AHCC is a nutritional food that has been broadly adopted in Japan as well as other countries. Several laboratories have demonstrated that AHCC has immune modulating effect. Increasing immunity against bird flu virus, H5N1, may help to prevent the next pandemic. We hypothesize that uptaking AHCC improve immunity against infection with this virus. Administration of AHCC for 7 days effectively improved survival rate by 30%, and this effect can last for 3 to 4 weeks. Our results indicate a potential role of AHCC in helping to build up immunity for preventing the pandemic of bird flu.

Subclavian arterial aneurysms are relatively rare compared to aortic aneurysms. The common causes of subclavian arterial aneurysms are arteriosclerosis, non-specific inflammation, thoracic outlet syndrome, and trauma. A case of a subclavian arterial aneurysm is reported. The patient was a 57-year-old woman. She had no previous history of hypertension, infection and trauma. She underwent complete resection of the aneurysm and reconstruction of right subclavian artery. Exploration of the aneurysmal wall revealed circumferential ridge which caused stenosis of the right subclavian artery at the orifice of the aneurysm. It has been suggested that a subclavian arterial aneurysm developed as a result of abnormal development of the embryologic right fourth and distal sixth aortic arches.

It is commonly believed that prosthetic valve implantation in actively infected patients is to be avoided. After normalization of C-reactive protein and white blood cell counts, and sterilization of blood cultures by treatment with antibiotics, we performed valvular surgery. We performed mitral valve repair in cases where the mitral valve lesion did not involve the annulus. From July 1992 to November 1996, 13 patients (mean age, 50 years) were treated surgically for infective endocarditis (IE) at Kansai Medical University. Twelve of the patients had native valve endocarditis (NVE), and 1 had prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). In 6 patients, the causative organisms were determined. These included: α-Streptococcus in 4 patients, Enterococcus in 1, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in 1. The affected valves were as follows: aortic valve alone in 4 patients, mitral valve alone in 6, aortic and mitral valves in 2, and a prosthetic aortic valve in 1. The PVE was due to a MRSA infection which occurred 9 months after aortic valve replacement. All patients were treated preoperatively for heart failure and the infection. The surgical procedures performed were: aortic valve replacement in 4 patients, mitral valve replacement in 3, mitral repair in 3, double valve replacement in 2, and re-aortic valve replacement in 1. There were no deaths or recurrences of IE in hospital or during follow-up to date. In all of the mitral valve repair cases, the mitral regurgitation on follow-up echocardiograms was grade I. Our results show that surgical treatment of IE after management of preoperative conditions can be successful. Furthermore, despite the absence of laboratory findings indicative of ongoing inflammation or infection, pathologic examination revealed active inflammatory reactions and organisms in 4 cases. In 1 patient, MRSA was culthued from an annular abscess that was resected intraoperatively. We suggest that cessation of antibiotic therapy be regarded with caution and suggest that the infected site must be resected surgically.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Natural products or active components with a protective effect against oxidative stress have attracted significant attention for prevention and treatment of degenerative disease. Oligonol is a low molecular weight polyphenol containing catechin-type monomers and oligomers derived from Litchi chinensis Sonn. We investigated the protective effect and its related mechanism of oligonol against oxidative stress. MATERIALS/METHODS: Oxidative stress in C6 glial cells was induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the protective effects of oligonol on cell viability, nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) synthesis, and mRNA expression related to oxidative stress were determined. RESULTS: Treatment with oligonol inhibited NO and ROS formation under cellular oxidative stress in C6 glial cells. In addition, it recovered cell viability in a dose dependent-manner. Treatment with oligonol also resulted in down-regulated mRNA expression related to oxidative stress, nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-kappaB) p65, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), compared with the control group treated with H2O2. In particular, expression of NF-kappaB p65, COX-2, and iNOS was effectively reduced to the normal level by treatment with 10 microg/mL and 25 microg/mL of oligonol. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that oligonol has protective activity against oxidative stress-induced inflammation. Oligonol might be a promising agent for treatment of degenerative diseases through inhibition of ROS formation and NF-kappaB pathway gene expression.
Biological Products ; Cell Survival ; Cyclooxygenase 2 ; Gene Expression ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; Inflammation* ; Litchi ; Molecular Weight ; Neuroglia* ; NF-kappa B ; Nitric Oxide ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ; Oxidative Stress ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; RNA, Messenger

A 68-year-old woman had unstable angina pectoris with asymptomatic right internal carotid artery and right middle cerebral artery occlusion with impaired cerebral perfusion reserve. The cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, anesthesiology, and neurosurgery departments discussed the treatment plan. We simultaneously performed superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery anastomosis and coronary artery bypass grafting to reduce the likelihood of perioperative ischemic stroke. Fortunately, neither cerebral ischemia nor myocardial ischemia occurred. Simultaneous superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery anastomosis and coronary artery bypass grafting can be a therapeutic option for patients with unstable angina and impaired cerebral perfusion reserve. However, the risk of bleeding associated with anticoagulation during coronary artery bypass grafting cannot be ignored.