PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

K Inoue

Publications and source records attributed to K Inoue.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

A unique pattern of astrocytosis in the primary motor area in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

We examined the primary motor area (PMA, Brodmann area 4) from 23 cases of adult-onset sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with immunocytochemistry using anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein antibody. There was astrocytosis in the middle of the pyramidal cell layer in all cases except for one that did not present any upper motor neuron signs clinically. The astrocytosis was characterized by multiple clusters of astrocytes, some of which showed a close association with macrophages. In about a half of the cases, these multiple clusters of astrocytes became confluent and presented as a laminar astrocytosis in the middle of the pyramidal cell layer. Our studies demonstrate a unique pattern of astrocytosis in the PMA in ALS. This pattern of astrocytosis may be useful not only for diagnostic purposes, but also for a better understanding of the pathological process involving the PMA in ALS.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Effects of ATP antagonists on purinoceptor-operated inward currents in rat phaeochromocytoma cells.

The effects of suramin, reactive blue 2 (RB2) and d-tubocurarine (d-TC) were investigated electrophysiologically to elucidate the mechanisms underlying their antagonism of P2 purinoceptor-mediated responses. All three compounds inhibited an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-activated inward current in rat phaeochromocytoma PC12 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. The order of potency was RB2 greater than suramin greater than d-TC. The inhibition induced by suramin or RB2 was reversible, whereas that induced by d-TC was not reversed after a 5-min rinse. The inactivation of the ATP-activated current was accelerated by d-TC but not by suramin or RB2. RB2 administered simultaneously with ATP exerted much weaker inhibition compared to that induced by prior administration, suggesting that RB2 is a slowly acting antagonist. This was not observed for suramin or d-TC. Suramin and RB2 caused a parallel shift in the concentration/response curve for the ATP-activated current. With d-TC the maximal response of ATP was decreased but the concentration producing half-maximal response was unchanged. The voltage dependency of the ATP-activated current showed less inward rectification in the presence of d-TC. Suramin or RB2 did not affect the voltage dependency. These results suggest that suramin and RB2 reversibly block binding of ATP to receptors, whereas d-TC blocks ion permeability through the ATP-activated channel.

Adenosine Triphosphate

Extracellular phospholipase A2 detected at inflamed sites in rats does not originate from platelets.

Extracellular phospholipase A2 activity has been detected in caseinate-induced peritoneal fluid in rats. We studied the source of this extracellular phospholipase A2 in 'platelet-poor' rats which had been pretreated with an intravenous injection of rabbit anti-rat platelet serum. In these rats, the increase in the peritoneal fluid extracellular phospholipase A2 level at the inflamed sites was almost identical to that observed in control rats, although platelet numbers in peripheral blood were decreased markedly. This observation suggests that extracellular phospholipase A2 in the peritoneal cavity is not derived mainly from platelets.

Animals

Guinea pig bone marrow cells treated with platelet-activating factor generate factor(s) which affects their DNA synthesis and microbicidal activity.

We have previously reported that platelet-activating factor (PAF) induces proliferation and microbicidal activity of guinea pig bone marrow cells. In the present study, we have found that the conditioned medium of PAF- or nonmetabolizable PAF agonist-treated guinea pig bone marrow cells augmented DNA synthesis and induced microbicial activity of bone marrow cells. A PAF specific antagonist, CV-6209, inhibited generation of the active conditioned medium by PAF. Addition of the PAF antagonist only partially suppressed the augmentative effect of the active conditioned medium on DNA synthesis; this is consistent with the fact that, because of the rapid breakdown, no appreciable amount of PAF remained in the conditioned medium of PAF-treated cells. Although mouse bone marrow cells did not respond to PAF unlike guinea pig cells, their DNA synthesis was significantly enhanced by the conditioned medium of PAF-treated guinea pig bone marrow cells. Thus, some newly generated factor(s) distinct from the originally inoculated PAF seemed to modulate the bioactions of PAF on bone marrow cells. An appreciable amount of PAF was produced by calcium ionophore-treated guinea pig bone marrow cells. These findings indicate that PAF synthesized in guinea pig bone marrow cells induces generation in the cells of some factor(s) which affects proliferation or microbicidal activity.

Animals

Biological response of guinea pig peritoneal macrophages to platelet-activating factor.

