All issues
Volume 28 (2007)
- Issue 6 Pages 281-
- Issue 5 Pages 231-
- Issue 4 Pages 169-
- Issue 3 Pages 119-
- Issue 2 Pages 61-
- Issue 1 Pages 1-
Volume 28, Issue 6
December
Displaying 1-8 of 8 articles from this issue
- |<
- <
- 1
- >
- >|
Full Papers
-
Takashi HAYASHI, Satoru TSUJII, Tadao IBURI, Tamiko TAMANAHA, Keiko YA ...2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 281-285
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSTo elucidate the sustainable effects of laughter on gene expression, we recruited type 2 diabetic patients who were in-patient for receiving self-management education and examined time-dependent regulation for gene expression by laughter. Two-day experiment was performed. On one day, the patients watched comic video and laughed together with hospital staffs. On the other day, they participated in an inpatient diabetes educational program. Blood samples were collected before and 1.5, 4 h after watching comic video or spending lecture time, and changes in gene expression were comprehensively analyzed by microarray technique. Of the 41,000 genes analyzed, the laughter relatively up-regulated 39 genes, among which, 27 genes were relatively increased in the expression for all the observation period after watching comic video. By functional classification of these genes, 14 genes were found to be related to natural killer cell activity. No genes were included that are directly involved in blood glucose regulation, though successive suppression of postprandial blood glucose levels was observed. These results suggest that the laughter influences the expression of many genes classified into immune responses, and may contribute to amelioration of postprandial blood glucose elevation through a modulation of NK cell activity caused by up-regulation of relating genes.View full abstractDownload PDF (178K) -
Kimio SUGAYA, Tomohiro ONAGA, Saori NISHIJIMA, Minoru MIYAZATO, Yoshin ...2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 287-294
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSWe compared the serum cholinesterase (ChE) level and various parameters between patients with or without overactive bladder (OAB) and/or neurogenic bladder (NB). A total of 258 patients who met the following criteria were enrolled: the presence/absence of OAB and/or NB was documented, laboratory data were available, and liver and renal functions were normal. Patients were divided into the 3 groups: 1) a NB+/OAB+ group who had both NB and OAB, 2) a NB-/OAB+ group who had OAB alone, and 3) an OAB- group who did not have OAB. The relationship between the presence of OAB and various biochemical parameters were examined, as well as the therapeutic outcome in relation to the same biochemical parameters. Forty-three patients had both NB and OAB (NB+/OAB+), 66 patients had OAB without NB (NB-/OAB+), and 149 patients had no OAB (OAB-). Serum ChE, total protein, and albumin levels were lower in the NB-/OAB+ group than the NB+/OAB+ group or the OAB- group. In the NB-/OAB+ group, a higher serum albumin or ChE level was associated with a better therapeutic outcome. These results suggest that a decrease of serum ChE level is related to the occurrence of OAB and the poor response to treatment in OAB patients without NB.View full abstractDownload PDF (316K) -
Noriko HATTORI, Hiroshi NOMOTO, Hidefumi FUKUMITSU, Satoshi MISHIMA, S ...2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 295-299
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSWe earlier identified adenosine monophosphate (AMP) N1-oxide as a unique compound of royal jelly (RJ) that induces neurite outgrowth from cultured rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells. In the present study, the effects of AMP N1-oxide on the proliferation and/or differentiation of cultured neural stem/progenitor cells (NSCs) were examined. As for cell proliferation, low micromolar concentrations of AMP N1-oxide or its parent compound, AMP, similarly enhanced the NSC proliferation-inducing activity of basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2), although neither compound tested alone affected cell proliferation. Conversely, high concentrations of AMP N1-oxide (over 20 μM) markedly suppressed cell growth even in the presence of FGF-2. However, this suppression was not observed with AMP. As for cell differentiation, AMP N1-oxide, but not AMP, increased the generation of astrocytes in a dose-dependent manner when the cells were cultured in medium lacking FGF-2. The generation of neurons or oligodendrocytes was not influenced by AMP N1-oxide. Furthermore, AMP N1-oxide increased the phosphorylation of STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3), a transcription factor that mediates the expression of astrocytespecific genes. These results suggest that AMP N1-oxide is one of the components that facilitates astrogenesis by NSCs through activation of STAT3.View full abstractDownload PDF (646K) -
Yam B. GURUNG, Yasutake SHIMIZU, Takahiko SHIINA, Motamed E. MAHMOUD, ...2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 301-308
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIn the present study, we aimed to determine how inflammation affects spontaneous motility in the longitudinal direction of a hamster colon preparation. Trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) injected into the distal colon caused diarrhea 4-7 days after the treatment, but diarrhea was not observed in hamsters kept for 4 weeks. At 1 week after induction of colitis, spontaneous motility in the longitudinal direction was strongly suppressed. Contraction of longitudinal smooth muscles induced by electrical field stimulation was impaired, but not that induced by exogenously applied acetylcholine, indicating that acute inflammation preferentially impairs neurotransmissions with a minor effect on contractility of the longitudinal smooth muscle itself. The spontaneous motility reappeared in the colonic preparation isolated from the hamster maintained for 4 weeks after induction of colitis. The reappearance of the motility accompanied cholinergic and nitrergic regulations of contractile activity. These results demonstrated that impairment and following restoration of spontaneous contractile activity of longitudinal smooth muscles in the TNBS-inflamed distal colon of the hamster may depend on the damage and recovery of neural factors, rather than alteration of muscle contractility.View full abstractDownload PDF (1599K) -
Mayuko MATSUMOTO, Takeshi WATANABE, Ikuo MIYAGAWA2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 309-314
