The relationship of obesity index (modified Broca's index) to fasting serum lipids was investigated in 1615 men and 2844 women aged 25 years and over who underwent our annual health check. These subjects were citizens of Toda City, located in the southernmost part of Saitama Prefecture.
92 people with high cholesterol and/or high triglyceride were re-examined 6-12 months later. They were instructed to reduce calorie intake by 25-30 kcal per 1Kg of standard weight [(height-100)×0.9].
1) Total cholesterol, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio, LDL+VLDL cholesterol (total cholesterol- HDL cholesterol) and triglyceride were positively correlated to the obesity index, whereas HDL cholesterol was inversely correlated to the index. The highest correlation coefficient was observed between total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio and obesity index.
2) Difference of the obesity index (after-before the treatment, Δ obesity index) was positively correlated to the differences of total cholesterol, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio, LDL+VLDL cholesterol and triglyceride. Whereas the difference of the obesity index was inversely correlated to HDL cholesterol.
3) Total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio, LDL+VLDL cholesterol and triglyceride were significantly decreased in the instructed weight reduction group. HDL cholesterol increased in that group, but it was not statistically significant. The instructed subject without weight reduction did not reveal significant lipids changes.
Weight reduction can be considered to be useful non-pharmacological method for improving lipids metabolism.

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Hypoplastic leukemia has been found to be frequently seen in the old, however, its clinical characteristics in leukemia in the old are still obsqure. In the present study, clinical and hematological findings of 17 hypoplastic acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) in the old were compared with those of 25 typical AML in the old in order to evaluate its clinical characteristics. In hypoplastic AML in the old, physical findings such as fever, bleeding tendency, splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy were tended to be less frequent. The leukocytopenia, the low percentage of leukemic cells and the relative lymphocytosis and monocytosis in the peripheral blood were thought to be characteristic. The relative erythroid hyperplasia with maturation arrest and the increase of type III sideroblast in the bone marrow were also recognized in hypoplastic cases. In cases without the systemic chemotherapy, the median survival from the presumptive onset of leukemia were 12.0 months in hypoplastic cases and 2.5 months in typical cases, respectively. In cases with the systemic chemotherapy the median survival of hypoplastic cases was 8.0 months. On the other hand, it was 6.5 months in typical cases. These findings suggest the presence of the relationship between hypoplastic AML in the old and smoldering acute leukemia. On the basis of present results, hypoplastic AML in the old are thought to be different from typical AML in the old in respects of not only clinical and hematological findings but also the response to chemotherapy. The stratification by the hypoplasia in bone marrow should be done in order to establish the optimal chemotherapeutic regimen for acute leukemia in the old.

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The authors have studied the vascular smooth muscle cell in the aorta and the arteries of brain, heart in autopsied cases, cholesterol fed rabbits and canine through electron histochemical and autoradiographic methods, using ³H-proline and ³H-thymidine.
The vascular changes are variable presumably due to the functional and morphological difference of vessels. Aging, pathological condition and physiological requirement induce the disturbances of vascular functions as contractility. According to various pathological conditions, the smooth muscle cell altered their shape, surface properties and arrangement of subcellular organelles including changes in number.
The morphological features of arteries during aging is characterized by the thickening of endothelium and media. Decreasing cellularity and increasing collagen contents in media. The autoradiographic and histochemical observations using periodic acid methenamine silver (PAM) and ruthenium red stains demonstrated that the smooth muscle cell is a connective tissue synthetic cell. The PAM impregnation have proved that the small bundle of microfilaments become associated with small conglomerate of collagen and elastic fibers. Cytochemical examination will provide sufficient evidence to establish the contribution of subcellular structure.
The acid phosphatase play an important role in vascular disease and they are directly involved in cellular lipid metabolism in cholesterol fed animals, and the activity of Na-K ATPase on the plasma membrane may contribute to the regulation of vascular blood flow and vasospasms.
Direct injury and subsequent abnormal contraction of smooth muscle cell may initiate increased permeability of plasma protein and lipid in the media layer and eventually may developed and enhance arteriosclerosis.

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Micromeasuring studies have been made on the senile changes of the vocal muscle in 109 male autopsy cases of various ages (18-97). For the microscopic differentiation between red and white fibers, paraffin sections were stained with phosphotungstic hematoxylin. Red fibers were stained dark purple, and white fibers were stained pale greyish blue.
Total area of M. vocalis in transverse cut section in center of a vocal cord was measured in 10 times enlarged picture. Number of the muscle cells was estimated by product of number of fibers in a given area and total area in transverse cut section. The volume of fibers was measured in enlarged photomicrographs.
The total area of M. vocalis was decreased after 80 years of age. After 30 years of age, the decrease in number of white fibers was significant according to age, on the contrary, the decrease in number of red muscle was significantly observed after 70 years of age.
Both in red and white muscle fibers, the volume of fibers was increased with age, however, above 80 years of age, the volume of the white fibers was rather decreased.

