PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

W Higuchi

Publications and source records attributed to W Higuchi.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

[Hemostatic control in platelet dysfunction and abnormality by DDAVP].

DDAVP infusion shortens the bleeding time in patients with some types of platelet dysfunction and may be useful for hemostatic control. In order to clarify the mechanism of DDAVP to correct or bypass the release defect, we examined the effect in 17 patients with prolonged bleeding time, i.e., 11 with various kinds of platelet dysfunction, 4 with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), 1 with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), and in an aspirin-ingested volunteer. DDAVP shortened the bleeding time in 9 patients with platelet dysfunctions, one with ITP, and the one aspirin ingested volunteer. No improvement was found in the aggregability and the retention rates, and no signs of activation occurred in the platelet shape. The RCof was elevated in all of the patients after the infusion. Our data suggests that DDAVP improves the hemostasis through primary aggregation and release of dense bodies, and not directly through an increase of RCof.

Bleeding Time↗
PubMed1991

Hematopoietic recovery in a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia after an autologous marrow graft purged by combined hyperthermia and interferon in vitro.

We describe a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in whom hemopoiesis recovered after an autologous marrow graft purged by in vitro hyperthermia. A 17-year-old woman was diagnosed as having ALL in April 1985. After clinical remission was induced, marrow cells were harvested. The marrow cells were treated with hyperthermia at 42.0 degrees C for 1 h in the presence of alpha-interferon to eliminate residual leukemic cells, and then cryopreserved. In January 1990, during her fourth remission she was treated with busulfan and cyclophosphamide, and then received the thawed autologous marrow. Her hematopoietic recovery was prompt with normal trilineage regeneration without any life-threatening complications. She is in good health without evidence of a leukemic relapse at 6 months after autologous bone marrow transplantation. This case suggests that human multilineage progenitor cells retain self-renewal capacity in vivo even after treatment with heat and alpha-interferon in vitro followed by the freezing and thawing procedures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

[Autologous marrow transplantation purged by heat--a case report. Niigata University BMT Team].

We presented here a case with ALL transplanted with autologous marrow cells cryopreserved after heat treatment. Bone marrow cells from a 17-year-old female patient in first complete remission were cryopreserved after treatment with heat (42 degrees C, 60 min) and interferon-alpha. Three and a half years later, at her 4th remission, she was treated with busulfan (16 mg/kg) and cyclophosphamide (120 mg/kg) followed by autologous marrow infusion. The hemopoietic recovery after marrow infusion was prompt except in thrombopoietic lineage. She was doing well without limitation until leukemic relapse after 6 months. From this experience, marrow cells treated with heat and cryopreservation still include multipotent hemopoietic stem cells.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Expression of soybean glycinin subunit precursor cDNAs in Escherichia coli.

As the cDNAs encoding A1aB1b and A2B1a subunit precursors of the glycinin A2 subfamily contain a unique NcoI site sequence, (A)CCATGG, occurring at their translation initiation sites, plasmids were constructed to direct the synthesis of those precursor proteins by inserting NcoI/PstI fragments derived from those cDNA clones into the NcoI/PstI-pKK233-2 expression vector in Escherichia coli MV1190, respectively. The resultant plasmids directed the expression of 57-kDa protein components that have molecular masses in agreement with those of the in vitro translation products directed by glycinin A2 subfamily mRNAs, by the addition of isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactoside. These proteins, which comprised as much as 1% of the total bacterial protein, are immunoprecipitable with rabbit antibodies specific for glycinin subunits. This procedure makes glycinin subunits available as a model for studying structure-function relationships in seed proteins using site-directed mutagenesis. This is the first expression of glycinin-like storage protein in E. coli.

DNA↗
PubMed1987

A rice glutelin and a soybean glycinin have evolved from a common ancestral gene.

A cDNA clone covering the entire coding region for a glutelin subunit precursor has been identified from a library of endosperm-developing rice cDNA clones using a mixed oligodeoxynucleotide probe, and then by immunoprecipitation of hybrid-selected translation product with an antiserum against the acidic polypeptides of the glutelin. Analysis of the cDNA insert revealed that rice glutelin is synthesized as precursor polypeptides which undergo post-translational processing to form the nonrandom polypeptide pairs, like glycinin precursors of soybean. By comparing the predicted protein sequence of this precursor from monocots with that of glycinin A1aB1b precursor from dicots, it was found that the overall 32% of the amino acid positions are identical in both proteins. Because regions which show identities are dispersed throughout both molecules, the similarity is not due to convergent evolution, but to divergence evolution from a common ancestral gene.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1985

Relationship between the ATPase activity and the ATP-induced fluorescence enhancement of SH-modified heavy meromyosin during its fractional inactivation by vanadate plus ADP: evidence for heterogeneity in the active sites.

We have examined whether heavy meromyosin (HMM) consists of a single kind of active site by analyzing the changes in the relative MgATPase activity and the relative amplitude of the ATP-induced fluorescence enhancement of the protein when the fraction of HMM "affinity"-labeled by vanadate plus ADP was varied. The analysis is based on a prediction that these two changes should be proportional to each other if myosin consists of a single kind of active site and generates the rate-limiting myosin**product complex emitting enhanced fluorescence. Although the difference between these two changes was very small with native HMM, it was large with HMM in which 5 fast-reactive sulfhydryl-groups per head were pre-modified with thimerosal. The difference indicated the existence of heterogeneous active sites in the SH-modified HMM. The results were best explained in terms of the hypothesis that fifty percent of the active site splits MgATP by a mechanism giving a fluorescence enhancement whereas the other fifty percent splits MgATP by another mechanism giving no fluorescence enhancement. Two possible explanations for the existence of heterogeneous active sites in the SH-modified HMM are discussed. One assumes the pre-existence of some sort of 1:1 heterogeneity in the micro-environment of the active sites and the other, which is considered less likely, assumes the introduction of the heterogeneity as a result of the SH-modification.

Actins↗