The tiptoe walking-Yoshimura (twy) mouse is a mutant strain showing multiple osteochondral lesions including deformity of the vertebral column and cervical myelopathy. The purpose of this study was to clarify both the histopathological alterations occurring in the lower medulla oblongata and higher cervical cord, and the involvement of TGF-β and decorin in pathological ossification, of the twy mouse. Alteration of substantia alba was found in loci compressed by ossification lesions in the higher cervical cord and medulla oblongata. Cellular atrophy and slight defluvium in gray matter were present in the loci with remarkable compression. Diffuse changes were observed in the medulla oblongata and the whole cervical cord. Therefore, we consider the twy mouse to be a useful experimental model for cervical myelopathy including a cranio-cervical junction. It was suggested that ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament progressed around the posterior corner of the vertebral body and anulus fibrosus of the lateral intervertebral disc, because these were stained by anti-TGF-β antibody and anti-decorin antibody.

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    Innate Paneth cells (IPCs) contain various enzymes such as matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP7), lysozyme, secretory phospholipase A₂ (sPLA₂), and α₁-antitrypsin (α₁AT), which are considered to participate in important roles against bacteria and mucosal injury, while it is unknown whether metaplastic Paneth cells (MPCs) in ulcerative colitis (UC) have similar functions to IPCs. An immunohistochemical comparison between IPCs and MPCs was made using antibodies against these enzymes. The study included 20 patients with total colitis type of active UC. For six segments from the cecum to the rectum, ratios of the number of MPCs with enzyme positive granules (enzyme⁺-MPCs) and ratios of the number of MPCs with positive granules occupying more than a half of the cytoplasm (enzyme^1/2-MPCs) to that of all MPCs were calculated. The populations of MMP7⁺-MPCs, MMP7^1/2- MPCs and lysozyme^1/2-MPCs were significantly smaller than those of IPCs in the ileum taken from 20 controls (p < 0.01). Both MPCs and IPCs abundantly contained sPLA₂ positive granules, but had few α₁AT granules. MPCs were characterized by scant MMP7 and abundant sPLA₂; MMP7 is capable of causing tissue injury and sPLA₂ is associated with mucosal repair. Although a population of MPCs is usually small in the colorectal mucosa of UC, they are suggested to come into existence to play a role of mucosal repair.

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Background: We previously demonstrated that a high level of chimerism was induced by low dose of bone marrow cells (BMCs) combined with splenocytes (SPLCs), while the same dose of BMCs alone was insufficient for tolerance induction. In the present study, we investigated whether stable mixed chimerism and donor specific tolerance could be established in sublethally irradiated mice following intravenous injection of various dosages of fully allogeneic peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs). In addition, validity of combination of donor splenocytes in the peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) as well as in bone marrow transplantation for tolerance induction were examined.
Methods: Sublethally irradiated C57BL/6 recipient mice were injected 10x10⁶ PBSCs mixed with various numbers of granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized SPLCs harvested from BALB/c donor mice. Three months later, the degree of chimerism in peripheral blood lymphocytes and in SPLCs was examined by FACS analysis. Mixed lymphocyte responses (MLR) and skin grafting were performed to confirm donor-specific tolerance.
Results: Recipients receiving 10x10⁶ PBSCs mixed with 30x10⁶ G-CSF-mobilized SPLCs showed a higher level of chimerism. High percentage chimeric mice all showed donor specific tolerance in vitro, MLR and in vivo, and skin grafting.
Conclusions: PBSCT mixed with SPLCs was proven to be useful for induction of donor-specific tolerance. Admixture of SPLCs reduces the amount of PBSCs needed for induction of tolerance.

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Purpose: To describe optic disc characteristics assessed by evaluation of clinical optic disc photographs and to utilize these findings to differentiate glaucoma patients and normal subjects.
Patients and Methods: A total of 329 eyes of 329 glaucoma patients and 220 eyes of 220 normal subjects were included The disc diameter to disc-to-macula distance ratio (DD/DM ratio), cup-to-disc diameter ratio (C/D ratio), disc hemorrhage (DH), and nerve fiber layer defect (NFLD) were quantitatively measured on photography.
Results: The horizontal and vertical DD/DM ratios and C/D ratios were significantly larger in glaucoma patients than those in normal subjects (P < 0.05, P < 0.0001). An increase in horizontal and vertical C/D ratios with increasing DD/DM ratio was observed in both groups, but the regression lines were steeper in normal subjects than that in glaucoma patients. Disc hemorrhages (3.3%) and NFLD (37.1%) were seen in glaucoma patients in contrast to none in normal subjects (P < 0.0001).
Conclusions: Paying attention to three factors -C/D ratio relative to disc size, DH and NFLD- may be a clinically easy method to distinguish glaucoma patients from normal subjects by fundus photograph.

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    Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2), mapped to chromosome 11q13 in humans, plays an important role in energy metabolism and body weight regulation. Some positive results have been reported for associations of obesity and diabetes in Caucasians with the polymorphism of the UCP2 gene in the 3'-untranslated region (3' UTR) of exon 8 (insertion and deletion types). We examined the genotypes of adult men in Aomori Prefecture situated in northern Japan, in order to investigate associations between the polymorphism and obesity. In the present study, in addition to the insertion type of 457 bp, a new genotype composed of 502 bp was detected, while the deletion type of 412 bp was not. Although the sequence of inserted 45 bp in the 457 bp type was entirely identical to that reported previously, the fragment was inserted at the 111 bp from the 3' end of the exon 8. In the 502 bp type, the same fragment was further added to the 457 bp type. The new genotype was observed in 4 of 18 subjects as the 457/502 heterozygote and other subjects were the 457/457 homozygote.
    Significant associations were found between the polymorphism of UCP2 gene and obesity in adult Japanese men. Weight, thicknesses of the subcutaneous adipose tissues at triceps and lateral abdomen, fat percentage and fatmass were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in subjects with the heterozygote (457/502) than in subjects with the homozygote (457/457). These results suggest that a new genotype (502 bp) is involved in obesity.

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