Organs in the upper respiratory tract -the ear, nose, throat and trachea, always contain air and act as a passage of air stream, which is closely related to essential functions of these organs, such as ventilation of the middle ear, sensation of smell, swallowing, phonation and respiration. Therefore, aerodynamic measurements of the upper respiratory tract would provide basic and important informations about both physiological and pathological conditions of these organs.
Recently, aerodynamic method has been introduced and clinically employed in the field of otolaryngology. Some of the interesting research works are as follows;
1. Aerodynamics of the nose
a) Air stream in the nasal cavity
Observations of air stream in the nasal cavity during respiration were made using the nose of a cadaver, patients after surgical removal of the upper jaw or a silicon model of the nasal cavity.
b) Resistance in the nasal cavity during respiration Simultaneous registration of nasal air flow and differential pressure through the use of X-Y recorder permitted measurement of nasal resistance of each nasal flow rate. It was found nasal resistance increased in rhinitis hypertrophicance and decreased in rhinitis atrophicance.
2. Aerodynamic measurement of velopharyngeal closure
Resistance of the velopharynx during speech was also measured by pressure-flow technique. Based on these results, indication of cleft palate operation was made.
3. Aerodynamics of the Eustachian tube
Pressure change in the external ear canal during Valsalva's maneuver and deglutiton was found to represent air stream in the tube and tympanum. Comparison was made between the results obtained by aerodynamic method and Perlman's method, which has been widely used as a test for tubal dysfunction. It was found that aerodynamic method was more reliable and practical than Perlman's method in objective evaluation of the tubal function.
Aerodynamic methods above-mentioned have contributed in solving many difficult problems in the field of otolaryngology. By clinical application of these technique more precise and effective diagnosis and treatment of the deseases in otolaryngology are quite promising.

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To clarify the relationships between gastric carcinogenesis and nutrition, the following study was undertaken. Part I of this study is concerned with the effect of arginine imbalanced diet on the genesis and growth of carcinoma of the glandular stomach in rats induced by MNNG.
The experimental animals were male rats of Wistar strain.
The diets given to rats were as follows:
1.15% casein diet supplemented with 5% arginine.
2.8% casein diet supplemented with 5% arginine.
3.20% casein diet.
4.13% casein diet.
The last two diets were used as controls. These diets were given isocalorically every day (40.5 Cal/head/day).
The rats received MNNG dissolved in tap water in the concentration of 83γ-/m1 ad libitumfor 40 weeks.
The following results were obtained:
1. These arginine imbalanced diets had no inhibitory effect on normal body growth.
2. A diet of 15%casein supplemented with 5%arginine suppressed significantly both the incidence and growth of carcinoma of the glandular stomach, while an 8% casein diet supplemented with 5%arginine did not reveal any significant effect on carcinogenesis when compared with control group.
3. The serum arginine level and urinary urea excretion were increased significantly in rats fed on arginine supplemented diets.
4. The activities of ornithine tanscarbamylase in the serum, liver and tumor tissues of the rats bearing glandular stomach carcinoma were increased when the rats were fed on arginine supplemented diets, but the activities of aspartate transcarbamylase were comparatively decreased in these rats.
5. From these results, it is considered that the suppressive effect of arginine imbalanced diets on the incidence and growth of carcinoma of the galandular stomach depends mainly on the acceleration of urea cycle metabolism by excess arginine, which may result in the suppression of the flow of carbamylphosphate into the de novosynthetic pathway of pyrimidine nucleotides.