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A clinicopathological study on the amplitude of fibrillatory wave (f wave amplitude) and the relation between atrial volume and f wave amplitude was performed in 143 autopsied cases with atrial fibrillation, ranging in age at the time of death from 60 to 100 years old (78.4±8.0, mean±SD).
Incidence of coarse fibrillatory wave (greatest f wave amplitude≥0.1mV) was 20%, 65%, and 56% in cases without heart disease (Group I), with valvular heart disease (Group II), and with hypertension and/or ischemic heart disease (Group III), respectively. Mean value of greatest f wave amplitude in Group I was 0.06±0.07mV and was significantly lower than in Group II (0.14±0.12mV) and Group III (0.11±0.09mV). The f wave amplitude decreased with passage of time, irrespective of with or without digitalization. There was a tendency that f wave amplitude decreased with advance of age, although the difference was statistically significant only between cases of the sixties and the eighties. Atrial volume (sum of the both atria) was 92±27, 140±55, and 113±39ml in Group I, II, and III, respectively. Age itself did not influence the atrial volume, although atrial volume was larger in cases with chronic atrial fibrillation than in cases with transient atrial fibrillation.
In a whole group and in Group I, atrial volume was significantly larger in cases with coarse fibrillatory wave than in cases with fine fibrillatory wave (greatest f wave amplitude≤0.05mV). However, no significant difference was observed in Group II and III.
In conclusion, atrial volume was not the only factor responsible for the f wave amplitude.

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A method for the assay of elastase activity in the duodenal aspirate of pancreozymin-secretin test (PS-test) was investigated by using a synthetic substrate, Suc-(Ala)₃-NA, and the effect of aging on the elastase output of PS-test was tested on the 60 patients by comparing with the amylase output measured simmultaneously.
A very significant correlation was noted between the elastase output and amylase output (p<0.001). The elastase output definitely decreased with aging, furthermore, the ratio of the elastase output to the amylase output (E/A ratio) was also significantly decreased with aging.
These observations indicate that the elastase output decreases with aging more severely than the other pancreatic enzyme outputs, and support indirectly the possibility that pancreatic elastase may play a part in the advance of arteriosclerosis.

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Studies were carried out on the annual rise and fall and geographical distribution of the index showing an increase in the number of aged people in the population of Yamanashi Prefecture.
Annual changes were examined in the proportion and index of age-groups of the population in and after 1950. The proportion has been decreasing for the population of 0 to 14 years and increasing for the population of 15 to 64 years and that of 65 years and over every year. The index has been increasing for the index of senile population (population of 65 years and over divided by population of 15 to 64 years) and that of senile generation (population of 65 years and over divided by population of 0 to 14 years) every year. The latter two index in 1975 were two to three times as large as those in and before 1950.
The proportion and index of age-groups of population are rather high in Yamanashi Prefecture, as compared with those in other prefectures of the country.
The proportion of people more than 65 years old (population of people more than 65 years old divided by population), the rate of long-living persons (population of people more than 70 years old divided by population), the ratio of the aged (population of people more than 70 years old divided by population of people more than 65 years old) and longevity (population of people more than 75 years old divided by population of people more than 65 years old) have been increasing for both males and females since 1950. When they were compared between the whole country and Yamanashi Prefecture, every one of them was higher in this prefecture than in the whole country.
A group of cities, towns, and villages where the index of senile population and that of senile generation were rather high in 1955 showed also a marked increase in those indices in 1965 and 1975. On the other hand, there were differences in the annual distribution of the ratio of aged and ratio of longevity among such cities, towns, and villages.
The index of senile population, the index of senile generation, the rate of long-living persons and longevity were all low in cities and suburban towns and villages in 1975. Moreover, the index of senile population and the index of senile generation were low in cities, towns, and villages in the eastern parts of Yamanashi Prefecture. The rate of long-living people and longevity were rather high in towns and villages in the central and southern parts of the prefecture.

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Purpose and Method: It is well known that post heparin lipoprotein lipase (HLPL) is activated by heparin. However, the role of heparin in HLPL is still in debate. Therefore, using plasma from heparin-injected rabbits, present study was designed to detect how the activity of HLPL changed, in which heparinase in vitro was added to destroy heparin. The effect of heparin degradation product on LPL activity was also studied. And the effect of FFA or glycerol on hepatic TG-lipase was investigated with rat liver perfusion.
Result and Conclusion: By in vitro addition of heparinase to plasma containing HLPL heparin content was reduced to almost same levels as that of control. It is concluded that heparin itself would have no relation but induction mechanism in plasma HLPL activity. The degradation of heparin by the heparinase produced a substance with high LPL activity and low anticoagulant activity. With rat liver perfusion, while glycerol had no effect on lipase activity, linoleic acid seemed to effect lipase activity in perfusates. It would be supposed that FFA could stimulate the release of lipase from liver, that is, hepatic TG-lipase. And increasing FFA would be one of the factors for secretion of hepatic TG-lipase.

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