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Biomedical subjects

K Wagatsuma

Publications and source records attributed to K Wagatsuma.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

Abnormal distribution of epidermal protein antigens in psoriatic epidermis.

The immunohistochemical distribution of the epidermal proteins filaggrin, involucrin, and cytokeratins is characteristic in normal epidermis. This distribution may change as a result of malignant transformation or abnormal differentiation. The present study was conducted to determine the patterns of reactivity of psoriatic epidermis to antibodies against various epidermal proteins and to clarify abnormal differentiation or maturation of the keratinocytes in psoriatic epidermis. Anti-human filaggrin, anti-human involucrin, and twelve kinds of anti-cytokeratin antibodies were used in this study. Cryostat or paraffin-embedded sections were stained with these antibodies by the avidin-biotin peroxidase technique. The epidermis of the noninvolved skin of patients with psoriasis vulgaris showed the distribution seen in normal skin. However, involved psoriatic skin revealed little or no reaction in the stratum corneum or in the granular layer with the anti-filaggrin antibody. Cells positively staining with anti-involucrin antibody paradoxically appeared in the lower cell layers of involved psoriatic epidermis. An anti-keratin antibody, AE1, stained suprabasal cells in involved psoriatic epidermis, although this antibody selectively stained epidermal basal cells in normal skin. The other anti-keratin antibodies, especially KL1, PKK1, and a polyclonal anti-keratin antibody, were less reactive with involved psoriatic skin than with normal skin. These observations suggest that the maturation pathway of keratinocytes in active psoriatic lesions differs qualitatively from that in normal epidermis.

Adolescent

Monoclonal antibody OKB19, reactive with a B-lymphoid differentiation antigen (CD19), binding to basal layer keratinocytes of normal human skin.

Monoclonal antibody (moAB) OKB19 reacts with CD19 antigen, which is the broadest lineage-specific surface marker on B-lymphocytes. In frozen tissue sections, using an immunohistochemical technique, the OKB19-positive cells in the basal layer were sharply demarcated from the negative suprabasal layers. In normal hair follicles, the OKB19 reactivity was also confined to one layer of the dermal side of the outer root sheath. However, this reactivity gradually disappeared in the lower areas. The inner surface of the lumina in the eccrine duct was weakly stained with OKB19. The basal keratinocytes were also stained with OKB19 in the lesional epidermis of the various dermatoses examined in this study, when the basal keratinocytes remained unaffected. Even in the hyperproliferative state of psoriasis, the OKB19 reactivity was confined to the basal layer. Several kinds of tumor cells derived from the skin were not stained with OKB19. No labeling was seen even in the basaloid cells of basal cell carcinoma, which are morphologically similar to basal keratinocytes. B4 and Leu-12, other monoclonal antibodies reacting with CD19, did not recognize any keratinocytes in the normal human skin. MoAB OKB19, therefore, reacts with an antigen present on basal keratinocytes and provides a probe for the isolation of the basal keratinocyte subpopulation. Thus, this antibody should be useful in studies of not only B-lymphocyte differentiation, but also normal and aberrant differentiation of the epidermal keratinocytes.

Antibodies, Monoclonal

Hair growth on nude mice due to cyclosporin A.

One of the most common dermatological side effects of cyclosporin A (CsA) is dose-dependent hypertrichosis. Similar hair growth was noted in nude mice in an attempt to increase the acceptance of human xenografts with CsA in the T-cell-deficient congenitally athymic nude (nu/nu) mice. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the stimulation of hair growth on nude mice not only by oral administration of CsA but also by topical and subcutaneous administration of CsA. Young BALB/c female nude mice were treated for 3 or 4 weeks with topical, oral, or subcutaneous applications of CsA dissolved in olive oil at various doses. The hair of CsA-treated mice appeared to grow from 7 days after the treatment, even at low doses. Induced hair growth was dose-dependent and became clearly obvious 3 weeks after the treatment. The stimulation of hair growth was not restricted to the site of topical application. The distribution of the new hair depended on the natural pattern of hair growth in the mice. However, there was no hair growth in the control mice which were given only olive oil. Histological examination revealed that there were no differences in the structures of skin and hair between the control and the CsA-treated mice. Furthermore, the number of hair follicles did not remarkably increase after CsA treatment. The hair growth in the CsA-treated mice stopped after cessation of the treatment and returned to the level of the control mice on day 14 after the end of the treatment. Subsequent retreatment with CsA resulted in further regrowth of the hair.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Administration, Oral

A pitch-synchronous analysis of hoarseness in running speech.

A method of pitch-synchronous acoustic analysis of hoarseness requiring a voice sample of only four fundamental periods is presented. This method calculates a noise-to-signal (N/S) ratio, which indicates the depth of valleys between harmonic peaks in the power spectrum. The spectrum is calculated pitch synchronously from a Fourier transform of the signal, windowed through a continuously variable Hanning window spanning exactly four fundamental periods. A two-stage procedure is used to determine the exact duration of the four fundamental periods. An initial estimate is obtained using autocorrelation in the time domain. A more precise estimate is obtained in the frequency domain by minimizing the errors between the preliminary calculated power spectrum and the predicted spectrum spread of a windowed harmonic signal. Analysis of synthesized voices showed that the N/S ratio is sensitive to additive noise, jitter, and shimmer, and is insensitive to slow (8 Hz) modulation in fundamental frequency and amplitude. An analysis of pre- and postoperative voices of six patients with benign laryngeal disease showed that the N/S ratio for vowel /u/ in running speech consistently improved after surgery for all subjects, in agreement with their successful therapeutic results.

Hoarseness

Comparative enzymology of eleven acid hydrolases in cultured amniotic fluid cells, skin fibroblasts and embryonic lung fibroblasts, and the respective changes with the increasing age of the cell cultures.

Assay conditions were studied for eleven lysosomal enzymes (beta-D-galactosidase, alpha-D-mannosidase, beta-hexosaminidase, beta-D-glucuronidase, alpha-D-galactosidase, alpha-D-glucosidase, arylsulfatase, beta-D-glucosidase, alpha-L-fucosidase, alpha-D-neuraminidase and alpha-L-iduronidase) in cultured amniotic fluid cells (CAFC), cultured skin fibroblasts (CSF) and cultured embryonic lung fibroblasts (CELF), and the properties of the enzymes were compared among these cultured cells. In addition, changes in these enzymes from the three cell types were investigated between 4-6 earlier passages and 24-26 later passages. With the exception of alpha-D-glucosidase, alpha-D-neuraminidase and alpha-L-fucosidase, all enzymes assayed for the 4-6 earlier passages and the 24-26 later passages had the same Km values and the same pH optima, and were also unchanged with the increasing age of cell cultures, with regard to their points. The specific activities of beta-D-glucuronidase, arylsulfatase, alpha-D-glucosidase and beta-D-glucosidase for the 4-6 earlier passages increased significantly with development, though no change was observed with development in the specific activities of other enzymes. Variations were observed between the levels of these enzymes in the three cell types with the increasing age of cell cultures, such as increases in some, decreases in others and no change in still others.

Amniotic Fluid

Complementation analysis of beta-galactosidase deficiency by means of histochemical method.

Cultured skin fibroblasts from 4 beta-galactosidase-deficient patients with different clinical features were hybridized and beta-galactosidase activities were measured using 4-methylumbelliferyl (4MU)-derivate and by means of indigogenic method. Compared with the assays of beta-galactosidase activity using 4MU-derivate, more clear-cut evidence was obtained in the indigogenic method for a judgement of complementation.

Cells, Cultured