Biomedical subjects

Motohiro Suzuki

Publications and source records attributed to Motohiro Suzuki.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The effect of infliximab on chemokines in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by infiltration of lymphocytes, macrophages, and plasma cells into synovial membrane. The chemokines family promotes chemotactic activity in various leukocyte cell types. Chemokines thus play an essential role in the pathological formation of RA. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of infliximab on serum levels of various chemokines. Twenty-four RA patients were involved in this study, which took place between March 2003 and February 2006. Infliximab was administered by intravenous infusion at a dosage of 3 mg/kg. All patients underwent general and physical examinations and routine blood and urinary analysis at the baseline, at 14 weeks, and at 30 weeks after the initial treatment. To determine whether serum and synovial fluid from RA also contained significant levels of chemokines compared with osteoarthritis patients (OA), GRO-alpha, MIP-1alpha, MIP-1beta and regulated on activation normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) levels of serum and synovial fluid were measured by ELISA in 20 RA patients and 20 OA patients. GRO-alpha, MIP-1beta, and RANTES levels were significantly higher in RA compared with normal volunteers, while MIP-1alpha levels showed no significant differences. The mean GRO-alpha levels in serum from RA patients treated with infliximab decreased significantly after the initial treatment. The mean RANTES and MIP-1beta levels did not change significantly after the treatment. Infliximab treatment significantly lowered the serum GRO-alpha levels of RA patients. GRO-alpha is one of the crucial cytokines affected by infliximab treatment. The blocking therapy of RANTES and MIP-1beta combined with infliximab treatment may have an additional effect without competition in the TNFalpha cascade.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

PubMed2006

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism of size-selected, thiolated gold clusters.

We report herein the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at the Au L2,3 edges of a series of Au clusters protected by glutathione (GSH). The samples used here included AuN(SG)M with (N, M) = (10, 10), (15, 13), (18, 14), (22, 16), (25, 18), (29, 20), (39, 24) and a sodium gold(I) thiomalate (SGT) as a reference. Magnetic moments per cluster were found to be increased with size, whereas those per Au-S bond were nearly constant. This finding suggests that a localized hole created by Au-S bonding at the gold/glutathione interface, rather than the quantum size effect, is responsible for the spin polarization of gold clusters.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

Stable top-up operation at SPring-8.

Top-up operation allows SPring-8 to provide highly stable X-ray beams with arbitrary filling patterns. The implementation of top-up operation is described, with a focus on the simultaneous achievement of stability of stored current, beam orbit, purity of an isolated single bunch, and beam injection efficiency. Stored-current fluctuations have been routinely reduced to a level of 10(-3). Stored-beam oscillation on frequent beam injection, which was originally regarded as the most serious problem, has been successfully suppressed to a sufficiently low level that it never perturbs imaging experiments. Current impurities in nominally empty buckets have been reduced to a level of 10(-9) over more than one week of operation, making possible the measurement of time-resolved spectra using high-current bunches. Finally, excellent injection efficiency, higher than 80%, is routinely obtained, even for small undulator gaps, which is critical for preventing radiation damage to insertion-device magnets and to reduce leakage radiation. The process of achieving highly stabilized top-up operation at SPring-8 and its utility for user experiments are described.

Electrons↗

PubMed2006

Treatment with anti-TNF-alpha antibody infliximab reduces serum IL-15 levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The aim of this study was to analyze the change of serum cytokines and pentosidine levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by infliximab treatment. Twenty-three patients with RA were studied for 30 weeks on the effects of infliximab treatment. Serum levels of IL-15, IL-16, IL-17, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) were measured with ELISA methods and pentosidine levels were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography, both at baseline and at 14 and 30 weeks after the initial treatment with infliximab. In addition, the patients also underwent physical and routine blood examinations. The higher levels of serum IL-15 in RA patients before treatment with infliximab significantly decreased at 14 and 30 weeks after the initial treatment with infliximab, but serum IL-16, IL-17, GM-CSF, and pentosidine levels did not decrease. The serum IL-17 and GM-CSF levels remained to be a limited detectable level at the pre- and posttreatment with infliximab. Infliximab treatment significantly lowered the serum levels of IL-15 in patients with RA. IL-15 is one of the crucial cytokines affected by infliximab.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

PubMed2005

Vitreous levels of vascular endothelial growth factor and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 are related to diabetic macular edema.

PURPOSE: To investigate whether vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1) is related to diabetic macular edema (DME). DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-three patients who had DME and 13 patients with nondiabetic ocular disease (control group). METHODS: Vitreous fluid samples were obtained at the time of vitreoretinal surgery, and the VEGF and sICAM-1 levels in vitreous fluid and plasma were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Relationship between vitreous levels of VEGF or sICAM-1 and DME. RESULTS: Vitreous levels of VEGF and sICAM-1 were significantly higher in DME patients than in control patients (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0004, respectively). The vitreous level of VEGF was significantly correlated with that of sICAM-1 (P < 0.0001). Vitreous levels of both VEGF and sICAM-1 were significantly higher in patients with hyperfluorescent DME than in those with minimally fluorescent DME (P = 0.0027 and P = 0.0005, respectively). The vitreous levels of both VEGF and sICAM-1 were significantly correlated with retinal thickness at the central fovea (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0005, respectively) CONCLUSIONS: We found that both VEGF and sICAM-1 were elevated in the vitreous fluid of patients with hyperfluorescent DME. These results suggest that VEGF and ICAM-1 are related to the increase of vascular permeability in DME patients.

Blood-Retinal Barrier↗

PubMed2002

Amelioration by beraprost sodium, a prostacyclin analogue, of established renal dysfunction in rat glomerulonephritis model.

Effects of beraprost sodium, a chemically stable prostacyclin analogue, on renal dysfunction in an experimental rat model of glomerulonephritis were investigated. Beraprost sodium (30, 100 and 300 microg/kg) was orally given twice daily from the late stage of nephritis in which renal dysfunction was already developed. Beraprost sodium treatment inhibited the increase in urinary protein, serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, and the decrease in creatinine clearance. The elevation of serum creatinine was also inhibited by predonisolone (1 mg/kg). However, captopril (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg) and dipyridamole (20 and 60 mg/kg) failed to inhibit the elevation of serum creatinine. In the beraprost sodium-treated nephritic rats, the increase in mRNA levels for monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and collagen in the kidney was inhibited. These results suggest that beraprost sodium ameliorates developed renal dysfunction and is possibly an effective agent for the treatment of human glomerulonephritis.

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors↗

PubMed2002

Fast multigrid fluorescent ion chamber with 0.1 ms time response.

A fast multigrid ion chamber for the detection of fluorescent X-rays has been developed. The structure of 17 grids with close separation was employed to maximize the time response as well as to give sufficient detection efficiency. The measured rise/fall response time to cyclic X-rays was shorter than that of an existing three-grid ion chamber by more than one order of magnitude. A 0.13 ms time response was obtained at the 500 V applied voltage, where the detector can stably operate without any discharge. The available frequency range is as high as 1 kHz with a practical amplitude response.

Journal Article↗