Proceedings of the National Science Council, Republic of China. Part B, Life sciences最新文献

This study aims to investigate the roles of neuropeptides in the pathophysiology of human nasal diseases. By using immunohistochemistry and radioimmunoassay, we detected the presence, distribution and concentrations of the following neuropeptides in human nasal tissue: vasoactive intestinal peptides (VIP), neuropeptide Y (NPY), substance P (SP), and calcitonin gene-related peptides (CGRP). This was performed in human nasal inferior turbinate mucosa from 20 patients with allergic rhinitis, twenty-five patients with chronic hypertrophic rhinitis and 10 patients without any nasal disease conditions. The presence and distribution of NPY. CGRP and SP fibers among the three subject groups displayed no evident differences. VIP fibers were densely stained around the vessels in the allergic group. In contrast, these fibers were more prominently distributed around the submucosal glands of the chronic hypertrophic rhinitis group. The concentration of VIP and SP in human nasal inferior turbinate showed a significant increase in allergic subjects. Thus, VIP may be revelant to the hypertrophic changes of the nasal mucosa. Both SP and VIP may play significant neuroimmunological roles in the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis.

In order to investigate the effects of capsaicin on human detrusor contractility in both normal and spinal cord injury (SCI) bladders, a detrusor contractility study was performed in 10 normal and 8 SCI patients using isolated muscle strips. Eight bladder muscle strips were harvested from each patient undergoing surgery. Four strips were treated with capsaicin of 1-1000 microM, and electrical field stimulation and bethanechol were applied to the strips before and after capsaicin administration. The other four strips were pretreated with 40 nmole [D-Arg1, D-Trp7,9,Leu11]-Substance P (spantide) and then were underwent the same procedure. The results showed that capsaicin induced a dose-dependent increase in muscle tension on the human detrusor in both normal and SCI bladders. After treatment with varying concentrations of capsaicin for 10 minutes, low doses of capsaicin partially depressed detrusor contractility under both electrical and bethanechol stimulation while high doses of up to 1000 microM almost totally blocked detrusor contractility. The initial contractile effect of capsaicin was higher in normal bladders but the final depressant effect did not show any difference between normal and SCI bladders. With addition of spantide, the initial contractile effect and the final depressant effect of capsaicin remained the same, indicating that the contractile effects of capsaicin were not mainly through NK receptors but directly on muscle cells. Consecutive application of capsaicin to the same strip could not reproduce the contractile response. After washing free of capsaicin, the detrusor contractility under electrical stimulation and bethanechol was not reversible. A direct neurotoxic or cytotoxic effect could be found after high concentration capsaicin administration. In treating patients suffering from detrusor hyperreflexia using intravesical capsaicin instillation, this effect should be considered to prevent irreversible damage to the urinary bladder.

Large volume paracentesis (4.8 to 15.5 liters) was performed in 42 patients with post-hepatitic cirrhosis and massive ascites, not only to derive parameters capable of predicting the development of severe clinical hypotension after large volume paracentesis, but also to determine the optimal time to introduce preventive volume expanders. Systemic hemodynamics were sequentially measured for 72 hours in thirty-two patients. Severe clinical hypotension occurred in 13 (31.0%) patients 4-62 hours from the start of paracentesis. Univariate analysis, with the Mantel-Cox test used to compare Kaplan-Meier curves, and the subsequent multivariate analysis by stepwise Cox regression procedure were utilized to identify two variables, withdrawn ascitic fluid greater than 7.5 liters (p = 0.0121) and the absence of peripheral edema (p = 0.0148), reaching statistical significance to predict the occurrence of severe clinical hypotension. Compared to the baseline value, the cardiac output of patients not developing severe clinical hypotension increased (6.26 +/- 0.66 vs. 6.65 +/- 0.69 liter/min, p < 0.01) one hour from the start of paracentesis and right atrial pressure decreased (11.2 +/- 2.4 vs. 8.7 +/- 2.3 mmHg, p < 0.05). The cardiac output returned to the baseline value at the 9th hour. Based on the results presented herein, we can conclude that severe clinical hypotension occurs in a high percentage of patients with post-hepatitic cirrhosis and massive ascites within 72 hours from the start of large volume paracentesis. At potential risk of this occurring are those patients without peripheral edema and withdrawn ascitic fluid greater than 7.5 liters. Volume expanders should be introduced before 4th hour from the start of large volume paracentesis.

This paper examines the effects of phosphate pool and expression of polyphosphate kinase on glucose uptake by expressing the polyphosphate kinase under the control of lac promoter. The E. coli transformant of pL1, containing an IPTG controllable element for polyphosphate kinase expression, showed that the total intracellular phosphate significantly increased. However, the rate of glucose uptake by the resting plasmid-bearing cells with IPTG induction significantly decreased. These findings suggest that the polyphosphate can not directly function as an energy source in E. coli or at least not as a good energy supplier.

Bacterial vaccine, as generated by heat-inactivated Clostridium butyricum cells, displayed antitumor activity against sarcoma 180 in DDY mice and antimetastatic activity against B16-F10 melanoma in BDF1 mice. According to our results, the vaccine has no direct growth inhibitory effect toward the tumor cell lines tested in this study. The vaccine increased gamma-interferon production, elicited delayed type hypersensitivity reaction, and enhanced IgM antibody formation and mitogenicity. The phagocytic activity of macrophage and killing activity of NK cells from mice were enhanced in a dose-dependent manner by stimulating with the heat-inactivated vaccine. Among those responses in the mice treated with CB, elevated NK cell activity may play a prominent role in manifesting antitumor activity in the B16-F10 metastasis experiment.

