Secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) plays an important role in mucosal immunity, and salivary levels change in response to social, psychological and physical stress. However, little is understood about how surgical stress affects salivary sIgA. The results of the present study showed that mouse salivary IgA concentration was significantly elevated immediately after surgery and returned to pre-surgical levels after 24 h. Thus, the surgery did not suppress IgA secretion under our experimental conditions, suggesting that mucosal immunity was not perturbed. Since the role of α-adrenergic receptors involved in IgA secretion has remained unclear under surgical stress, we further examined the effects of either α₁-adrenergic (prazosin) or α₂-adrenergic antagonist (yohimbine) on the salivary sIgA. Yohimbine, but not prazosin, antagonized the surgically induced salivary IgA enhancement, indicating mediation by α₂-receptor stimulation. The mRNA for IgA was not altered in the salivary gland after surgery, suggesting that surgical stress did not stimulate IgA synthesis in the salivary gland cells. In conclusion, it is suggested that the surgical stress does not perturb mucosal immunity in our experimental model, although a transient increase of concentration of salivary IgA was observed immediately after surgical insult.

Background: Physical therapists need to work not only in hospitals but also in the communities. So it has been said that community-based education should be essential for physical therapy education. In Gunma University, community-based education program was implemented from 2010 for physical therapy stu¬dents. Purpose. The purpose of this report is to introduce our challenging program and search for how this program af¬fected students, community staffs and elderly people. Methods: Third-year students collaborated to exercise classes for community dwelling elderly people with teach¬ers and community staffs (public health nurses and civic volunteers). Two classes were provided separately, so students were divided into two groups and each group was assigned to one class. After classes, reports were written by participants (60 persons), community staffs (9 persons) and students (24 persons). Reports consisted of five-grade evaluation of this program and students for elderly people and community staffs, evaluation using visual analogue scale (VAS) of this program and contact with elderly people for students, and impressions described in freely written sentences for all subjects. Results and Discussion: Results of elderly people’s five-grade evaluation were “5 (very good)”-50 persons, “4 (good)”-10 persons to this program and “5”-41 persons, “4”-19 persons to students. Results of community staffs’ five-grade evaluation were “5”-7 persons, “4”-2 persons to this program and “5”-6 persons, “4”-3 persons to stu¬dents. Results of students’ VAS evaluation were 86.5±13.3 (100 extremely good~0 minimum) to this program and 91.6±9.9 to contact with elderly people. It was expected there were good feelings elderly people, community staffs and students have. There was a possibil¬ity that an interchange between elderly people and students would bring different learning from on-campus classes to students and motivation to elderly people. Take-home message: It is thought that community-based education should be included in undergraduate pro¬grams for physical therapy students.

Inflammation and pulse wave velocity (PWV) are a potential risk factor and marker, respectively, for atherosclerosis in the primary prevention setting. Atherosclerosis is now generally accepted to be an inflammatory disorder of the arterial wall, and the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) level has been reported to be a strong predictor of cardiovascular events. High-sensitivity-CRP is associated with two factors related to inflammation: (1) the local production of CRP by atheromatous tissue or coronary artery smooth muscle cells and (2) adipose tissue as a potent source of inflammatory cytokines. Based on studies in North America and Europe, hs-CRP has been established as a cardiovascular risk factor and a cut-off value has been recommended. However, Japanese have lower hs-CRP values than their Western counterparts, partly because Japanese have a lower body mass index (BMI), which correlates positively to hs-CRP, and partly because lifestyle and genetic factors can affect hs-CRP values. Therefore, a cut-off value needs to be established by cohort studies for the Japanese population. Carotid-femoral PWV is most commonly measured by applanation tonometry, particularly in Europe, but this method is critically dependent upon the accurate placing of transducers over the arteries and is both time-consuming and complex. A novel device has been recently developed in Japan that measures brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV) using a volume-rendering method. Brachian-ankle PWV is a suitable screening method because of its technical simplicity and shorter measurement time. It is associated not only with conventional cardiovascular risk factors but also with new risk factors, such as inflammation, gamma-glutamyltransferase, chronic kidney disease, and psychosocial factors. However, a suitable cut-off value has yet to be established.

Introduction: Isolated meniscal repair has been suggested as one of the contributing factors in unhealed meniscal repair. The purpose of this study was to compare the healing rate between isolated meniscal repair and meniscal repair with concomitant anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) using a standardised assessment method after propensity score matching. Materials and methods: Accuracy of the Crues' grading system for meniscal healing was validated using second-look arthroscopy as the reference standard in 17 patients. Propensity score matching (one-to-one) was performed between 26 patients who underwent isolated meniscal repair and 98 patients who underwent meniscal repair with concomitant ACLR. Patients were matched for sex, age, side and zone of the meniscal repair, and number of sutures. Healing rates at one year which were evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were compared between the two groups. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of the Crues' grading system on multiple plane MRI for meniscal healing were 100% and 83.3%, respectively. Both the isolated meniscal repair group and the meniscal repair with concomitant ACLR group included 21 patients after propensity score matching. Baseline characteristics did not differ significantly between the two groups. The healing rate was significantly lower in the isolated meniscal repairs group (14.3%) than in the meniscal repair concomitant with ACLR group (47.6%, P=0.04). Conclusion: The healing rate for isolated meniscal repair using a standardised MRI assessment method was inferior to that of meniscal repair with concomitant ACLR after propensity score matching.