We investigated the effects of platelet-activating factor (PAF) on guinea pig peritoneal macrophages. Specific and high-affinity binding sites for PAF were detected on guinea pig peritoneal macrophages. Scatchard analysis of PAF binding revealed high affinity binding sites (7.9 x 10(4)/cell) with a dissociation constant of 2.3 x 10(-10) M. When treated with 10(-9)-10(-5) M PAF, guinea pig peritoneal macrophages released hydrogen peroxide into the medium in a time-dependent manner. The release reaction upon stimulation with 10(-5) M PAF reached a plateau within 30 min and the extent of release was twice as high as that when stimulated by N-formyl-L-methionyl-leucyl-L-phenylalanine (fMLP; 2 microM)-treated cells. Neither lysoPAF nor the PAF enantiomer was effective. PAF-induced H2O2 release was inhibited specifically by PAF antagonists, suggesting that PAF activated macrophages through binding to specific sites. Lysosomal enzyme (N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase) was released from guinea pig peritoneal macrophages upon treatment with 10(-5) M PAF for 60 min. Guinea pig peritoneal macrophages were treated with PAF for 8 hr and the conditioned medium was examined for cytokines. The medium exhibited cytocidal activity against mouse fibroblast L929 cells [tumor necrosis factor (TNF) activity], and this activity was comparable to that detected after treatment of cells with the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Furthermore, the same conditioned medium also showed colony-stimulating factor (CSF) activity. Generation of these cytokines was stereospecific. Our findings suggest that PAF is a unique macrophage activator that potentiates both respiratory burst/lysosomal enzyme release (early-phase response) and monokine production/glucose consumption (late-phase response).

Animals

Cystic endocrine tumor of the pancreas.

A large cystic tumor in the pancreatic body was found incidentally in an 85-yr-old male. A distal pancreatectomy was performed after a diagnosis of cystadenocarcinoma. Microscopic examination of the resected specimen revealed a pancreatic cystic endocrine tumor; however, this tumor produced no symptoms. Immunohistochemical studies of the tumor cells showed positivity for gastrin, neuron-specific enolase, chromogranin A, and synaptophysin, and two cell types of neurosecretory granules were recognized in electron-microscopic studies. Although endocrine tumors of the pancreas are usually solid and cystic change occurs only rarely, such tumors should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients who have a cystic lesion in the pancreas.

Aged

Conversion of growth hormone-secreting cells into prolactin-secreting cells and its promotion by insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 in vitro.

The newly established rat pituitary cell line, MtT/S, has pituitary somatotroph (growth hormone-producing cell)-like characteristics, i.e., the cells produce growth hormone (GH), possess GH-immunopositive secretory granules, and respond to GH-releasing hormone. When MtT/S cells were cultured in regular medium no prolactin (PRL) cells were observed and PRL was not detected, by radioimmunoassay or Western blot analysis, in the medium or the cells. However, GH production and the GH cell population decreased markedly when the cells were incubated with insulin or insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). After stimulation with insulin or IGF-1 there was a 2-day lag period, then some PRL was detected in the medium; after 5 days a number of PRL cells appeared. Double immunocytochemistry indicated clearly that no cell contained both PRL and GH. These results show that insulin and IGF-1 stimulate conversion of MtT/S cell line GH cells to PRL cells. This suggests that the MtT/S cell line is an excellent model system which shows the GH-cell/PRL-cell lineage.

Animals

Fulminant hepatitis B: induction by hepatitis B virus mutants defective in the precore region and incapable of encoding e antigen.

Clones of hepatitis B virus were propagated from 10 cases of fulminant hepatitis B after amplification by polymerase chain reaction and their nucleotide sequences of the precore region were determined. All 113 clones from 9 cases had a point mutation from guanine to adenine at nucleotide 83 in the precore region, which converted codon 28 for tryptophan (TGG) to a stop codon (TAG) and prohibited the synthesis and secretion of hepatitis B e antigen. Precore-region defects were not detected in any of 23 clones from the remaining 1 case. By contrast, precore-region defects were not found in any of 180 clones from 8 cases of acute hepatitis B without hepatic failure serving as controls. The source of infection was traceable in 3 cases. The same precore-region defect, along with the sequence identity of 435 nucleotides, was observed in clones from the case of a baby and his grandmother, who carried the virus and was implicated in the transmission, and also in clones from two pediatricians and the carrier patients they attended. These findings support the hypothesis that precore-defective mutants have stronger activity to induce fulminant hepatitis than nondefective viruses.

Adolescent

Relations between contractile responses and beta-adrenoceptors in gastric fundus of diabetic rats.

