The distribution of a subspecies of protein kinase C (PKC) encoded by the βIIsequence in rat central nervous tissue was demonstrated immunocytochemically by using antibodies raised against an ...oligopeptide having a partial sequence specific for the βIIPKC. The βIIPKC immunoreactivity was widely but discretely distributed in the brain. The distribution of the βIIPKC immunoreactivity differed from that of the βIand γ PKC subspecies. The βIIPKC immunoreactivity was found in the perikarya, dendrites, and axons of neuronal cells. Few if any glial cells were stained. Immunoreactive neurons were present in the anterior olfactory nucleus, olfactory tubercle, amygdaloid complex, caudate-putamen, accumbens nucleus, claustrum, dorsal part of the lateral septal nucleus, CA1 region of the hippocampus, subiculum, medial habenular nucleus, cerebral cortex, nucleus of the spinal tract of the trigeminal nerve, nucleus of the solitary tract, and substantia gelatinosa of the spinal cord. In these neurons, the βIIPKC immunoreactivity was seen mainly in the form of cytoplasmic dots and, in some cases, diffusely in the cytoplasm. Under electron microscopy, these immunoreactive large dots appeared to be associated with the Golgi complex, suggesting that the βIIPKC plays a specialized function at the Golgi complex in certain neuronal cell types.
This study was performed to make a better lipid microsphere (LM) preparation of PGE1 derivatives. At first, we measured the inhibitory effects on human platelet aggregation by PGE1 and its several ...esters. Subsequently, we measured their activity after incubation in human serum. The results showed that the activity of PGE1 butyl ester, methyl ester or pivaryl ester became stronger after the incubation in serum. After intravenious injection, PGE1 butyl ester, methyl ester or pivaryl ester may be changed to PGE1 by plasma esterase. When the LM prepations of PGE1 and its several esters were incubated in 1.6% bovine serum albumin solution, it was shown that PGE1 as such was released rapidly from LM, while the release of PGE1 butyl ester, PGE1 methyl ester and PGE1 pivaryl ester were slow. Thus PGE1 butyl ester, methyl ester, pivaryl ester in LM, injected intravenously, may not be released largely in plasma before the distribution of LM to the target site. These data suggest that LM preparation of PGE1 butyl ester, methyl ester or pivaryl ester would be a better LM preparation than lipo-PGE1.
Since 1981, in cooperation with research institutions across the nation, IKEMOTOe, t al. have been collecting clinical isolates from patients with respiratory tract infections and conducting an ...annual retrospective survey of patients' background factors and of isolated strains and their sensitivities to various antibacterial agents and antibiotics. In the period from October, 1987 to September, 1988, 17 institutions participated in the survey and a total of 706 strains which were demonstrated to be causative organisms were isolated from 562 patients with respiratory tract infections. Strains were mostly isolated from the sputum. The taxonomic breakdown of these strains was: Staphylococcus aureus (69 strains), Streptococcus pneumoniae (120), Haemophilus influenzae (170), Mucoid-producing P.seudomonas aeruginosa (42), Non-mucoid-producing P.aeruginosa (87), Escherichia coli (11), Klebsiella pneumoniae (35), Brahamella catarrharis (72), etc. Of these strains, 629 were used to determine MICs of various antibacterial agents and antibiotics for susceptibility analyses. Relationships between patient backgrounds and diagnoses and between infections diseases and causative organisms were also investigated. Most of the major causative organisms, such as H. influenzae and P. aeruginosa, showed no substantial changes from previous years, with regard to their sensitivities to antibiotic agent, but S. aureus, particularly methicillin/cephem-resistant strains of S. aureus (MCRSA) showed some what lower sensitivity to β-lactams and, as in recent years, to ofloxacin, a new quinolone drug, as well. Regarding background factors of patients, the age distribution was heavily concentrated in age brackets of 50 years and older, thus patients in these age group accounted for 75.2% of all the patients, which was comparable to 73.5% in 1985 and 77.9% in 1986. Among infections encountered, bacterial pneumonia was most frequent at 28.3%, followed by chronic bronchitis (27.2%) and bronchiectasis (16.0%). Bacterial pneumonia was actually the most frequent, throughout the entire age groups accounting for 34.3% of patients up to 29 years, 26.6% in the group of 30-69 years and 30.7% in patients aged 70 years and older. Chronic bronchitis was next most frequent and accounted for 20.0%, 26.4% and 30.7% among the three age groups, respectively. Breaking down clinical isolates by diagnosis, H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa were isolated frequently from most of the infectious