JOURNAL OF THE KYORIN MEDICAL SOCIETY

The object of this study was to investigate the roles of three opioid receptor subtypes, κ-,δ- and μ-, upon the feeding behavior of rats by administering a specific agonist and a non-specific antagonist to each subtype and observing the changes in the spontaneous activity induced by the agonists. All the agonists acted to accelerate the feeding behavior, but the high-dosage administration of δ- and μ-agonists reduced the spontaneous motor activity of the rats resulting in masking the enhancement of the feeding behavior by its sedative effect. Furthermore, the intracerebroventricular administration of naloxone, the non-specific antagonist, suppressed the acceleration of the feeding behavior. It was verified that there was an accelerating effect of the intracerebroventricular administration of central κ-, δ- and μ-opioid agonists. This suggests the significance of the three central receptor subtypes in controlling the feeding behavior of rats.

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Fourteen strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (N. gonorrhoeae) isolated in 1983 to 1988 in Tokyo were examined for the (3-lactamase production and presence of plasmids. Furthermore, the primary structure and incompatibility group of β-lactamase plasmids in β-lactamase-producing strains were determined. The results were as follows: 1) Nine of the 14 strains were β-lactamase-producing N. gonorrhoeae (PPNG). 2) From the plasmid profiles and construction of physical maps, it was confirmed that 7 PPNG strains carrying 7.4-kilobase pair (kb) β-lactamase plasmid were Asian type and 2 PPNG strains carrying 5.3-kb β-lactamase plasmid were African type. 3) Both the Asian and African type β-lactamase plasmids belonged to FI incompatibility group. These results supported that these two β-lactamase plasmids were derived from a same plasmid molecule.

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Emergency patients who were treated at the emergency care center in our hospital between 1977 to 1987 were analyzed. 1. Total number of emergency patients was increased from 5,607 to 22,235 during these ten years. Patients transported by ambulance were also increased from 713 to 2,944. 2. Patients who were treated at the department of otolaryngology and ophthalmology showed dramatic increment. Many of them used ambulance from the distant regions. 3. Not only the number of patients but also the number of radiographic and laboratory examinations mutiplied. At the point of clinical trainning of the emergency medicine for the young doctors, increment of emergency patients is desirable. But increment of so-called milds cases may impede the higher medical functions of our hospital. Then the primary emergency care shoud be prepared by the local governments. For the moderate and severe cases, cooperation of the hospitals located the western part of Tokyo district must be necessary for the view point of regional medical emergency care. More financil support from the governments will be necessary in order to maintain and to heighten further the functions of emergency medical care.

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To clarify the relationship between kinetics of alpha-2 adrenergic receptors and aging or arteriosclerosis, the density (Bmax) and affinity (Kd) of alpha-2 adrenergic receptors, plasma levels of norepinephrine, platelet aggregation induced by epinephrine, adenosine diphosphate or collagen, and platelet releasing substance were simultaneously analyzed by radioreceptor binding assay, radioenzymatic assay, an aggregometer and radioimmunoasssay, respectively. Plasma norepinephrine levels revealed a positive correlation with age in healthy control group (p<0.001), where as Bmax showed a negative correlation (p<0.001). In addition, a negative correlation (p<0.001) was noted between Bmax and plasma levels of norepinephrine, suggesting that the reduced Bmax can be depending on elevated catecholamine levels showing down regulation with aging in healthy control group. In the group of patients with effort angina, aggregatory responses to epinephrine were significantly higher than age-matched healthy donors in the healthy control group. Although there was no significant difference of plasma norepinephrine levels between the patient group and age-matched healthy group, Bmax was significantly lower in the patient group with effort angina compared to age-matched healthy group. The increase in aggregation in patients group, with alpha-2 adrenergic receptor reduction, which is independent of plasma norepinephrine levels, were more prominent in patients with effort angina. These results suggest that platelet alpha-2 adrenergic receptor kinetics could be an important tool to study the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis.

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