Contractile responses to norepinephrine (NE), and the population of beta-adrenoceptors, were determined in gastric fundus smooth muscle from rats with diabetes induced by streptozotocin (STZ), and age-matched controls. Relaxation and/or contraction of fundus strips of controls and diabetics were induced by 10(-5)M NE. Responses to NE were mainly relaxation in gastric fundus isolated from controls, and contraction in fundus isolated from diabetics. Contraction was blocked by 10(-8) M prazosin and relaxation was blocked by 10(-6) M propranolol. Relaxation by isoproterenol of contraction induced by 10(-6) M acetylcholine was significantly less in fundus from diabetics than in that from controls. The number of beta-adrenoceptors, measured with [125I] iodocyanopindolol as a ligand, was significantly less in gastric fundus membrane isolated from diabetics than in that from controls, but affinity was no different. The level of plasma catecholamine was higher in diabetics than in controls. Results suggest that depression of gastric fundus relaxation and increase of contraction by NE in diabetics could be due to fewer beta-adrenoceptor binding sites caused by down-regulation by higher catecholamine level in diabetic rats.

Animals

Detection and characterization of extracellular phospholipase A2 in pleural effusion of patients with tuberculosis.

Extracellular phospholipase A2 activity has been identified in pleural fluid of patients with tuberculosis. This enzyme is a calcium requiring protein and has a pH optimum of 10.0. The enzyme was inhibited by the active site-directed histidine reagent, rho-bromophenacyl bromide. Ionic and non-ionic detergents, or the sulfhydryl reagent dithiothreitol, caused loss of enzyme activity. When substrate specificity was tested using 2-[1-14C]linoleoyl phospholipids as substrates, phosphatidyl-ethanolamine was the best substrate, followed by phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylcholine. This phospholipase A2 showed high affinity for heparin, and was recognized by a monoclonal antibody raised against phospholipase A2 from human synovial fluid. These findings suggest that an extracellular phospholipase A2, which may belong to the 14K group II phospholipase A2 family, exists in the pleural fluid of patients with tuberculosis.

Acetophenones

Effects of competitive and noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonists on kindling and LTP.

In the present study, comparative studies of the effects of competitive and noncompetitive antagonists of NMDA receptors (CPP, CGS19755 and MK-801) on two models of neuronal plasticity, kindling and long-term potentiation (LTP), were performed in rats. Systemic administration of CPP (5, 10 mg/kg), CGS19755 (5, 10 mg/kg) or MK-801 (1, 2 mg/kg) strongly retarded kindling development from the amygdala (AM), in which the early stage of kindled seizures and the growth of afterdischarges (ADs) recorded from the AM were significantly suppressed. After establishment of kindling, however, these compounds only reduced the previously AM-kindled seizure stage without shortening the AD duration. These NMDA receptor antagonists with the same dose sufficient for suppressing AM kindling almost completely blocked LTP of the synaptic component in the hippocampal dentate gyrus following high-frequency trains of the perforant path in urethane-anesthetized rats. These results further support the hypothesis that neuronal plasticity is induced by activation of the NMDA receptor complex and one of the basic neuronal mechanisms underlying kindling may be a long-lasting increase in synaptic transmission.

Animals

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of the membrane-bound protein complexes, including photosystem I, of thylakoid membranes in the presence of sodium oligooxyethylene alkyl ether sulfate/dimethyl dodecylamine oxide and sodium dodecyl sulfate.

Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), using a mixture of sodium oligooxyethylene alkyl ether sulfate and dimethyl dodecylamine oxide as detergents (AES-DDAO mixture) in the first dimension and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in the second dimension, was developed and applied to an analysis of the photosystem I (PS I) complex in thylakoid membranes prepared from spinach chloroplasts. When thylakoid membranes of chloroplasts were solubilized directly in the AES-DDAO mixture and subjected to PAGE in the presence of these detergents as the first dimension, some protein complexes containing chlorophyll were observed. The protein components in these complexes separated into an array of polypeptide spots when the strip of gel after PAGE in the first dimension was subjected to PAGE in the presence of SDS as the second dimension. The main band of protein which separated in the first dimension was demonstrated to be the PS I complex. This complex retained the intrinsic photochemical activity of P700 even after it was subjected to one-dimensional PAGE. These results suggest that certain protein complexes can be separated, with the maintenance of their original structures, by electrophoresis in the presence of the AES-DDAO mixture, and this method appears to have valuable potential for analysis of the components of membrane-bound protein complexes.

Cell Membrane

Developmental assembly of calcium-mobilizing systems for excitatory amino acids in rat cerebellum.