diseases. Among 331 strains isolated as causative organisms at during symptomatic periods of infection in bronchiectasis, chronic bronchitis and diffuse panbronchiolitis, H. influenzae, P. aeruginosa and S. pneumoniae were frequent, accounting for 29.6%, 23.9% and 16.6% of all the isolates, respectively. In bacterial pneumonia, S. aureus was frequently detected in addition to the above species. Chronologically, the frequency of H. in fl has been declining year by year, while the frequency of S. pneumoniae has been steadily increasing. Among Gram-negative bacteria, B. catarrhalis is gradually gaining ground thus demanding our attention. Regarding the bacteria isolated before the first administration of antibacterial agents or antibiotics and the classification of the isolates by the duration of treatment, H. influenzae and S.pneumoniae were most frequent, accounting for 29.8% and 18.6%, respectively, but the incidence of both declined gradually in accordance with the duration of treatment. Conversely, the frequency of P. aeruginosa increased from 15.2% prior to administration to 39.0% on day 15 of treatment. This retrospective survey will be continued, taking into account new antibacterial and antibiotic agents that will be developed in the years to come.
Enlisting the help of various research institutions across the nation, IKEMOTO et al. have been pooling cultures of clinical isolates of respiratory tract infections and mapping out the correlations ...between patient backgrounds and the causative bacteria and the changes in the sensitivity spectra of the bacteria to various antibacterial and antibiotic agents annually since 1981. The following is a report of the 1986 findings. During the period from September, 1986 to March, 1987, 558 cases of respiratory infections were reported at 17 institutions across the nation and a total of 657 apparent causative strains were isolated from sputum samples. Of these strains, 75 strains of Staphylococcus aureus, 108 of Streptococcus pneumoniae, 150 of Haemophilus influenzae, 107 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (non-mucoid production type), 21 of P. aeruginosa (mucoid production type), 32 of Klebsiella pneumoniae, 8 of Escherichia coli, and 55 of Branhamella catarrhalis were subjected to MIC determination of various antibacterial and antibiotic agents to map drug sensitivities. In addition, diagnoses, age distributions by diagnoses, frequencies of infectious diseases, types of isolated bacteria, and usage statuses of the antibacterial and antibiotic agents the times of at isolation were also investigated. MIC determinations were carried out to investigate susceptibilities of causative organisms of respiratory tract infections to various antibacterial and antibiotic agents. From the 558 cases of respiratory tract infections, 657 strains were detected at concentrations not less than 104-6/ml and identified to be the causative organisms. Of these strains, 603 could be used for MIC determination. An overwhelming majority of major causative bacteria, inclusive of H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae, showed sensitivity patterns similar to the sensitivity patterns found a year earlier. P. aeruginosa alone, however, showed some increase in its susceptibility to penicillin and cephem antibiotics. Regarding patient backgrounds, the age distribution was heavily biased towards the higher end of the scale, which patients with ages of 50 or higher accounting for 77.9%, compared to 73.5% in 1985. When the patients were classified by diagnoses, chronic bronchitis, bacterial pneumonia and bronchiectasis accounted for the majority of the infections: 28.7%, 23.3%, and 19.0%, respectively. The percentages of chronic bronchitis and bacterial pneumonia 28.7% and 23.3%, respectively, were somewhat higher in 1986 than in 1985. The disease which was comparatively frequent in all age groups was bronchiectasis, which accounted for 44.0% in patients with ages 29 years or lower, 18.4% in patients between 30 years and 69 years, and 16.7% in patients with ages 70 years or higher. The next most frequent infection was bacterial pneumonia. Another finding of note was that whereas acute bronchitis was more frequent among young patients, chronic bronchitis was more prevalent in elderly patients. When classified by diagnoses, H. influenzae, P. aeruginosa, and S. pneumoniae were frequent in most infectious diseases. Of 355 strains isolated from patients with chronic bronchitis, diffuse panbronchiolitis or bronchiectasis, P. aeruginosa, H. influenzae, and S. pneumoniae accounted for 27.9%, 26.2%, and 18.0%, respectively. However, the incidence of H. influenzae has been declining yearly, while the frequencies of P. aeruginosa and S. pneumoniae are increasing. It is noteworthy that the includence of B. catarrhalis is on a slow but steady increase. In cases of bacterial pneumonia, the frequency of S. aureus was comparatively high.
