1 Teijin Institute for Biomedical Research, Asahigaoka 4-3-2, Hino, Tokyo 191, Japan
and 2 Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory, Division of Laboratories, State of California Department of Health ...Services, Berkeley, California 94704, U.S.A.
Hybridomas producing human monoclonal antibodies (HMAbs) against varicella-zoster virus (VZV) were generated by fusing murine myeloma cells with human lymphocytes immunized in vitro . An assay system was developed to select anti-glycoprotein (gp)III HMAbs from the pool of anti-VZV HMAbs. A murine anti-gpIII MAb, 4B7, did not react with a VZV-infected cell homogenate, but did react with a VZV-infected cell monolayer, whereas anti-gpI and anti-gpII MAbs reacted with both antigens. Hybridomas were screened to obtain HMAbs having a reaction profile similar to that of 4B7 and one such clone, V3, stably produces human IgG1 ( ). HMAb V3 immunoprecipitated a VZV antigen of 115K to 120K, which was not immunoabsorbed by an anti-gpII HMAb, implying that V3 recognizes gpIII. V3 neutralized VZV independently of complement, unlike anti-gpI and anti-gpII HMAbs. All five strains of VZV tested were completely neutralized by V3, and the dose of V3 required to reduce the number of virus plaques by 50% ranged from 0.027 to 0.15 µg/ml. V3 was also able to inhibit the spread of virus infection from infected to uninfected cells, whereas anti-gpI and anti-gpII HMAbs could not. In addition, V3 mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity but not complement-dependent cytotoxicity of VZV-infected cells. The results suggest that an anti-gpIII HMAb may provide a new means of passive immunoprophylaxis and also help to identify an antigenic epitope appropriate for a subunit vaccine.
Received 11 March 1991;
accepted 6 June 1991.
SRAM-based field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are vulnerable to a single event upset (SEU), which is induced by radiation effect. Therefore, the dependable design techniques become important, and ...the accurate dependability analysis method is required to demonstrate their robustness. Most of present analysis techniques are performed by using full reconfiguration to emulate the soft error. However, it takes long time to analyze the dependability because it requires many times of reconfiguration to complete the soft error injection. In the present paper, we construct the soft error estimation system to analyze the reliability and to reduce the estimation time. Moreover, we apply Monte Carlo simulation to our approach, and identify trade-off between accuracy of error rate and estimation time. As a result of our experimentation for 8-bit full-adder and multiplier, we can show the dependability of the implemented system. Also, the constructed system can reduce the estimation time. According to the result, when performing about 50% circuit Monte Carlo simulation, the error rate is within 20%.
We examined three patients with congenital grouped pigmentation of the retina by means of electroretinography, electro-oculography and visually evoked cortical potentials. Two patients were affected ...bilaterally and 1 had a unilateral condition. Electrophysiological findings were normal in all patients, and no inheritance patterns for the disease were found in any of the patients' histories. Only 5 cases of this disease have been reported in Asian countries in recent years. We believe that our patients contribute to the sample of such cases regarding racial prevalence.
A nationwide, multicenter study of typical retinitis pigmentosa (RP) was carried out in collaboration with 18 hospitals throughout Japan to obtain current information for genetic counseling. We ...analyzed the genetic heterogeneity of RP based on the parental consanguinity of 434 probands registered during a 6-month period in 1990. A gradual decline in the frequency of consanguineous marriage was recognized among the normal parents of RP patients. The relative frequencies of inheritance patterns were estimated as: autosomal recessive, 25.2%; autosomal dominant, 16.9%; X-linked, 1.6%; and simplex, 56.3%. A comparison of these results with previous reports in Japan revealed a decline in the relative frequency of autosomal recessive cases and an increase in simplex cases. This suggests a decrease in the incidence of autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa in Japan, as well as the necessity for exhaustive investigations aimed at identifying inheritance patterns for RP patients seeking genetic counseling.
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of genetically heterogeneous diseases with autosomal recessive (AR), autosomal dominant, and X-linked modes of inheritance. Autosomal recessive retinitis ...pigmentosa (ARRP) is the most common form in Japan. A genetic analysis was done to determine the prevalence of ARRP indirectly, to provide an estimation of changing trends in the overall prevalence of RP. Data on the frequency of consanguinity and marriage year of normal parents of 59 ARRP patients were obtained from a nationwide multicenter survey of typical retinitis pigmentosa conducted in 1990. The gene frequency of ARRP was 0.01145 (Dahlberg's formula). In 1990, the number of young symptomatic ARRP patients decreased, while the number of patients aged 40 years and older increased. The total number of symptomatic ARRP patients in 1990 was nearly 21% higher than in 1970. Despite a dramatic decline in consanguinity in recent decades in Japan, the number of ARRP patients has increased. This increase is attributed to greater longevity and overall population growth. Our results suggest that the total number of RP patients has not decreased, and may even have increased.
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