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In Part I of the present study, it was shown that the arginine imbalanced diet had significant suppressive effects on incidence and growth of MNNG induced carcinoma of the glandular stomach in rats. Part II of the study is concerned with the mode of action of the arginine imbalanced diet on carcinogenesis of the glandular stomach in rats.
The process of carcinogenesis can be divided into two phases, the initiating and promoting phase. An attempt was made to determine at what phase of the neoplastic process arginine added casein diet might be considered to have its effects.
The animals, the diets and the way of administering MNNG were the same as described in Part I. At the 26th week after the administration of MNNG, the feedings of the arginine supplemented diets and control diets were switched.
The following results were obtained:
1. The diet of 15% casein supplemented with 5% arginine showed a significant suppressive effect on carcinogenesis in the promoting stage and a tendency to suppress slightly in the initiating stage.
2. The diet of 8% casein supplemented with 5% arginine showed a tendency to suppress the carcinogenesis in both the initiating and promoting stages.
3. From these results, it has been recognized that the suppressive effects of excess arginine on carcinogenesis appear in both the initiating and promoting stages.
Therefore, it may be suggested that these effects of arginine imbalanced diets on carcinogenesis may depend not only on the influence of the acceleration of urea cycle metabolism, but also on influences to other metabolic systems.

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In recent years, many investigators have reported that during the inflammatory response, numerous proteolytic and hydrolytic enzymes were activated. It was noted that in the early stage of inflammation, various zymogens, such as Hageman factor, plasminogen, kallikreinogen, and the first component of complement Cl, were activated, and these activated enzymes produced various chemical mediators, such as histamin, serotonin, anaphylatoxin, kinin, etc. In this study, to determine the role played by proteolytic enzymes in inflammation, the esterolytic activities of protease in nonspecific inflammation induced by croton oil were measured.
The increased TAME esterolytic activities of the serum, exudate and inflammatory tissue were obtained. Because of no increased activities of inhibitors and available TAME esterase, the increased TAME esterolytic activity might be due to the activation of zymogens. In addition, these TAME esterases were inhibited by some synthetic inhibitors of trypsin, plasmin, plasma kallikrein, thrombin and Cl-esterase in vitro. It was found that carboxyethylphenyl esters of trans-4-aminomethylcyclohexanecarboxylic acid (AMCHA-CEP) and r-guanidinocaproic acid (ε-GCA-CEP) exhibited an extensive inhibitory effect, not only on TAME, but also on the ATME esterolytic activities of exudate and serum. The gel filtration of the body fluids on Sephadex G-200, three peaks of TAME esterase, named peak 1,2,3, respectively, were obtained. The differences of the gel filtration pattern of TAME esterase through a Sephadex G-200 column between the exudate and serum were examined. Peak 2 and peak 1 of TAME esterase obtained by gel filtration of exudate on the Sephadex G-200 column (possibly involved Hageman factor, PF/dil and kallikrein) were thought to be playing a role in enhancing the permeability of the vessel walls, while these esterase activities were strongly inhibited by ε-GCA-CEP or AMCHA-CEP.
Local administration of ε-GCA-CEP and AMCHA-CEP into the granuloma pouch resulted in a reduced volume of inflammatory exudate, and a dose-dependent relationship in the anti-inflammatory effect of ε-GCA-CEP was observed. It was also disclosed that kinin-like substances were responsible for the reduced effect of inflammatory exudate due to inhibition of protease activity.

