The effect of a treadmill running program on the metabolism of cholesterol in liver was studied in male Wistar rats, aged 7 weeks and weighing about 200 g. Rats were exercised on 6 days a week for 8 weeks, running 1, 000 m a day at 15 m/min. The trained rats gave following evidence, as compared with the sedentary control animals:
1. Remarkable lower weight of body and liver
2. Significantly lower level of total and free cholesterol in liver
3. Elevated in vivo incorporation of¹⁴C-acetate and of¹⁴C-mevalonate into liver cholesterol
4. Enhanced incorporation of¹⁴C-mevalonate into cholesterol by liver slice
5. Increased activity of hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase in liver
6. Increase in cholesterol 7 a-hydroxylase activity in liver
The results indicate that the exercise promotes the turnover of cholesterol in liver.

The effect of a treadmill running program on the metabolism of cholesterol in serum and in arterial wall was studied in male Wistar rats, aged 7 weeks and weighing about 200 g- Rats were exercised on 6 days a week for 8 week, running 1, 000 m a day at 15 m/min. The trained rats gave the follwing evidence, as compared with the sedentary control animals:
1. Remarkably lower body weight
2. Significantly lower level of serum cholesterol-total, free, and LDL cholesterol
3. Elevated in vivo incorporation of ¹⁴C-mevalonate into serum cholesterol
4. Enhancement of lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase activity in serum
5. Decrease in the amount of cholesterol in arterial wall cells
6. Increase in in vivo incorporation of ¹⁴C-mevalonate into arterial cholesterol.
The results indicate that the excersice promotes the turnover of cholesterol in serum and arterial wall, repressing the accumulation of choleterol ester in arterial wall cells, and a prophylactic effect of the physical training for arteriosclerotic diseases has been suggested.

Nosocomial infection management is one of the most important subjects in terms of risk management in a hospital. To achieve the nosocomial infection management appropriately, both public relations and information gathering are important. When it comes to publicity, it is desirable that information is offered quickly and efficiently and the personnel are able to access the information easily anytime and wherever they are. As for information gathering, it is also important to collect the information concerning the nosocomial infection promptly, and to tell it quickly to infection management persons including infection control team members. The infection control committee of our hospital has engaged in both publicity and information gathering by using the committee web site established in the LAN of the hospital since January 2004. The web site carries notifications, organization chart, list of committee members, various manuals, guidance of educational activities, infection management, etc. It is also used for questions and answers, and gathering information concerning nosocomial infection. The number of times the web site was accessed was about 200 every month, and was considerable at night and on holidays. This method of using the web site seems to be useful to promote nosocomial infection management.
Nosocomial Infections ; Infection as complication of medical care ; Information gathering ; Local Area Networks ; Hospitals

We tested the hypothesis that a force reduction in soleus muscles from hyperthyroid rats would be associated with oxidative modification of myofibrillar proteins. Daily injection of thyroid hormone [3, 5, 3’-triiodo-_L-thyronine (T₃)] for 21 days depressed isometric forces in whole soleus muscle across a range of stimulus frequencies (1, 10, 20, 40, 75 and 100 Hz) (P<0.05). In fiber bundles, hyperthyroidism also led to pronounced reductions (P<0.05) in both K⁺- and 4-chloro-m-cresol-induced contracture forces. The degrees of the reductions were similar between these two contractures. These reductions in force production were accompanied by a remarkable increment (103% ; P<0.05) in carbonyl groups comprised in myofibrillar proteins. In additional experiments, we have also tested the efficacy of carvedilol, a non-selective β₁-β₂-blocker that possesses anti-oxidative properties. Treatment with carvedilol prevented T₃-induced oxidation of myofibrillar proteins. However, carvedilol did not improve the hyperthyroid-induced reductions in force production. These data suggest that oxidative modification of myofibrillar proteins may not account for the reductions in force production of hyperthyroid rat soleus muscle.

An 87-year-old woman visited our hospital because of severe widespread purpura with swelling on the right arm. Two days earlier, she had used an electric vacuum cleaner for several hours in order to remove an insect infestation (march flies) in her house. The next day, the purpura expanded to the right chest. Internal medical examination revealed no abnormality except for high levels of myogenic enzymes (lactate dehydrogenase, 326U/L; creatine kinase, 401 IU/L). The electric vacuum cleaner was made in Japan and showed a vibration level of 60dB, which is half that of a chainsaw or lawnmower (120dB). The purpura may have been caused by long-term use of the vacuum cleaner given that the effective value of equivalent vibration acceleration exceeded the European guideline (2.5m/s2 for 8 hours per day).

