The incidence of peripheral pulmonary adenocarcinoma has increased in recent years. Clara cell has been known as target for carcinogens and source of pulmonary tumors. One of the presumed roles of the bronchiolar Clara cell is the secretion of pulmonary surfactant into the bronchiolar lumen. To establish the secretory morphology of Clara cell, a well-defined secretory agonist, isoproterenol (500 mg/kg) and the antagonist, propranolol (20 mg/kg), were administered into five-week old mice. The secretory response was examined at 1 hour and 4 hours after injection. Ultrastructural morphometry was used to quantitate the secretory response by measuring area of apical cap of the Clara cells. Isoproterenol caused a significant increase in area of apical cap of Clara cells 1 and 4 hours after injection (p＜ 0.0001), while pretreatment with propranolol prevented this effect at 4 hours. Propranolol alone significantly decreased the area of Clara cells (p＜ 0.0001). Clara cells secretory granules disappeared 1 hour after propranolol plus isoproterenol administration, and the granules reappeared at 4 hours. The accelerated secretion of Clara cells by isoproterenol provides evidence of their secretory mechanism controlled by beta-adrenergic agonists. The study has confirmed the secretory role of Clara cells. The secretion is both apocrine and merocrine type.

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MMP-13 appears to be one of the most important MMPs in cartilage remodeling and mineralization, because it exhibits a substrate preference for the cartilage-specific type II collagen. The condylar process is constructed by rapid accumulation of hypertrophic chondrocytes during development, but its mechanism is still unclear. To investigate the role of MMP-13 in developing condylar cartilage, we immunohistochemically examined the localization of MMP-13 in the endochondral ossification of the mandibular condyle and tibiae of newborn mice. In the tibiae, the MMP-13 expression was detected only in the deepest layer of the terminal hypertrophic chondrocytes through every examined stage (day 1 to day 10 after birth). On the other hand, in the condylar cartilage at days 1 and 5, MMP-13 was expressed throughout the proliferating and the hypertrophic chondrocytes, and at day 10, MMP-13 was mainly localized in the deepest edge of the hypertrophic layer. A zymographical study showed that the activity of MMP-13 in the condyle was observed at day 1, earlier than in the tibia, and increased until day 7. The time-dependent and cell-specific expression of MMP-13 and its enzymatic property suggest that in the mandibular condylar cartilage, MMP-13 plays a role in making the space for cell enlargement by degradation of the cartilage matrix and in onset of mineralization during the early stage of development.

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The epithelial alteration in interstitial pneumonias is one of the repair processes at the sites of disease activity. Regenerative epithelial cells may participate in remodeling of the lung. To determine the phenotype of regenerative epithelial cells in usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), the expression of Clara cell 10KD protein (CC10), cytokeratin (CK) 14 and 17, surfactant apoprotein (SP)-A, KL-6/MUC1, transforming growth factor (TGF) β₂ were examined in 25 patients with UIP, 9 patients with NSIP and normal lung tissues from 10 patients with lung cancer. In honeycomb lesions of UIP, non-ciliated columnar cells mainly expressed CC10, cuboidal cells expressed CC10, CK17, CK14 and SP-A in descending order. Fibroblastic foci are covered by CK17, CK14, CC10, and a few SP-A positive flattened or cuboidal cells. Regenerative epithelium in NSIP mainly comprised cuboidal cells expressing SP-A, CC10 and CK17. KL-6 was more remarkably expressed in cuboidal and non-ciliated columnar cells both in UIP and NSIP. Expression of TGFβ₂ was observed in cuboidal and flattened epithelium. In severe fibrotic areas, CC10 expressing cells were more prominent, while SP-A positive cells were more prominent in less fibrotic areas. Regenerative epithelial cells in remodeling area in UIP may be derived from bronchiolar basal cells and Clara cells, while most of those in NSIP may be derived from type II pneumocytes. The different origin of regenerative epithelium may reflect the severity and extent of the injury and the degree of consequent fibrosis in UIP and NSIP.

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The pericentromeric region of chromosome 18, especially 18p11.2, is described as a schizophrenia susceptibility locus. We had previously cloned two novel brain-derived transcripts from this region: the gene for a second human myo-inositol monophosphatase (IMPA2) and a gene of unknown function, C18orf1. Recently, we reported a distortion of transmission of the tandem repeat marker D18S852, embedded in the 3’-untranslated region of C18orf1, in schizophrenia, using a familybased association test. A subsequent case-control study also revealed a significant association between the haplotype constructed from D18S852 and the 6409T>C polymorphism located in C18orf1 and schizophrenia. In the present study, we screened the C18orf1 gene for mutations and identified a novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), -96T>C in exon 2. This SNP showed significant genotypic (P = 0.048) and allelic association (P = 0.005) with schizophrenia in a case-control study. The distributions of haplotypes defined by D18S852 and -96T>C were different between control and schizophrenia groups (P = 0.021). These findings suggest that C18orf1 or a gene nearby may contribute to the overall genetic risk for schizophrenia.

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Purpose: To evaluate the dimensional accuracy of several impression methods including agar alginate combined impression in vivo; the marginal accuracy of stone dies was determined using a new electroformed master crown technique. Materials and Methods: Cast cores with knifeedge and chamfer margins and electroformed master crowns were fabricated for 3 patients. Five impressions were taken of each preparation, using agar alginate combined impression and silicone impression materials. Dies were made after impression. The marginal fit of the master crown on each die was analyzed by four-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey HSD test (p<0.05). Results: The marginal fit of the master crown on the dies with chamfer margin was better than those with knife-edge margin for agar alginate combined impression. The shape of the margin did not affect the accuracy when silicone impression material was used. Conclusions: The results suggest that the agar alginate impression method is clinically acceptable for the chamfer margin, but shape of the margin may affect the dimensional accuracy of dies. The shape of the margin does not affect the accuracy of dies when silicone impression was used. Furthermore, the master crown made by electroforming technique could be useful for clinical evaluation of impression methods.

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