Transmural dispersion of repolarization (TDR) has been implicated in the onset of ventricular arrhythmia. We investigated the effects of nifekalant (NIF) injected into the pericardial space on TDR and T wave in pig. We injected 50 or 100 mg of NIF into the pericardial space of 11 pigs, and measured the effective refractory period (ERP) between the endocardial and epicardial myocardial cells, as well as QT time and QT peak-end as an index of TDR and T waveforms, respectively. TDR decreased from 56±10 msec to 44±8 msec (P < 0.01), 5.1 min after injection of 100 mg of NIF, although the QTc did not change. At a later time, QTc increased from 457 ± 44 msec before injection to 540±49 msec (P < 0.01) and TDR recovered to the control level. When 50 mg of NIF was injected, the T wave amplitude decreased from 0.433 ±0.301 mV before injection to 0.107±0.192 mV (P < 0.01) at 10 min after injection ; 100 mg of NIF caused the T wave amplitude to decrease more rapidly, reaching a negative value at 4.5 min after injection. Injecting NIF into the pericardial space altered ERP, QT, and T waveform, and also decreased TDR.

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The selectin family, which mediates adhesion of activated leukocytes to the vascular endothelium, plays an important role in inflammation. Endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecule-1 (SLAM-1) is expressed on activated vascular endothelium and mediates the special leukocyte rolling phenomenon seen when leukocytes adhere to vascular endothelium. We investigated changes in skin flap survival / necrosis due to treatment with the monoclonal antibody (Mab) to ELAM-1. Twenty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats (225-250 g) were used in the experiment. A 45 × 30 mm pedicled skin flap with superficial epigastric vessels was designed in the right inguinal region and prepared. Animals in the treated group received anti-ELAM-1 Mab intravenously 15 minutes prior to reperfusion ; those in the control group received normal saline. By tracing the outline of viable and nonviable areas skin flap viability was assessed. Data were collected for the subsequent 7 days. These data corroborated with histological evidence on comparable areas of the flap. Tracing analysis revealed an average flap survival area of 91.7% in the treated group and 18.3% in the control group (P < 0.005) . Histopathologically, few inflammatory changes were observed in the treated group, while marked damage was observed in the control group. We conclude that treating skin flaps with anti-ELAM-1 was effective in reducing ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury after 9 hours of warm ischemia.

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A multidrug-resistant strain of Serratia marcescens (S. marcescens), SM19, was isolated from a urine specimen of a patient who suffered from multiple infections of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Pseudomonas spp., Non-Fermenter spp. and Corynebacterium spp. SM19 showed high resistance to all of the β-lactams including carbapenems, and also to various inhibitors of protein synthesis, such as aminoglycosides (amikacin, streptomycin), tetracycline and chloramphenicol, and inhibitors of nucleic acid synthesis, such as ofloxacin. The production of the carbapenem-hydrolyzing IMP-type β-lactamase by SM19 is responsible for its resistance to carbapenems. The IMP-type β-lactamase possessed some characteristics of metallo-β-lactamase, in that the enzyme activity could be enhanced by ZnCl₂ and inhibited by the metal chelator EDTA. PCR analysis confirmed the presence of the bla_IMP gene which encodes the IMP-type β-lactamase in SM19. The expression of the bla_IMP gene was highly constitutive, with lower induction rates of 2.5-4.5 fold in the presence of the inducers cefotaxime or imipenem at half their minimum inhibition concentrations. Unlike other resistant strains of S. marcescens, however, the bla_IMP gene could not be transferred into E. coli by either conjugation or transformation via electroporation, suggesting the possibility of multiple locations of the bla_IMP gene on both the plasmid and the chromosome in various strains of S. marcescens.

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Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase overexpressed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and many other solid tumors. EGFR is activated by specific ligands and various cell stresses, such as oxidative stress and UV irradiation. The present study investigates the effect of ligand-independent EGFR activation on gefitinib mediated cytotoxicity using the NSCLC cell line, PC-9. The induction of EGFR autophosphorylation by non-cytotoxic levels of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and cisplatin (CDDP) is completely inhibited by 100 nM gefitinib. Pretreatment of cells with both H₂O₂ and CDDP enhances gefitinib cytotoxicity in vitro. The growth inhibitory effect of gefitinib was examined in vivo using the xenografted severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mouse model. PC-9 cells were pretreated with / without a low dose of CDDP (1 μM) for 1 h and injected subcutaneously into the right flank of SCID mice. Following the appearance of measurable tumors mice were treated by subcutaneous injection into the left flank with / without 10 mg / kg gefitinib for 4 days. Pretreatment with CDDP enhanced tumor growth by 20-30% compared to the control. Subsequent treatment with gefitinib resulted in disappearance of the tumor mass by day 10 in the CDDP-pretreated group and by day 16 in the control group. There was no reappearance of tumors in the CDDP-pretreated group. By comparison, tumors reappeared in the non-pretreated group by day 20 in 4 / 5 animals. These results suggest that chemotherapy may enhance tumor growth due to ligand-independent EGFR activation and that combination chemotherapy may result in enhanced sensitivity of tumors to the sequential administration of gefitinib.

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In this study, we tested the movement-related potential of self-paced tapping movements adding a factor of difficulty, which involved tapping the right and left middle finger simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to detect dipole locations during the negative slope to motor potential different levels of task difficulty, analyzed with high time resolution using a dipole tracing method. Subjects performed the following three tasks in randomized order : tapping the right middle finger and then the left middle finger immediately after movement of the right middle finger, the vice versa task, and tapping both the right and left middle fingers simultaneously. Left finger execution showed strong activation of the pre-supplementary motor area at an early onset of negative slope, even in the right-left sequence finger movement and the simultaneous right and left finger movements. Our study suggests that left finger movement in simple and difficult tasks strongly activates the contralateral sensorimotor area, and attention to the movement could be related to activation of the pre-supplementary motor area.

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There has been increasing emphasis in research on understanding how cancer impacts an individual's quality of life (QOL) . The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of psychological distress and examine how this correlates with QOL in cancer patients. A total of 669 patients completed both the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality-of-Life Questionnaire C30 (QLQ-C30) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) . The association between the patients' HADS scores and their emotional function scorings was analyzed by multiple linear regression analysis. Predictors of selected dimensions of QLQ-C30 were analyzed by multiple linear regression, where the patients' HADS and demographic and medical variables were included as explanatory variables. A statistically significant correlation was found between the emotional function score of QLQ-C30 and HADS-A (anxiety) and HADS-D (depression), respectively, with the highest correlation coefficient for HADS-A. However, HADS-D was significantly more related to other QOL dimensions than HADS-A, and depression was more highly correlated with reduced QOL than anxiety. Demographic and medical variables also influenced the correlation between HADS and selected dimensions of QLQ-C30. The emotional function dimension of QLQ-C30 predominantly assessed anxiety, but depression had a stronger impact on overall QOL of patients than anxiety. Therefore, additional measures are recommended to assess depression in cancer patients. Furthermore, demographic and medical variables should be assessed simultaneously to identify patients with impaired QOL.

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