Prosthetic and bioprosthetic materials currently in use lack growth potential and therefore must be repeatedly replaced in pediatric patients as they grow. Tissue engineering is a new discipline that offers the potential for creating replacement structures from autologous cells and biodegradable polymer scaffolds. In May 2000, we initiated clinical application of tissue-engineered vascular grafts seeded with cultured cells. However, cell culturing is time-consuming, and xenoserum must be used. To overcome these disadvantages, we began to use bone marrow cells, readily available on the day of surgery, as a cell source. Since September 2001, tissue-engineered grafts seeded with autologous bone marrow cells have been implanted in 44 patients. The patients or their parents were fully informed and had given consent to the procedure. A 3 to 10ml/kg specimen of bone marrow was aspirated with the patient under general anesthesia before the skin incision. The polymer tube serving as a scaffold for the cells was composed of a copolymer of lactide and ε-caprolactone (50: 50) which degrades by hydrolysis. Polyglycolic or poly-l-lactic acid woven fabric was used for reinforcement. Twenty-six tissue-engineered conduits and 19 tissue-engineered patches were used for the repair of congenital heart defects. The patients' ages ranged from 1 to 24 years (median 7.4 years). All patients underwent a catheterization study, CT scan, or both, for evaluation after the operation. There were 4 late deaths due to heart failure with or without multiple organ failure or brain bleeding in this series; these were unrelated to the tissue-engineered graft function. One patient required percutaneous balloon angioplasty for tubular graft-stenosis and 4 patients for the stenosis of the patch-shaped tissue engineered material. Two patients required re-do operation; one for recurrent pulmonary stenosis and another for a resulting R-L shunt after the lateral tunnel method. Kaplan-Meier analysis in relation to patients' survival was 95% within 3 years. There was only 1 patient (who underwent a total cavo-pulmonary connection procedure) requiring re-intervention in the tubular graft group and the material-related event-free rate was 96% within 3 years. This tissueengineering approach may provide an important alternative to the use of prosthetic materials in the field of pediatric cardiovascular surgery. As it is living tissue, these vascular structures may have the potential for growth, repair, and remodeling. However, this approach is still in its infancy, further studies to resolve the problems presented, and longer follow-up in patients are necessary to confirm the durability of this approach.

No abstract available.
Humans ; Paresis* ; Tongue*

PURPOSE: The International Organization for Standardization-5fluorouracil (FU) 10 trial found that bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin was not inferior to S-1 in the treatment of gastric cancer (GC). Continuous 5-FU and the rapid injection of 5-FU have different anti-cancer effects. Thus, bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment might be useful for oral FU-resistant GC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of all patients with S-1 or capecitabine-resistant, unresectable, or recurrent GC treated with bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin between January 2010 and December 2015 at Hokkaido University Hospital. The bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin regimen consisted of intravenous l-leucovorin (250 mg/m²/2 h) and bolus 5-FU (600 mg/m²) administered once weekly followed by a 2-week rest period; each cycle was repeated every 8 weeks. RESULTS: A total of 14 patients were identified. The disease control rate was 35.7%. The median progression-free survival was 1.6 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3~2.0 months), and the median overall survival was 6.3 months (95% CI, 4.7~7.9 months). No patient died from treatment-related causes. The most common severe adverse event associated with bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin was neutropenia, which occurred in 21.4% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment might be useful for oral FU-resistant GC. We are planning a multi-center prospective phase II trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment for pre-treated unresectable or recurrent GC to confirm the results of this limited, retrospective study.
Disease-Free Survival ; Drug Therapy* ; Fluorouracil* ; Humans ; Leucovorin ; Medical Records ; Neutropenia ; Prospective Studies ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms*

PURPOSE: Single-agent interferon (IFN) is no longer regarded as a standard option for first-line systemic treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in Western countries. However, some patients with favorable-risk RCC may still achieve complete and long-lasting remission in response to IFN treatment. The present study compared favorable-risk Japanese patients with metastatic RCC Japanese patients who had been treated with IFN or tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy as a first-line systemic therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1995 to 2014, a total of 48 patients with favorable risk as defined by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center criteria who did not receive adjuvant systemic therapy were retrospectively enrolled in this study. We assessed the tumor response rate, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: The objective response rate for first-line therapy was 29% in the IFN group and 47% in the TKI group, but this difference did not reach the level of statistical significance. Median OS for IFN and TKI was 71 and 47 months, respectively (p=0.014). Median first-line PFS for IFN and TKI was 20 and 16 months, respectively (no significant difference). First-line IFN therapy did not prove inferior to TKI therapy in terms of OS according to metastatic sites. CONCLUSIONS: IFN is associated with a survival benefit in Japanese patients with favorable-risk metastatic RCC in the era of targeted therapy. Further prospective study is needed.
Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Agents/*therapeutic use ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell/*drug therapy ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Interferons/*therapeutic use ; Japan ; Kidney Neoplasms/*drug therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis/drug therapy ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/therapeutic use ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases/antagonists & inhibitors ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Treatment Outcome