For the early detection of oral neoplasia, light-induced fluorescence spectroscopy was used to measure the fluorescence emission of malignant (squamous cell carcinoma & verrucous carcinoma) and premalignant (epithelial dysplasia, hyperkeratosis & lichen planus) oral tissues as well as normal oral mucosa ex vivo to assess the ability of this technique to distinguish neoplastic from normal oral tissues. The emission spectra of histologically normal and neoplastic oral tissues were obtained under excitation wavelengths varied from 270 nm to 400 nm at 10-nm intervals. At 300-nm excitation, the most intensely fluorescent peak occurred at 330-nm and 470 nm emission. At 330-nm emission, the spectrum of the malignant oral tissue was significantly stronger than that of the normal oral mucosal tissue after area normalization. However, at 470-nm emission, the spectrum of the malignant oral tissue was significantly weaker than that of the normal oral mucosal tissue. A diagnostic algorithm based on the ratio of relative intensities of 330 nm to 470 nm emission within the +/-5 nm peak area of each sample was calculated and paired. The histogram of ratios showed that histologically neoplastic oral tissues could be distinguished from normal oral mucosal tissues using the 300 nm excitation wavelength. The average ratio of malignant or premalignant oral samples was significantly greater than that of the normal oral mucosal samples (p < 0.001). This ex vivo study indicated that fluorescence spectroscopy may be useful in differentiating malignant or premalignant oral tissue from normal oral mucosa.

A hospital-based case-control study was designed herein to investigate the relationship between parity, breast feeding and breast cancer in Taiwan. Reproductive histories of patients with breast cancer confirmed by either pathology or cytology were assessed by questionnaire and compared with age-matched healthy controls. One hundred and fourteen cases and 228 age-matched controls were recruited for this study. According to those results, women having had more than three full-term pregnancies, age at first full-term pregnancy younger than 30, and breast feeding for more than 3 years displayed significantly protective effects against breast cancer. Following adjustment for ethnicity and menopausal status, women with more than three full-term pregnancies and younger than 30 years old at first full-term pregnancy had a decreased risk of breast cancer. However, duration of breast feeding was not related to breast cancer, after adjustment for ethnicity and menopausal status. The effect of number of full-term pregnancies on the risk of breast cancer was found to be independent of the effect of age at first full-term pregnancy. Moreover, the effect of age at first full-term pregnancy and number of full-term pregnancies was also independent of the effect of breast feeding.

Maintaining stance stability under varying sensory environment is an essential function in the elderly and among patients. Testing sensory organization ability of standing balance, the Sensory Organization Test (SOT), has become a standard procedure in many clinical and laboratory settings. The stance stability can be quantified by two forceplate measures in the SOT: the equilibrium score (ES) and the sway area (SA). This study compares the validity of the ES and the SA in detecting gender, trial, and sensory effects on stability in twenty (ten male, ten female) healthy young adults. Subjects were tested under six sensory conditions: eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), sway-referenced vision (Vs), sway-referenced support surface (Ss), eyes closed sway-referenced support surface (ECSs), and sway-referenced visual surround and support surface (VsSs). A visual surround and/or the support surface were tilted proportionately to the subject's spontaneous sway in the sway-referenced conditions. Three trials, 20-second for each trial, were repeated for each sensory condition. Above results demonstrated that the Pearson correlation coefficients between the ES and the SA were all highly significant (p < .0001) except for the first trial of the EO condition. The consistencies in which the two measures discriminated among sensory conditions were tested by the Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The Kendall's coefficient for the ES (W = .843) and the SA (W = .866) were high and similar. Separate ANOVA procedure for the ES and SA revealed that both measures satisfactorily detected a significant sensory condition and trial effects and insignificant gender effect. We can conclude that ES and SA are valid measures of stance stability during the SOT. Our results confirm that healthy young adults have a poorer postural stability when the visual and somatosensory inputs are simultaneously altered. Moreover, the learning effect is observed during repeated trials within test conditions.

Nitric oxide (NO) release from mouse and rat macrophages is implicated in tumor cell cytotoxicity and the killing of intracellular organisms. Evidence, however, suggests that human monocyte-derived macrophages or myeloid leukemic cells differentiated along the monocytic lineage do not consistently release NO. Results presented herein that human monocyte-derived macrophages in response to lipopolysaccharide can release NO, but markedly less than mouse macrophages (1.26 +/- 0.20 vs 42.5 +/- 6.3 microM). Different in vitro and in vivo conditions have variable effects on NO production by human macrophages. Monocytes cultured in plastic wells, but not teflon beakers, for 7 days can release NO (1.22 +/- 0.13 vs 0.14 +/- 0.07 microM). In addition, human resident macrophages derived from patients with certain diseases possess a calcium- and protein kinase C-dependent pathway to produce NO, in contrast to the calcium-independent and phosphatase-dependent NO release in murine macrophages. Above results suggest that the mechanism of producing NO by macrophages in humans is not only different from that in mice, but also depends on certain in vitro and in vivo conditions.

A genomic bank from Brevibacterium divaricatum has been prepared using lambda EMBL3 as a vector. The genomic bank's titers are 2.2 x 10(6) pfu/micrograms. Through screening by plaque hybridization, a 9.6 kb NcoI fragment which contains the entire trp operon has been isolated. Polymerase chain reaction amplification and restriction endonuclease analysis of PCR fragments indicated that there is homology between the coryneform bacteria; however, some genetic diversity among the species still exists. By complementation tests using subcloning of the 9.6 kb NcoI fragments and various E. coli tryptophan auxotrophs, this fragment was found to contain a gene cluster composed of trpE, trpD, trpC, trpB and trpA in this order. This revealed that the tryptophan biosynthesis genes in B. divaricatum may be an operon.