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIn this study, we tried to elucidate the effect of estrogen treatment on the detrusor contractile response to muscarine and muscarine receptor subtypes of the bladder in 13-month-old female Wistar rats. The rats were divided into two groups, controls and rats treated with estradiol for 12 weeks. After the treatment phase, we monitored micturition behavior in addition to performing cystometrograms after the administration of muscarine, and real-time polymerase chain reaction for mRNA expression of the muscarinic receptor subtypes in the detrusor muscle. Our data indicated that there was a significant increase in the maximum micturition volume in the estradioltreated rats. The urodynamic results indicated significant changes in the maximum detrusor pressure following the administration of muscarine in the estradiol-treated rats, in contrast to the controls for which no significant changes were observed. Furthermore, M3 receptor mRNAs in the detrusor muscle were significantly decreased in the estradiol-treated rats as compared to the control rats, while there were no differences noted for the M2 receptor mRNAs. Our data demonstrates that long-term estradiol treatment might be capable of increasing the potential detrusor contractility, and thus, estradiol might be a therapeutic agent that can be used to target the M3 receptors during the treatment of detrusor instability.View full abstractDownload PDF (265K) -
Naoto KAMIO, Hideki HASHIZUME, Sumi NAKAO, Kiyoshi MATSUSHIMA, Hiroshi ...2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 315-322
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSPlasminogen activator (PA) is the enzyme that converts plasminogen to its active form, plasmin, which is involved in various physiological and pathological phenomena. The conversion is catalyzed by two types of PA, urokinase-type PA (uPA) and tissue-type PA (tPA). We investigated the effect of the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) on PA secretion in human dental pulp cells. When the cells were stimulated by IL-1β, PA activity in the medium was clearly increased in a time- and dose-dependent manner. This PA activity in the medium was reduced after immunoprecipitation with anti-uPA antibody, and uPA protein was detected in the immunoprecipitated fraction by Western blotting. However, no such effect was observed with anti-tPA antibody. In the IL-1β-stimulated cells, expression of uPA mRNA was enhanced whereas expression of tPA mRNA was less. The IL-1β-stimulated uPA mRNA expression and PA activities in the cell lysate and medium were reduced by the tyrosine kinase inhibitors herbimycin A and genistein, and by the NFκB inhibitor pyrolidinedithiocarbamate, and were augmented by the tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor sodium orthovanadate. These observations suggest that IL-1β stimulates uPA production via activation of NFκB and tyrosine phosphorylation, and also secretion of the enzyme, and that the uPA/plasmin system appears to be involved in inflammation in human dental pulp.View full abstractDownload PDF (575K) -
Fujiko HIRASAWA, Masami KAWAGOE, Jing-Shu WANG, Szilvia ARANY, Xiao-Pi ...2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 323-330
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSTo assess the effect of gadolinium (Gd) on the expression of several forms of cytochrome P450 (P450s) and antioxidant enzymes, we treated rats with gadolinium chloride (25 mg as Gd/kg body weight) 4 h after styrene (a multiple P450 inducer) treatment (600 mg/kg). Gd treatment significantly suppressed styrene-inducible cytochrome P4502B1 (CYP2B1), CYP2B2, CYP2E1, and CYP3A2 mRNA expressions to 48.6%, 69.8%, 61.1%, and 38.5%, accompanying with the reduction of proteins expression to 1.42%, 31.2%, 21.1% and 21.1%, respectively, compared with styrene alone treatment. Gd suppressed styrene-inducible CYP1A2 expression, but only at the protein level. On the other hand, styrene treatment caused a decrease in reduced form of glutathione (GSH), as well as increases in lipid peroxide and serum ALT and AST activities, suggesting the occurrence of hepatic damage probably due to styrene-induced oxidative stress in rat liver. Post-treatment of Gd attenuated this styrene-caused hepatic damage. Moreover, mRNA expressions of cellular antioxidant enzymes such as catalase, CuZn-superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were hardly changed by styrene and/or Gd treatment. In summary, Gd suppressed styrene-inducible expression of not only CYP2B1 but also several forms of P450 at both the mRNA and protein levels, along with attenuation of styrene-caused liver damage. These findings suggested that Gd is a chemo-preventive agent against hepatic damage caused by xenobiotics requiring biotransformation.View full abstractDownload PDF (688K)
Communication
-
Yukio ARAKAWA, Noriyasu HASHIDA, Nobuyuki OHGURO, Noboru YAMAZAKI, Mit ...2007 Volume 28 Issue 6 Pages 331-334
Published: 2007
Released on J-STAGE: January 18, 2008
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSCorticosteroid is generally accepted as a standard therapeutic agent for active inflammatory (and) autoimmune eye diseases. In an attempt to develop a system to deliver corticosteroid most efficiently to the target eye, a sialyl-Lewis X (sLex)-conjugated liposome was adopted as a candidate for a carrier of dexamethasone (Dexa) and tissue distribution of intravenous Dexa with the modified liposome as well as Dexa alone as control was studied in normal and experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) mice. Intravenous Dexa (1 mg) was widely distributed in all the tissues (eye, brain, heart, lung, liver, kidney, spleen and intestine) examined in similar manner in both mice and Dexa concentration was lowest in the eye except the brain. The tissue concentrations of Dexa in EAU group were all significantly lower than those in the corresponding tissues in normal group. Intravenous Dexa (2 μg) in the modified liposome was almost concentrated to the eye in EAU mice, reaching 13.84 ng/mg tissue in contrast to 2.34 ng/mg tissue in Dexa (1 mg) alone administered EAU mice. In normal mice, Dexa was undetectable in any tissues examined and thus the effect of the modified liposome was not observed. The result supported the potentiality of sLex-conjugated liposome for target-delivering of corticosteroid to inflamed eye.View full abstractDownload PDF (224K)
- |<
- <
- 1
- >
- >|