It has been known that CA change during physical exercises and associate with dynamic aspects of the coagulation fibrinolysis system of the blood. Therefore, we studied fibrin and fibrinogen ...degradation products (FDP) under physical exercises together with LDH, CPK, LA, CRE, Na, K and P.1) College students of Department of Education majoring in sciences of physical education significantly increased activities of CPK and LDH during the training for volleyball games compared with the pre-training values. This increment was remarkable for those who exercised hard, that is, who were loaded with large physical stress. 2) Changes in LA were included in the range of its normal values. Freshmen who had not been traind much and consequently whose adaptability for physical stress was insufficient increased the LA level sighificantly relative to the pre-training level. 3) Although changes in P were included in the range of its normal values, significant increase was observed by physical stress. Examinations by individual disclosed that a tendency of changes in P was similar to that in CPK and FDP. 4) The tendency of changes in FDP agreed with that in CPK and P and an increase was observed for those who were loaded with large physical stress. It was further observed that especially for those who were loaded with large mental stress together with physical stress the increase in FDP was evident. Therefore, it has been suggested that FDP can be used as an index of biotic effects of not only physical stress but also mental stress.
We assumed the possibility of adopting FDP as an index of fatigue and carried out examinations upon various load conditions causing stress. For our observations other indices which are thought ...effective for fatigue evaluation, such as urine CA, flicker values, response time, Uchida's Kraepelin test, and examination of subjective symptoms recommended by the Japan Association of Industrial Health, were adopted at the same time. 1) Both mental and physical loads increased FDP values both in serum and in urine. 2) These changes in FDP values agreed comparatively well with the changes in CA by load. 3) The FDP value showed changes by load which was so light that it did not induce functional deterioration detectable by the response time or the flicker value which was considered to be one of effective physiological indices. 4) The extent or degree of subjective symptoms found by the survey agreed well with the changes in FDP values. Through above examinations, FDP values of serum and urine seem to be useful as an index of transient fatigue; especially they can well reflect mental fatigue which cannot be indicated well by other biochemical indices. Also FDP can well show individual characteristics, namely FDP indicates comparatively satisfactorily both individual sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, this method does not require special techniques and examinations can be done simply.
Recently, it has been pointed out that platelets play a role in thrombosis and atherosclerosis, and attention has also been focused on the relation between platelets and polyvalent unsaturated fatty ...acids. Therefore, arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and other fatty acids in the plasma of cases of thrombotic disease (TD) were analyzed. The conclusions were as follows: (1) The EPA/AA ratio in the TD group was 0.40±0.22 (M±SD) which was significantly lower than that of the control group (0.87±0.48) (P≤0.01). (2) The DHA/AA ratio in the TD group was 0.77±0.20, less than the 1.12±0.40 value of the control group. From these results, it is assumed that the low values of the EPA/AA and DHA/AA ratios in the plasma are risk factors in the onset or worsening of thrombotic disease.
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