The significance of determining Tissue Polypeptide Antigen (TPA), was evaluated by this investigation. Measurements were conducted by the RIA method using a prolifigen TPA kit. The TPA values of the normal pregnant women were significantly high as compared with those for normal nonpregnant women in the whole period of pregnancy, although a little low values of TPA were observed in the 2 nd trimester. In the cases of pregnant women associated with diabetes, the values were higher than those of the normal pregnant women. In the case of mild toxemia of pregnancy, the measurements showed no difference from the normal pregnant women, but in severe toxemia of pregnancy the mesurements showed a tendency to steep increase in the TPA value. Furthermore, in trophoblastic diseases an almost similar tendency to the above cases was exhibited in the progress of hCG. In comparison of TPA values at different stages of cervical cancer in progress, the values at the I st stage are almost in the normal range and with progress to the II nd and III rd stages the TPA values increase, although those in the IV th stage tend to rather decrease. Compared with the TPA values of benign ovarian tumor to the therapy, those of malignant tumor were significantly high.

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The frequencies of the gastrocnemius tertius muscle existence differ from race to race (2.9% in the white, 3.4% in the black and 4.6% in Japanese). From phylogenical point of view, gastrocnemius tertius muscle is a very interesting muscle and has the comparatively low frequencies. Authors recognized this variational muscle in three cases (5.0±2.8%) out of thirty cadavers (Male : 16 cadavers, Female : 14 cadavers) with sixty side cases of Japanese adults as follows ; Case 1 : Female, 38 yr., Left. The origin of this muscle is the popliteal surface of femur which is located in the slightly inside of the origin of gastrocnemius's medial head. It becomes a narrow insertal tendon and reaches to the inside edge of lateral head. The innervation is the same one as lateral head's. Case 2 : Male, 45 yr., Right. The origin of this muscle is the inside of medial head. The insertion is the inner edge of medial head and the innervation is the same one as medial head's. Case 3 : Male, 68 yr., Left. The origin of this muscle is one third from the outside of popliteal surface of femur. Most of insertal tendon stops at the inner edge of lateral head and a part of it reaches to the inner edge of medial head. The innervation is the same one as medial head's. Regarding to the innervation, all cases coinside with SATO's hypothesis (1984) as gastrocnemius tertius nerve branches out from the nerve of gastrocnemius's head which comes out from the side of proximal and superficial layer of tibial nerve. Besides, suppliting arteries of each case come out either from the independent branch or the artery of gastrocnemius's head which is at the same side of the independent branch and both are from popliteal artery.

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This article described a method for obtaining a pulse wave propagation time (PPT) along the compressed artery. The PPT was calculated using the following equation : PPT=T/L, where T is a transmission time of pulse wave from the top of R wave in ECG to the root of the upward deflection in pulse wave measured at the second finger tip of the left hand and L is a length between the heart and the finger tip. The PPTR increased with the compression of the left forearm by the cuff inflated at the pressure of 40, 60 and 80mmHg ; where PPTR was denoted by the PPT under the compressed condition devided by the control. The slope of PPTR was determined by the least square method. The slopes of the straight line for an old subject group were significantly smaller than those of a young subject group, suggesting that the slope become smaller when the arteriosclerosis developed.

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The influence of consanguineous marriages of parents on the mortality rate of their children were evaluated in the siblings of two generations, and the intergenerational change of the influence was discussed. The data of three hundred and twelve pedigrees were obtained from the questionnaires to the medical students of two universities in Kyushu district as probands. The results are as follows : (1) It was confirmed that the consanguineous marriages between the grandfathers and the grandmothers of probands significantly increased the mortality rate in the age of 19 and below, especially in the age of 0 and 1, in the siblings of the fathers and the mothers of probands. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant influence of the consanguineous marriages between the fathers and the mothers of probands on the mortality rate in the siblings of probands. (2) The mortality rate in the siblings of probands born of nonconsanguineous marriages was significantly less than that in the siblings of the fathers and the mothers born of nonconsanguineous marriages. The same tendency was observed between the siblings of the fathers and the mothers and the siblings of probands born of consanguineous marriages, though there was no statistical significance. (3) The frequency of consanguineous marriages also decreased. (4) Thus, the influence of consanguineous marriages on the whole mortality rate in Japanese population might be supposed to be diminishing recently.

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The frequencies of chromatid aberrations are closely related to the initial DNA lesions and the capacity of cells to repair them. Since there are several kinds of chromatid aberrations, which result in different genetic situations, it is important to consider the mechanisms of their formations separately for each type of aberrations in relation to initial lesions and the repairing capacity of cells. However, it has not been fully demonstrated what kind of lesions are responsible for each type of aberration formation, nor what kind of repair systems play roles for each type of DNA lesions. Then, we designed following experiments. Lymphocytes pre-treated in their G_0 phase with chemical clastogens, which induce DNA lesions, were incubated in the presence of an inhibitor of DNA repair replication in their G_1 phase. After the treatments, cells were cultured in ordinary medium and fixed. Chromatid aberrations were classified into gaps, iso-gaps, breaks, iso-breaks or exchanges. Comparing resulting frequencies of chromatid aberrations with untreated ones, we intended to clarify what kind of DNA lesions and what kind of repair inhibitors have major effects in aberration formation. In the present experiment, we used 2.5μM 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO), 100μM methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) or 3μM mitomycin C (MMC) as chemical clastogens and 10μM cytosine arabinoside (Ara C), 5 mM hydroxyurea (HU), 100μM 5-fluo-rodeoxyuridine (FUdR), 5 mM thymidine (TdR) or 1 mM caffeine as inhibitors of DNA repair. None of inhibitors used has any effect on the frequencies of chromatid aberrations in lymphocytes with no pre-treatment. Among lymphocyte cultures which had pre-treated with a clastogen and posttreated with no inhibitor, cultures treated with MMC showed raised frequencies of exchanges and total chromatid aberrations. Among cultures treated with a clastogen and an inhibitor, the culture treated with MMC and Ara C had raised frequencies of breaks and total aberrations as compared with ones treated with a clastogen or an inhibitor only. HU, FUdR and caffeine had synergistic effects on the frequency of breaks for MMC treated lymphocytes. Other combinations of a clastogen and an inhibitor had no effect on the frequencies of any types of chromatid aberrations. These results showed that DNA lesions induced with MMC, presumably DNA crosslinks, would be hardly repaired in G_1 phase and the repair system would be partly inhibited by Ara C, HU, FUdR or caffeine. DNA lesions induced by other clastogens would be repaired so fast that remarkable effects could not be detected. Inhibitors used would have little effects on the repair processes for 4NQO or MMS induced DNA lesions.

