated or NKHtreated recipients (n55 in each group). Mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs) were harvested on day 5 from untreated or NKH-treated recipients (n52 in each group). The grafts were homogenized to determine expression of IFN-g, IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10 by ELISA. Expression of the cytokines was evaluated in the spleens with immunohistochemical staining. MLN cells were cultured in vitro for 72 hours with or without x-irradiated BN splenocytes. The cell proliferation was determined by [3H]thymidine incorporation. Results: NKH477 monotherapy extended the survival time of allografts from 4 days to 9.5 days (p,0.01). IFN-g and IL-10 expression was markedly up-regulated at day 3 and at day 5 in the untreated allografts. The NKH477 therapy potently inhibited the upregulation of both cytokines in the allografts at day 3 (p,0.05). Although expression of IL-2 as well as IL-10 in the spleens of untreated recipients increased after the transplantation, expression of both cytokines at day 5 was clearly less in the spleens of NKH477-treasted recipients (p,0.05). When the MLN cells were cultured alone or in the presence of x-irradiated BN splenocytes, the cell proliferation was inhibited in NKH-treated recipients as compared to untreated recipients. Conclusion: These results suggest that NKH477 exerts an antiproliferative effect in vivo with an altered cytokine profile to prolong allograft survival in rat orthotopic lung transplantation.

To investigate the mechanism of concrete cracking by rebar corrosion, an accelerated test by electrolytic corrosion has been done. Additional chemical analysises were also carried out to confirm corrosion characteristics. During acceleration, free chlorides moved toward the anode and corrosion products did not move away from the steel-mortar interface. X-ray diffraction results indicated that corrosion products consisted mainly of Fe3O4. Not only resistance of concrete against internal pressure but also corrosion rate had influence on weight-loss of steel for cracking. When the corrosion rate was more than 0.5mpy, 3-9mg/cm2 of weight-loss was enough for cracking and an elastic analysis was effective for its presumption.

Pemphigus is a serious, chronic, vesiculobullous disease that may affect skin and mucous membranes.The four major forms of pemphigus are pemphigus vulgaris, pemphigus vegetans, pemphigus foliaceus and pemphigus erythematosus.Pemphigus vegetans is considered to be a variant of pemphigus vulgaris and there are two types of pemphigus vegetans: the types of Neumann and Hallopeau.In this paper, a rare case of pemphigus vegetans-Hallopeau type was reported and the literature was reviewed.

Several guanine-rich sequences exist in many important regions, such as telomeres, and these sequences can form quadruplex DNA structures. It was previously reported that 3′-guanines are mainly oxidized in the Tetrahymena and Oxytricha telomeric quadruplex DNA, d(TGGGGT)4, and 5′-guanines are mainly oxidized in the human telomeric quadruplex DNA, d(TAGGGT)4T. We speculated that the differences in site reactivity between d(TGGGGT)4 and d(TAGGGT)4T are induced by the localization of the HOMO. The HOMOs of the possible quadruplex structures were thus determined and the results showed that the HOMOs of d(TGGGGT)4 +3K+ and d(TAGGGT)4T +2K+ localized at the 5′-guanine, and that the HOMO shifted from the 5′-guanine to the 3′-guanine by the addition of a 5′-capping cation. Furthermore, we determined the influence of the cation and demonstrated that localization of the HOMO at the G-quartet plane located immediately adjacent to the cation is disfavored. The calculated HOMO localization of d(TGGGGT)4 +4K+ and d(TAGGGT)4T +2K+ matched the experimental results and suggest that d(TGGGGT)4 contains a 5′-capping cation in solution.

Amphiphilic surfactants containing porphyrin with one or four poly(oxyethylene) chains were prepared by an immortal_polymerization. The photosensitizing effect of these polymers on the oxidation-reduction of L-ascorbic acid and Fast Red A(FRA) was examined in acetate buffer solution. The polymer having four poly(oxethylene) chains photosensitized the reduction better than the polymer with one poly(oxyethylene) chain which formed association. The effects of pH and of surfactant concentration on the photosensitized reaction were examined.

From January 1978 through February 1989, 110 tricuspid annuloplasties (De Vega's procedure) were performed in association with mitral and combined mitral and aortic valve disease. Preoperatively, 106 (96%) of 110 patients were in New York Heart Association functional class III or IV. There were seven early deaths (6.3%), and 3 patients, 2 with mitral lesions and 1 with a combined lesion, died during a follow-up period of 3 to 52 months (mean follow-up, 22 months). Four patients (3.6%) required reoperation because of biological mitral valve failure at 5 to 8 years after tricuspid annuloplasty (mean period, 6.6 years). Twenty-three (62%) of 37 randomly selected patients evaluated by echocardiography and 14 (70%) of 20 patients evaluated by right ventriculography showed complete disappearance of tricuspid regurgitation after tricuspid annuloplasty in 1 to 18 months (mean period, 3.3 months). Seventy-seven (96%) of the survivors were in functional class I or II after tricuspid annuloplasty. The actuarial survival rate for the TAP series including early deaths was 85.8% +/- 7.4% at 10 years and the actuarial rate of freedom from reoperation on the tricuspid valve was 96.7% +/- 1.4%. Our surgical experience indicates that the De Vega's annuloplasty, as the method of first choice, is a simple, reliable procedure and resulted in improvement in 90% of patients with moderate to severe functional tricuspid regurgitation.

Recently tide and water quality simulations by finite element method are carried out very frequently. This is because the expression of configuration by arbitary triangular or trapezoidal elements in finite element method is more accurate than the expression by square grids in finite difference method. This means that the accuracy of numerical simulation rises up by use of finite element method. Tidal computation by finite element approximation does not always satisfy continuity condition in each element completely. The reason is that the approximation with the method of weighted residual seeks to the minimum error from the true solution in some average sense. Therefore, there is any possibility to include the small deviation in each element in continuity condition. Michael Gee and MacArthur(1978) investigated the evaluation of continuity errors. They conclude that the internal continuity errors can be reduced to acceptable levels by increasing network detail, particularly in area of large curvature of the velocity field. There is a serious problem, however, when the solution applies to diffusion equation based on mass conservative law. When some conditions, which are no source, no sink or decay, initial concentration and the same boundary condition, are imposed to diffusion problem, the concentration should not change the value due to convection or diffusion. However, the concentration may change if the flow field does not satisfy continuity equation in each element. That is, unreasonable results such as source or decay are brought due to wrong continuity condition.

Introduction 2,2,4-Triamino-5(2H)-oxazolone (Oz) in a DNA strand is an oxidation product of guanine and 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydroguanine, and such a lesion can cause G-to-C transversions. Previously, Fpg/Nei and Nth were shown to have incision activity on Oz. Findings We investigated the activities of chlorella virus pyrimidine dimer glycosylase (cvPDG) and Escherichia coli endonucleases IV (Nfo) and V (Nfi) on Oz. Although the three enzymes have different repair mechanisms from Fpg/Nei and Nth, they still had incision activity on Oz. Conclusions Given the incision activities of cvPDG, Nfo and Nfi on Oz in addition to Fpg/Nei and Nth, Oz is DNA damage that can be repaired by diverse enzymes.