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It is known that the majority of patients under the treatment with potent psychotropic drugs present more or less altered electrocardiograms aside from their clinical significance. On the other hand, the incidence of sudden death during the drug therapy has become the object of public attention since several years. For the purpose of working out a possible solution of these problems, the author has studied the influences of psychotropic drugs upon cardiac function electrocardiographically in male rats of Sprague Dawley breed.
As experimental drugs, the author picked up four compounds as follows: Reserpine (2.5 & 5.0mg/kg/s. c. /day), which has long been one of the leading neuroleptic drugs; thioridazine (50,100,200 & 300mg/kg/p. o. /day), which has been frequently accused of the highest incidence of sudden death; carpipramine (50,100,200 & 300mg/kg/p. o. /day), which has been widely used not as thymoleptic but as anti-psychotic agent inspite of being an iminodibenzyl derivative; and clocapramine (50,100,200 & 300mg/kg/p. o. /day), which has been recently marketed as a safer drug than carpipramine. Throughout the experiment, general conditions of rats were surveyed daily and electrocardiograms derived from limbs were recorded on magnetic tape weekly. After completing the planned medication, a series of laboratory examinations and pathological investigations were made on animals in order to find abnormalities which might be responsible to electrocardiographic alterations. All the electrocardiograms on tape were played back later and analyzed digitally using ATAC-501-20 medical biopotential data processor. Thus, the author has been convinced that all the measurements were the most accurate among the methods available today.
The influence of reserpine upon electrocardiogram seemed to be completely different from those of the other three compounds. It induced marked prolongation and irregularization of R-R and P-R as well as early depression of T. The prolongation of R-R appeared on the third day of experiment. In the contrary, the influences of the other compounds showed many similarities in provoking marked prolongation of QRS and Q-T associated with an elevation of T instead. The results can be interpreted that reserpine affects mainly the impulse generating system and the atririoventricular conduction while the other three compounds impair the repolarization and intraventricular conduction.
After six weeks, the administration of compounds was discontinued in several animals of thioridazine and carpipramine groups in order to observe possible recovery from the cardiac dysfunctions induced by the drugs. In thioridazine group the recovery has been noted immediately after one week, but in carpipramine group the augmentation of electrographical alterations lasted for another two weeks before signs of recovery have been found. However, these facts suggest that the cardiac dysfunctions or the electrocardiographic alterations caused by psychotropic medication may be reversible unless it is too late to stop the medication.
Laboratory examinations have shown no particular abnormality which may correspond to the induced alterations of electrocardiograms. By the way, there was not any reduction of serum K enough to explain the prolongation of Q-T or the elevation of T. Pathohistological investigations of hearts have revealed myocardiac atrophy, degeneration and/or cell infiltration in a few animals.

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These experiment were designed in order to estimate the usefulness of tumor cell culture on the chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM) of embryonated chicken eggs. Yoshida ascites sarcoma (YS) cells cultivated successively on CAM for 52 generations (365 days) were examined for their morphological features, chromosomal pictures, labelling indices using tritium 5-fluorouracil (5FU-6-³H), sensitivities to anti-cancer drugs, and rates of successful reinoculation to rats. The results obtained were as follows:
1) Morphological observations revealed no remarkable changes in size or form of the YS cells after long-term successive cultivation, althongh the interstitial tissues gradually became looser as the number of collagen fibers diminished concomitent with the number of generations on CAM.
2) Initial reinoculation of the cultivated YS cells to rats (Donryu) was successful in 60 to 80%, and the 50% survival time of the inoculated rats averaged 11.4 days. However, the second and the third generation inoculations were successful in almost 100%, the 50% survival time averages shotening to 8.5 and 7.6 days respectively, a result similar to that of the original YS inoculation.
3) Throughout all generations, the chromosome mode number of the YS cell cultivated on CAM remained at 40, consisting of 16 telocentrics,15 subtelocentrics, and 9 metacentrics. The percentage of cells having the chromosome mode number tended to decrease during the course of successive cultivation on CAM.
4) The labelling by 5FU-6-3H index of the cultivated YS cells was nearly constant throughout the generations: i. e.60-70% in one hour, and almost 100% in 2,3, and 6 hours. However, the total silver grain number by the same cell labelling, after long term cultivation tended to decrease, especially with a six hour in vitro incubation with 5-FU-6-³H.5) The effects of anti-cancer drugs (5-fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide, and cytosine arabinoside injected into the yolk sac) on the proliferation of the YS cells cultivated on CAM were observed;the data obtained from first generation inoculations were compared with those from late generation inoculations. In both cases, the YS proliferation was markedly inhibited by cyclophosphamide, but scacely by cytosine arabinoside. On the other hand, the inhibitory potency of 5-fluorouracil manifested at first generation inoculation was diminished against the tumor cells long cultivated on CAM.
These findings can be interprted to mean that long-term successive cultivation on CAM does not exert any influence on YS cells comparable to that of in vitro cultivation, which, according to the literature, significantly often alters the tumor cell character. On the other hand, the CAM culture environment resembles that in animals but for the absence of immunological influences. Therefore, a more extensive use of CAM culture should prove beneficial to caner research.

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