Tuberculosis is seen in every part of the body, but stemoclavicular joint tuberculosis is rare. We report a case of tuberculosis of the sternoclavicular joint in 70-year-old woman having complained ...of the right sternoclavicular joint swelling. She had a previous history of pulmonary tuberculosis, and visited her doctor for right stemoclavicular joint swelling on February 2006. A chest CT scan showed a low density area with destructive osseous changes in the right stemoclavicular joint. Definite diagnosis could not be done by twice needle biopsy, but we diagnosed her as tuberculosis of the sternoclavicular joint based on the clinical course and the findings of the examination. As her condition did not improve after 3months treatment with anti-tuberculous drugs, we conducted therapeutic surgical procedure. Definite diagnosis of stemoclavicular joint tuberculosis was made on the basis of the presence of mycobacteria in the histological specimen and PCR-TB positive result. We kept the wound opened and continued administration of anti-tuberculous drugs, and her condition does not deteriorate. Tuberculosis should be considered in case of a patient with arthritis and previous history of tuberculosis, even if it is seen in rare location. Diagnostic and therapeutic surgical procedure should be taken into consideration, if there is no improvement of the condition after a diagnosis of bone and joint tuberculosis, and the administration of chemotherapy for tuberculosis.
Cataract and retinopathy remain the preventable cause of blindness worldwide, and many pharmacological strategies have been proposed for the treatment of these eye diseases. Animal models play an ...important role in understanding the pathophysiological features of eye disease and developing for a new therapy. In this study, we investigated the development of cataract and retinal lesion with diabetes using an obese type 2 diabetic models SDT fatty rat. Macroscopic analysis in eyes was performed from 16 to 24 weeks of age and histological analysis was performed at 24 weeks of age. As a result, the lens cloudiness was observed from 19 weeks of age and the degree of the cloudiness was more progressed until 24 weeks of age. Histopathological findings, such as degeneration of lens fiber and shortening and irregular arrangement of cone and rod in retinal tissue, were observed at 24 weeks of age. In conclusion, SDT fatty rats may be useful to understand the pathological features in diabetic cataract and retinopathy develop a new therapy for the disease.
We have been collecting data on the adverse reaction of FOLFOX 4 chemotherapy in our hospital from April 2005 to October retrospectively, by electronic clinical records. A retrospective study of 123 ...patients receiving FOLFOX 4 for advanced colorectal cancer was conducted. Survey results showed high incidences of hemotoxicity (52.8%), chronic sensory neuropathy (16.2%) and allergic reactions (15.4%). In the initial FOLFOX 4 therapy, appetite loss (60.1%), vomiting (19.5%) and acute sensory neuropathy (33.3%) were observed. We prepared a brochure in order to minimize inter-individual differences in pharmaceutical care and drug consultation by clinical pharmacists and to ensure the accurate understanding of patients. We feel sure that this kind of activity will help us to provide better pharmaceutical care for patients.
Arkadia was originally identified as a protein that enhances signalling activity of Nodal and induces mammalian nodes during early embryogenesis; however, the mechanisms by which Arkadia affects ...transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily signalling have not been determined. Here we show that Arkadia is widely expressed in mammalian tissues, and that it enhances both TGF-beta and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling. Arkadia physically interacts with inhibitory Smad, Smad7, and induces its poly-ubiquitination and degradation. In contrast to Smurf1, which interacts with TGF-beta receptor complexes through Smad7 and degrades them, Arkadia fails to associate with TGF-beta receptors. In contrast to Smad7, expression of Arkadia is down-regulated by TGF-beta. Silencing of the Arkadia gene resulted in repression of transcriptional activities induced by TGF-beta and BMP, and accumulation of the Smad7 protein. Arkadia may thus play an important role as an amplifier of TGF-beta superfamily signalling under both physiological and pathological conditions.
We present here the annotation of the complete genome of rice Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare. All functional annotations for proteins and non-protein-coding RNA (npRNA) candidates ...were manually curated. Functions were identified or inferred in 19,969 (70%) of the proteins, and 131 possible npRNAs (including 58 antisense transcripts) were found. Almost 5000 annotated protein-coding genes were found to be disrupted in insertional mutant lines, which will accelerate future experimental validation of the annotations. The rice loci were determined by using cDNA sequences obtained from rice and other representative cereals. Our conservative estimate based on these loci and an extrapolation suggested that the gene number of rice is approximately 32,000, which is smaller than previous estimates. We conducted comparative analyses between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana and found that both genomes possessed several lineage-specific genes, which might account for the observed differences between these species, while they had similar sets of predicted functional domains among the protein sequences. A system to control translational efficiency seems to be conserved across large evolutionary distances. Moreover, the evolutionary process of protein-coding genes was examined. Our results suggest that natural selection may have played a role for duplicated genes in both species, so that duplication was suppressed or favored in a manner that depended on the function of a gene.
The isolation and characterization is reported of a cDNA for Δ1‐pyrroline‐5‐carboxylate (P5C) synthetase (cAtP5CS), an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of proline, from a cDNA library prepared ...from a dehydrated rosette plant of Arabidopsis thaliana. Southern blot analysis suggested that only one copy of the corresponding gene (AtP5CS) is present in A. thaliana. The deduced amino acid sequence of the P5CS protein (AtP5CS) from A. thaliana exhibited 74% homology to that of the P5CS from Vigna aconitifolia. Northern blot analysis revealed that the gene for P5CS was induced by dehydration, high salt and treatment with ABA, while it was not induced by heat or cold treatment. Moreover, the simultaneous accumulation of proline was observed as a result of the former treatments in A. thaliana. A cDNA for P5C reductase (cAtP5CR) was also isolated from A. thaliana and Northern blot analysis was performed. The AtP5CR gene was not induced to a significant extent by dehydration or high‐salt stress. These observations suggest that the AtP5CS gene plays a principal role in the biosynthesis of proline in A. thaliana under osmotic stress.
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