Fragments of testis tissue from immature animals grow and develop spermatogenesis when grafted onto subcutaneous areas of immunodeficient mice. The same results are obtained when dissociated cells from immature testes of rodents are injected into the subcutis of nude mice. Those cells reconstitute seminiferous tubules and facilitate spermatogenesis. We compared these two methods, tissue grafting and cell-injection methods, in terms of the efficiency of spermatogenesis in the backs of three strains of immunodeficient mice, using neonatal porcine testicular tissues and cells as donor material. Nude, severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) and NOD/Shi-SCID, IL-2Rgammacnull (NOG) mice were used as recipients. At 10 months after surgery, the transplants were examined histologically. Both grafting and cell-injection methods resulted in porcine spermatogenesis on the backs of recipient mice; the percentage of spermatids present in the transplants was 67% and 22%, respectively. Using the grafting method, all three strains of mice supported the same extent of spermatogenesis. As for the cell-injection method, although SCID mice were the best host for supporting reconstitution and spermatogenesis, any difference from the other strains was not significant. As NOG mice did not show any better results, the severity of immunodeficiency seemed to be irrelevant for supporting xeno-ectopic spermatogenesis. Our results confirmed that tubular reconstitution is applicable to porcine testicular cells. This method as well as the grafting method would be useful for studying spermatogenesis in different kinds of animals.
Animals ; Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Injections ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Inbred NOD ; Mice, Nude ; Mice, SCID ; Organ Size ; Seminiferous Tubules ; cytology ; physiology ; transplantation ; Spermatids ; cytology ; transplantation ; Spermatogenesis ; physiology ; Subcutaneous Tissue ; surgery ; Swine ; Tissue Transplantation ; methods ; Transplantation, Heterologous ; methods

Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) Japanese version was implemented to electronic medical chart (FUJITSU HOPE/EGMAIN-FX®). The processes were needed as follows; preparation of each templates (criteria for use of the LCP/initial assessment, ongoing assessment, and care after death), preparation of pathway/regimen, incorporation of the templates to the pathway and approval in our hospital clinical pathway committee. One problem we encountered was whether to choose an Excel or a template format for each assessment sheet, and the template format was selected as it presented us with a higher degree of convenience, since each field can be expanded into a table on the screen without scrolling and there is little limitation in the letters of the valiance records that can be used in the template format. The complexity of the three records, “the pathway”, “SOAP & focus” for recording opioid use, and “the progress sheet” for recording vital signs, in addition to the inability to expand enough to capture the same field and show changes in the daily pathway over time through night and day work shifts remain a challenge and need to be improved in the future.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract, with increasing prevalence worldwide. IBD Ahead is an international educational program that aims to explore questions commonly raised by clinicians about various areas of IBD care and to consolidate available published evidence and expert opinion into a consensus for the optimization of IBD management. Given differences in the epidemiology, clinical and genetic characteristics, management, and prognosis of IBD between patients in Japan and the rest of the world, this statement was formulated as the result of literature reviews and discussions among Japanese experts as part of the IBD Ahead program to consolidate statements of factors for disease prognosis in IBD. Evidence levels were assigned to summary statements in the following categories: disease progression in CD and UC; surgery, hospitalization, intestinal failure, and permanent stoma in CD; acute severe UC; colectomy in UC; and colorectal carcinoma and dysplasia in IBD. The goal is that this statement can aid in the optimization of the treatment strategy for Japanese patients with IBD and help identify high-risk patients that require early intervention, to provide a better long-term prognosis in these patients.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Colectomy ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Consensus ; Crohn Disease ; Disease Management* ; Disease Progression ; Early Intervention (Education) ; Epidemiology ; Expert Testimony ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* ; Japan* ; Prevalence ; Prognosis

No abstract available.
Crohn Disease* ; Food, Formulated* ; Humans ; Infliximab*

A 57-year-old man, who had suffered chest, back and right leg pain about 10 years before, underwent CT and was found a chronic type B aortic dissection with an enlarged false lumen and a narrowed true lumen that was occluded at the infrarenal abdominal aorta. A conventional surgical repair seemed to be too high risk considering his comorbidities, thus we chose a staged hybrid repair. First, surgical repair of the abdominal aorta with an abdominal aortic fenestration was performed. Then, one month after the first operation, zone 2 thoracic endovascular aortic repair with left carotid-axillary artery bypass was performed. At the second operation, the stent graft was purposely deployed from zone 2 into Th12 level of a false lumen through the fenestration followed by coil embolization of a true lumen just distal to the entry tear. The postoperative course was uneventful and he had no complications at 6 months follow-up. Deploying stent graft into a false lumen could be a feasible option in case deploying into a true lumen is not suitable if the anatomical condition permits.

As for the clinical condition to be called “cold stagnating in the liver vessel” (寒滞肝脈kantaikanmyaku),cold invades a liver-­meridian (肝経絡) and causes pain. We report a case of 7-­year-­old boy that reached the difficulty in walking for agreed pain of lower extremities in a liver-­meridian by cold house environment after the diarrhea. There was no abnormality in a blood test and the MR imaging in Western medicine. The treat­ment principle was to warm the meridian and reduce the pain. We chose the infusion of “dankanzen­-based prescription” (暖肝煎加味方) to warm the meridian and to remove the pain. The symptom improved. And the bathing therapy to warm a body relieved pain too. The case report of children of kantaikanmyaku was not found as far as we examined it. However, we believe that such cases are latent in Japan where air conditioners are widely used.

We report a 48-year-old man who underwent hybrid aortic repair for visceral aortic patch (VAP) aneurysm. He had undergone descending thoracic aortic repair for post-dissection aneurysm at the age of 25, ascending aorta and proximal aortic arch aneurysm repair at the age of 27, and residual thoracoabdominal dissecting aortic aneurysm repair with VAP reconstruction at the age of 28. During 20 years of follow-up, the VAP gradually enlarged and eventually reached 70×61 mm in diameter. Considering a possible severe adhesion after 2 previous left thoracotomies, we planned a 2-staged hybrid aortic repair. First, we performed reno-visceral debranching and as a second stage operation, endovascular aortic repair was performed successfully 39 days after the first-stage operation.

Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan, offers “Early Exposure to Medical Practice” in the first semester for first-year medical students to learn about patient-centered care as well as the real-world conditions and issues faced in community medical practice. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic during the past two years, we planned and implemented online training, including some disability simulations, which mostly aimed to prevent the spread of infection. The students who completed these training courses reported that the online training had certain advantages over hands-on training ; the two activities implemented were not only effective in preventing infection but also had other benefits that only an online environment could provide. Herein, we report the results and some of the merits of these practices in 2021.