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To clarify age-related changes in immunological characteristics, laser flowfluorocytometry using monoclonal antibodies of the OKT series were emploied to identify T cell subsets in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 63 apparently healthy subjects, whose age ranged from 21 to 89 years old. Antithyroid autoantibodies (TGHA & MCHA), ICA and ICSA were also detected in the subjects. WBC count was not influenced by age until 7 th decade, but decreased significantly in the group with the age of 80 years or more. The proprtions of T cell subsets were not significantly influenced by sex, as far as the 2 groups of 20-29 years old and more than 80 years old are concerned. The proportion of T3^+ cells (pan T) were significantly lower in the subjects with the age of 60 years or more as compared with those in the younger groups. T4^+ cells (helper-inducer cells) were significantly decreased in the participants with the age of 80 years or more. T8^+ cells (suppressor-cytotoxic cells) showed a tendency to increase in the aged, but this was not statistically signifi cant. T4/T8^<++> ratio showed a peak in the group of 50-69 years old. The value in the older subjects decreased thereafter, reaching almost identical values in younger groups. Sharp rises in the prevalecens of TCHA, MCHA, ICA and ICSA were observed in old-aged participants with the age of 80 years or more. There was, however, no statistically significant difference in the values of T cell subsets between sero-positive and sero-negative groups. These results indicate that the functions of T cell subsets as being identified by the OKT series were not related to self-antigens but to exogenous antigens, suggesting a possible heterogeneity of helper-inducer T cells and suppressor-cytotoxic T cells.

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To evaluate the lymphocyte subsets with the advance of the cancer stage in the whole blood of the 70 patients with carcinoma (27 of esophagus, 24 of stomach, 7 of large intestine, 1 of liver, 1 of choledochus, 10 of breast) and 8 patients with benign disease were investigated by the application of a rapid flowcytometric immunofluorescence method and by use of monoclonal antibodies OKT3, OKT4, OKT8 and OKIa1, and T-lymphocyte ratio, B-lymphocyte ratio and response of lymphocyte to ConA, PHA were also examined at the same time. The results were as follows : 1) OKT3^+ and OKIa1^+-lymphocyte ratio did not show a significant difference in advancement of the cancer stage, but OKT4^+-lymphocyte ratio was decreased and OKT8^+lymphocyte ratio was increased in advancing the cancer stage with significant difference (p<0.01). 2) There was not a significant correlation between ConA/PHA and OKT4^+/OKT8^+ (r=2108). 3) There were significant correlations between OKT3^+, OKT4^+, OKT8^+, OKIa1lymphocyte count and absolute lymphocyte count (r=0.9482, 0.8231, 0.7822, 0.5481). 4) There was not a significant correlation between OKT3^+-lymphocyte ratio and T-lymphocyte ratio (r=0.3820, T=1.754). 5) There was not a significant correlation between OKIa1^+-lymphocyte ratio and B-lymphocyte ratio (r=0.3158).

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Preoperative radiotherapy has been applied to patients suffering from esophageal cancer with definite invasion to the adventitia. Patients who received preoperative radiotherapy showed higher cummulative survival rates than those who did not receive. Within the field of irradiation the invasion of esophageal cancer into the lymphatic and blood vessels was less frequent in the preoperative radiotherapy group than in the non-radiotherapy group. In contrast, a vascular invasion in the outer field of irradiation was observed in a few patients with poor prognosis. It was concluded that radiotherapy prior to the operation was considered to be effective in the esophageal cancer patients for the prevention of the vascular invasion within the field of irradiation.

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With a view to investigating what changes the thoughts on aging and medical care underwent historically in Japan, those old literatures were studied which ranged from the records of the mid-Heian era when Confucianism and Buddhism began to influence upon the Japanese culture back to those of the Nara or Yamato era when this country was first unified. Preponderantly picked-up materials consisted of representative literatures of each era, such as "Kojiki, The Record of Ancient Matters", "Manyoshu, Collected Poems of old Japan", and "The Tale of Genji". As a result, what people thought of aging then and their ideas on disease and health care could be abstracted. To be more concrete, their medical ideas could be distinctly traced back to the three sources ; Chinese medicine using herbs as the core of treatment, religious thought of ancient Buddhism based on its own Scriptures and traditional beliefs of Japan to worship all things in the nature. These findings, though being a little short of scientific character, cannot be considered to have nothing whatever to do with modern medicine but be even regarded as a milestone that indicates the course the Japanese medical history followed at a specific time.

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