The postnatal development of calcium-mobilizing systems was studied by both microfluorometric imaging analysis of Ca2+ on living rat cerebellar slices and immunohistochemical labeling of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate binding protein (IP3BP) in fixed rat cerebellum. Stimulation with quisqualate (QA) or N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) enhanced the Ca2+ level only diffusely on postnatal day (PND) 3, but more discretely on PNDs 7 and 15. On PND 21, QA-induced responses were localized in the molecular layer especially, but not in the granular layer. By contrast, NMDA mobilized Ca2+ prominently in the granular layer, but only weakly in the molecular layer. Localized expression of PIP2 in the molecular layer paralleled QA-induced Ca2+ mobilization, but IP3BP was expressed more diffusely. The present study offers the first direct evidence that PIP2, but not IP3BP, is essential for QA-induced Ca2+ mobilization in the cerebellar cortex.

Amino Acids

Estrogen-insulin synergism in induction of prolactin in growth hormone-producing cells.

Insulin suppresses growth hormone expression and induces prolactin (PRL) biosynthesis in MtT/S cells cultured in a medium supplemented with normal sera. Incorporation of [35S]amino acids into immunoprecipitable PRL became detectable at 15 h of culture with insulin (500 ng/ml) and increased up to 48 h. Northern blot hybridization demonstrated a concurrent induction of PRL mRNA. However, insulin failed to induce PRL in a medium supplemented with steroid-depleted sera. Either pre- or cocultivation of cells with 10 pM to 10 nM 17 beta-estradiol (E2), which did not induce PRL by itself, restored the insulin-mediated PRL biosynthesis in a dose-dependent manner. Diethylstilbestrol was as effective as E2, whereas testosterone, progesterone and corticosterone were without effect. The E2 action was partially suppressed by tamoxifen. These results suggest that estrogen is required for the insulin-mediated induction of PRL biosynthesis in MtT/S cells.

Animals

Comparison of cytochrome P-450 species which catalyze the hydroxylations of the aromatic ring of estradiol and estradiol 17-sulfate.

For identification of microsomal cytochrome P-450 (P-450) enzymes which catalyze 2- or 4-hydroxylations of estrogens in the rat liver, estradiol (E2) and estradiol 17-sulfate (E2-17-S) were selected as the substrates and incubated with various kinds of purified P-450 enzymes: PB-1, PB-2, PB-4 and PB-5 obtained from phenobarbital-treated male rats (Sprague-Dawley); MC-1 and MC-5 from 3-methylcholanthrene-treated male rats; and UT-1, UT-2, UT-4 and UT-5 from untreated animals. The reactions were carried out under the P-450-reconstructed system, and the resulting products were determined by HPLC using electrochemical detection. All the enzymes tested were shown to have varying degrees of catalytic activities for 2-hydroxylation of the two substrates; UT-1 and UT-2 had the highest activity. Of the induced P-450 enzymes, PB-2 and MC-1 showed fairly high catalytic activity for 4-hydroxylation of E2. The P-450 enzymes obtained from the untreated male rats, especially UT-4, showed the highest catalytic activity for 4-hydroxylation of the two substrates. From these results and also from kinetic experiments, the P-450 enzymes which catalyze 2- and 4-hydroxylations of estrogen were considered to be different species. A part of E2 was converted to such metabolites as estrone and those having a hydroxyl group at positions 6 beta, 15 alpha or 16 alpha, each production of which was estimated to be catalyzed by single or multiple P-450s.

Animals

Effects of glucagon-like peptide 1 (7-36) amide and glucagon on amylin release from perfused rat pancreas.

The effects of glucagon-like peptide 1 (7-36) amide [GLP-1 (7-36) amide] and glucagon on the release of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP), or amylin, from the isolated perfused rat pancreas were studied. In the presence of 5.6 mM glucose, GLP-1 (7-36) amide and glucagon stimulated the release of amylin from the perfused pancreas. The infusion of GLP-1 (7-36) amide at a concentration of 10(-9) M elicited a biphasic release of amylin similar to that of insulin. The cumulative output of amylin induced by 10(-9)M GLP-1 (7-36) amide was significantly higher than that by 10(-9)M glucagon (p less than 0.01). The amylin/insulin molar ratios induced by GLP-1 (7-36) amide and glucagon were about 1% and did not differ significantly. These findings suggest that GLP-1 (7-36) amide and glucagon stimulate the release of amylin from the pancreas and that the concomitant secretion of amylin and insulin might contribute to glucose homeostasis.

Amyloid