Japanese Journal of Medical Science and Biology
Online ISSN : 1884-2828
Print ISSN : 0021-5112
ISSN-L : 0021-5112
Volume 48, Issue 5-6
Displaying 1-5 of 5 articles from this issue
  • Mariappan M. MALINI, Ramakrishnan BASKAR, Palaninathan VARALAKSHMI
    1995 Volume 48 Issue 5-6 Pages 211-220
    Published: 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: March 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Investigations were undertaken to study the role of lupeol, a pentacyclic triterpene from Crataeva nurvala stem bark, in calcium oxalate experimental rat urolithiasis. A 2% solution of ammonium oxalate was administered by gastric intubation for inducing hyperoxaluric condition in adult male rats of Wistar strain. The duration of treatment was for 15 days. This resulted in increased urinary excretion of oxalate associated with reduction in citrate and glycosaminoglycans. The urinary marker enzymes which indicate renal tissue damage namely - lactate dehydrogenase, inorganic pyrophosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, gamma glutamyl transferase, β-glucuronidase and N-acetyl β-D glucosaminidase were found to be elevated. Lupeol administration (25 mg/kg body weight/day) reduced significantly the renal excretion of oxalate. It also reduced the extent of renal tubular damage as evidenced from the decreased levels of the above enzymes in urine. Such a reduction is likely to be beneficial in minimizing the deposition of stone-forming constituents in the kidney which provides antilithic effect.
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  • Satoshi OBANA, Hitoshi MIYAZAWA, Hiroshi YAMAMOTO, Eiichi HARA, Toshik ...
    1995 Volume 48 Issue 5-6 Pages 221-236
    Published: 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: March 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is a heterodimeric cytokine. In order to transduce both cDNAs for p35 and p40 of IL-12 in the tumor cells, a polycistronic retroviral vector was constructed by inserting the internal ribosome entry site gene of encephalomyocarditis virus between two cDNAs. On the other hand, two cDNAs were sequentially transfected in the tumor cells. Both polycistronic gene transfectants and double transfectants produced biologically active mouse IL-12. IL-12-expressing tumor cells were all rejected in syngeneic mice, and induced cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity. The capacity to induce anti-tumor memory may depend on the amount of IL-12 produced by the transfectants, because the relatively higher IL-12 producer tumor cell line induced the anti-tumor memory in the rejected mice, but the lower producer did not.
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  • Hiroshi USHIJIMA, Osamu NISHIO, Shigeru MORIKAWA, Atsushi MUKOYAMA
    1995 Volume 48 Issue 5-6 Pages 237-247
    Published: 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: March 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the outer capsid proteins VP4 and VP7 of a murine rotavirus strain (YR-1) isolated in Japan were determined.
    Comparisons of the VP7 amino acid sequence of YR-1 with other murine rotavirus strains (EB, EW, EC, EL and EHP) (1) showed that YR-1 was highly homologous to EB, EW, EC, EL and EHP. Moreover, YR-1 was more closely related to strains representing G3 than to any other G type.
    Analysis of the VP4 amino acid sequence revealed that YR-1 was highly homologous to EB, EW, EC and EL [tentatively P17 (1) ], and more closely related to EHP [tentatively P18 (1) ] than to any other P type.
    Enzyme immunoassay with monoclonal antibodies against G types (KU-4 and BH49 for G1, S2-2G10 and BW36 for G2, YO-IE2 and BC5 for G3; and ST-2G7 and BE18 for G4) and against a P type (YO-1S3, KU-12H and YO-2C2 for P8) showed no reactivity.
    These results indicate that YR-1 is highly homologous to EB, EW, EC and EL.
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  • Ryo HONDO, Sukehide ITO, Sakae INOUYE
    1995 Volume 48 Issue 5-6 Pages 249-255
    Published: 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: March 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We devised a simple procedure for titration of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) DNA in throat swabs from varicella patients. DNA which was extracted from throat swabs, together with known copy numbers of a cloned VZV DNA fragment, were 10-fold serially diluted and used as template in PCR. The PCR products, after heat denaturation, again serially diluted in 1.5 M NaCl and adsorbed to microplate wells. Then, biotin-labeled DNA probes were hybridized with the immobilized DNA. The hybridization signal was produced by streptavidinconjugated β-galactosidase and a fluorogenic enzyme substrate. By comparing the titration curves of a clinical specimen with those of the cloned fragment, of which detection limit was about 10 copies, we estimated the copy numbers of VZV DNA in the specimen. With this technique, we evaluated the degree of potential contagiousness of the patient along the course of infection: we found that varicella patients possessed highest quantity of VZV DNA in the throat on the first day of illness.
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  • 1995 Volume 48 Issue 5-6 Pages 257-285
    Published: 1995
    Released on J-STAGE: March 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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